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Monday, July 01, 2013

Guess who uses the phrase "Judea and Samaria"?

From the Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of PALESTINE AND TRANS-JORDAN for the year 1938:
Jerusalem [is] situated in the midst of the hills of Judea, and the principal towns are Haifa, with its modern harbour, in the north at the entrance to the plain of Esdraelon; Jaffa, a second port which lies some 40 miles west- north-west of Jerusalem; Tel Aviv, which is contiguous to Jaffa; and Nablus, the ancient Sichem, in the hills of Samaria.
From UN document A/364, September 1947:
Apart from these inland plains in the north and portions of the desert area in the south, the interior of the country is very mountainous with the hills of Judea and Samaria in the centre and the hills of Galilee in the north....
The proposed Arab State will include Western Galilee, the hill country of Samaria and Judea with the exclusion of the City of Jerusalem, and the coastal plain from Isdud to the Egyptian frontier....
From UN A/RES/181(II) 29 November 1947:
The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River at the Wadi Malih south-east of Beisan and runs due west to meet the Beisan-Jericho road and then follows the western side of that road in a north-westerly direction to the junction of the boundaries of the sub-districts of Beisan, Nablus, and Jenin. From that point it follows the Nablus-Jenin sub-district boundary westwards for a distance of about three kilometres and then turns north-westwards, passing to the east of the built-up areas of the villages of Jalbun and Faqqu'a, to the boundary of the sub-districts of Jenin and Beisan at a point north-east of Nuris.....
These are all official documents in the UN archives.

In 1998, the PLO expressed its anger at the use of this ancient - and accurate - term:
It is shocking that the Foreign Minister, while speaking of the agreement, uses a phrase like "Judea and Samaria" to describe the West Bank, in flagrant violation of the Wye River Memorandum and other existing agreements between the two sides. The use of such a term is indicative of an expansionist ideology and policies.
The UN didn't start capitalizing "West Bank" as a place name until at least 1968.

UPDATE: My Right Word has more.