What The "West Bank"" Means to Jews and Arabs

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

The WEST BANK is a new political name after 1947  for JUDEA and SAMARIA, states created about 3,000 years ago by Joshua and Moses's 600,000 Israelites,  freed from Egypt's bondage of 400 years.  Judea was one of 12 states created by the tribe of Judah, and Samaria was simply the hill of land  surrounding  their capital (Samaria)  of the Northern  kingdom of ISRAEL, the compilation of the 12 states of Jacob's sons. It was Joshua who delegated land sites to each tribe, decided by what he knew each tribe was capable of holding and using the land.  Canaan was land that Abraham had lived upon.  It was their original home before the draught that forced them into Egypt.  Now they were returning, better late than never.  

 In Hebrew, Samaria was called Shomron.  It was founded in 880 BCE by Omri, king of Israel.  In 1947, the terminology was noted by the United Nations in the Partition Plan for Palestine with the statement: "the boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River...

Judaism was born through Moses' s laws from G-d during the Exodus.  The Israelites spent their lives studying  and practicing it wherever they lived.  Jerusalem was built by David and his son, Solomon.  Jews have considered this land THEIRS, even after they were exiled.  They prayed 3 times a day for the time to return.  Judaism went forward, spawning Christianity and then later, Islam.  Now their two "children" have decided that they are Judaism's replacement theories or religions, but the Jews are faithful to the parent.  

Israel (Yellow) with Shechem, the northern land made up of 10 of the tribes,  that was conquered by Nebuchadnezzzar II who  inherited the Assyrian Empire and after he conquered Judah in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE,  exiled the people to Babylon;   and Judah, the southern land with the power source of Jerusalem, was left with 3 tribes; Judah being the largest with Simeon and Benjamin.  

The hilly land was even bought from its owner, Shemer (I Kings 16:24) originally. Heb. shemer, guard). Shemer was the owner of a hill in central Israel that Omri king of Israel,  bought, fortified, and named Samaria after its former owner (1Kgs.16.24; 1Chr.6.46). This man’s name is Shamar in KJV of Chronicles. 

The site, 7 miles NW of Shechem, today's Nablus,  was on a hilltop giving them a view of the wide countryside.  The city was composed of 25 acres.  Omri was king  of Israel from 887 to 876 BCE and was founder of a dynasty.  When young, he was a general against the Philistine city of Gibbethon.  He had subdued Moab.  The Assyrians called the kingdom of Israel by his name for the rest of its existence.  Note that this was recorded and known by all as a purchased land owned by the king for his kingdom.  

Some of the Jews never left the land, but the last king of Israel was Hoshea (730-721 BCE. From then till 70 CE, other Jewish obeying rulers for other lands were sitting on the throne.  The Romans burned down the Temple and Jerusalem.  Bar Kokhba tried to take Jerusalem back in 132 but lost the battle after 3 years.  

Britain held a 30 year mandate to be responsible for Palestine-named by Romans for Philistines,  enemies of Israel that started on April 24, 1920.   

No one took care of the land, and it died, turning into swamps for mosquitoes and flies and such.  Only when Jewish escapees from pogroms attempted a return to their native land did the land actually flourish.  They bought land from Arabs who couldn't afford to pay the taxes to the Turks of the Ottoman Empire and wanted to leave for better cities such as Paris.  So the land had a short respite, lying fallow, waiting for the Jews' return.  

Arabs follow Mohammad (570-632).  He thought he was the Arab prophet and so had revelations caused by the angel Gabriel of which later was dictated into the book, the Koran.  It should be known that Mohammad would go on the Meccan trade caravans and often met Jews and Christians and would discuss life.  He could not read or write.  Many Jewish tribes lived in Arabia near Mecca and Medina.  

To Arabs, it was land they wandered through on camels.  They did have one occasion when Mohammad, who knew many of the Jewish tales told outside their tents to groups of listeners, knew about the Temple.  

In Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad's flight to Jerusalem and through the heavens on his winged horse, Buraq, is known as the Isra  Isra:  was the night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem  on his flying horse, Buraq.  The Buraq: was a supernatural creature with the head of a human and the body of a horse. The name "Buraq" may come from the Arabic word bariq, which means "shine" or "brilliance". Mi'raj: The ascent through the seven heavens.  This is the Arab claim of Jerusalem belonging to the Muslims.  

In 1947, the United Nations proposed partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international control. However, fighting between Jewish and Arab militias broke out in Jerusalem immediately after the plan was adopted. The conflict led to the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948 and the first Arab-Israeli War.                                  

Prince Abdullah of Arabia needed land and the British gave him Jordan. The period started during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, when Jordan occupied and subsequently annexed the portion of Mandatory Palestine that became known as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.  The Jordanian administration of the West Bank officially began on 24 April 1950, and ended with the decision to sever ties on 31 July 1988.  The territory remained under Jordanian control until it was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War and eventually Jordan renounced its claim to the territory in 1988.

During the December 1948 Jericho Conference, hundreds of Palestinian notables in the West Bank gathered, accepted Jordanian rule and recognized Abdullah as ruler.

The Judea and Samaria Area is administered by the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, and military law is applied. Administrative decisions are subject to the Command's chief. The incumbent chief of Central Command is Aluf Nitzan Alon.

The future status of the region is a key factor in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict.  Judea/Samaria (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip are considered occupied Palestinian territories by the United Nations, the United States, the International Court of Justice, the European Union, and by non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem. The Supreme Court of Israel has considered the section of Judea/Samaria which excludes East Jerusalem to be Israeli-occupied territories.

On 13 May 2012, a bill to extend Israeli law to the Israeli settlements in the Judea and Samaria Area initiated by Knesset member Miri Regev (Likud) first approved by the majority of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation was rejected in a second round of votes after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed his ministers to vote against the bill.

We have 6 major Jewish populated towns in Judea and Samaria.  ARIEL, BELTAR ELLIT, MA'ALE ADUMIM, MODI'IN ILLIT, EFRAT, and HAR BRACHA.  

In 1967, the Six-Day War saw Israeli forces capture the Jordanian-annexed West Bank, marking the beginning of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the territory. Following its capture, the right-wing Israelis began to refer to the territories by their Hebrew-language names and argued for their integration into Israel on historical, religious, nationalist, and security grounds

                                                                

                           Areas A, B, and C:  The West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C through the Oslo Accords, with Area A under full Palestinian control, Area B under shared Palestinian and Israeli control, and Area C under full Israeli control, essentially splitting the territory into zones based on administrative and security jurisdiction; Area C comprises the largest portion of the West Bank, encompassing around 60% of the land. Arabs have been encroaching on the C land, building without permits,, etc. squatting. 

Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, won a 2006 West Bank parliamentary election over the Western-backed Fatah faction, led by Mahmoud Abbas, which had been administering the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Hamas victory brought sanctions and boycotts by the U.S., the EU and Israel of the new, Hamas-led joint Palestinian leadership.

In 2007, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led administration in the West Bank and created an emergency cabinet that favored Fatah. The power struggle between the two Palestinian factions led to a split between the West Bank and Gaza, with Western powers supporting the Fatah-administered West Bank diplomatically and economically, while blockading the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Ever since then, Israel has had their hands full fighting off terrorists, and trying to protect Judea and Samaria along with Israel proper.  Everyone has been so quick to want to take Judea and Samaria away from the Jewish country and turn it into an Arab country named Palestine.  May I remind the world;  there is but one Jewish state in the world;  ISRAEL, while there are at least 49 Muslim majority states in the world that does not need another in the UN!  There are 57 Muslim countries in the world, according to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) member list. Among these, 49 countries have a Muslim-majority population.

Some of those who do not support the creation of an independent Palestinian state do support Israel's annexation of the West Bank, including members of the current far-right Israeli government led by Netanyahu.

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

New Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordanian_annexation_of_the_West_Bank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/muslim-countries-in-the-world-2024/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-israel-annex-west-bank-after-trump-takes-office/

Why Orthodox Jews Hold On Dearly to Judea, the Southern Part of Ancient Israel: Its Meaning and Purpose

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Our Torah, which consists of the 5 Books of Moses, comes from the center of Judea with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who are said to have been buried at Hebron in the tomb of the Patriarchs.   Judea was the Romanized name of the tribal land of Judah, the largest population of the 12 Tribes of Jacob, son of Isaac, who was son of Abraham.  Moses was the grandson of Levi, one of the 12 tribes being a son of Jacob.  

In fact, Moses gave Aaron, his newly identified brother, the position as head priest of the people, and Aaron's sons then held that honor as well, and etc.  Today these men are identifiable as the Cohen line, holding the Y haplogroup of J1.  Many a Cohen in the synagogue (men who are leaders with specific obligations, have DNA tested and are found to hold this identification within their cells like tags  in the department store on new clothing).  Those not directly Aaron's sons are the Levites with other positions to fulfill. The rest of the people are called the Israelites.  

Hebron lies 18 miles south of Jerusalem and Jerusalem is the center, the hub of religious activity for these people.  Abraham bought the plot of land where the Cave of Machpelah sat, and he wanted it for a burial place for his family, starting with his wife and niece, Sarah.  They had come from the city of Ur on the Euphrates River that lie eastward. Ur was a commercial city, center of trading and such, and Abraham knew the value of ownership, so wouldn't take the land under any other conditions except to become his.  He bought and paid for it.                             

We had a Civil War after King Solomon died which was between the North and the South of Israel.  They divided with the South being made up of Judah which had the land that Jerusalem was built on, including some of Benjamin and Simeon, and the North being made up of the rest of the 10 tribes of Israel.  Jeroboam (933-912 BCE became the Northern Israel's king who had been the superintendent of forced labor for king Solomon, from the tribe of Ephriam.  He had been demanding lower taxes from Solomon.  Solomon's son, Rehoboam (933-917 BCE) was the automatic king of Judah, who would not lower the taxes; thus a Civil War ensued.   

/The northern Israel  could not use Jerusalem as their capital anymore, so chose Samaria as their capital in 890 BCE, and because of that, often called the whole area, the kingdom of Samaria. It was larger than the southern Kingdom of Judah. Ephraim was the leader, with Manasseh, Issaachar, Zebulun, Naphtalli, Asher, Dan, and lying in what was to become Transjordan were Reuben, Gad and part of Manasseh. Samaria was richer and of more political importance than Judah.  However, they had been more violent and this was the subject of constant revolution.  In the course of its existence of 210 years after the Civil War, they had had 19 kings belonging to 9 different dynasties of whom 10 died by violence and 7 ruled for less than 2 years.  They had peace only with king Omri who had 4 monarchs and the 5 rulers from the House of Jehi when it was at the high point of having power.     When Sargon captured Samaria in 721 BCE, this ended the history of the kingdom of Israel, though some traditions were kept going by the Samaritans.  Their religious knowledge was at a low point.  

Judea was not the worldly country with no easy access to the sea for travel and trade.  Judea held Jerusalem and was more involved with the standards Moses had laid down for the people having Jerusalem right there.  They were the ones preserving Mosaic monotheism in a purer form.  They were able to stop the Assyrians at their walls of Jerusalem in 701 BCE.  200 years later the Judeans lost a similar battle with the Babylonians in 586 BCE when large numbers of the people were again being deported and taken from them.  They were religiously stronger and kept to their faith, returned with the blessing of the Babylonian king some 70 years later and renewed where they had left off in Jerusalem's development by rebuilding their destroyed Temple. 

Now you see that Samaria was ancient Northern Israel and Judea was ancient southern Israel divided into Israel or Samaria and Judea.  Jerusalem and its land of Judea is the heart and soul of the Jewish people.  Most Christians and Jews are aware of the "Old Testament" and have read these facts, but when it came time to deal with the land, cared less about the feeling of the Jewish people. 

                     Buraq, Mohammad's flying horse.  

As the Quran has it, Prophet Muhammad took a night trip to heaven aboard a trusty winged pony-horse-mule-ish creature called Buraq. It's an episode that's inspired Islamic art ever since, because few artists can resist a theologically sound reason to draw a winged horse.

 As I said before, the Muslims covet what is not theirs, and then take it;  and only admit to their story of Muhammad flying on his flying horse to the Temple Mount where the Romans had built their temple over Solomon's Temple remains, giving the Muslims reason to build over that with the Mosque of Omar.  This way they can lay claim to the area as their 3rd most holy center, but one must believe in flying horses.  Well, planes today do have horsepower, but not back then. 

The land has gone through many hands, to the Ottoman Empire who held it till the end of WWI. 

     The Burial of Sarah in Hebron Cave.  Abraham is also buried there.  The Jewish sons of Abraham were Isaac who was the father of Jacob.  The Muslim sons of Abraham were Ishmael.  This is the jealousy factor in our history, two completely different men. Isaac was the son of Sarah of Abraham's own family being the daughter of Haran who was Abraham's own brother;   while Ishmael was the son of Sarah's hand-maiden, Hagar of Egypt.  They held very different values, yet had some similarities.  Hagar, because of Ishmael's jealous behavior , was forced to leave their growing community and return to Egypt.   

                            Kirat Arba today

 In 1929, the Arabs massacred  the many Jews of Hebron, a city of 700, and survivors fled.  Arabs rioted again in 1936. It has become an Arab center.   The population in 1967 was 38,310.  After the 6 Day War, Jews returned, establishing Kiryat Arba, a quarter east of the city that numbered 3,709 in 1988. "Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba' is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Founded in 1968, in 2019 it had a population of 7,326. The international community considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this."  My husband taught in a girl's high school there sometime between 1981-1985. 

 This is Abraham's city, our father of Judaism!  His burial ground is not recognized as being part of Israel, though Israel has to disagree and recognize it.

  Leave it to the British to mess our history up.  They had exiled all Jews from their land for 365 years---not days---years.  They were the people who from 1290 to 1655 kept all Jews out of their land and had expulsed those who had been there before that.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Hebron)