I write regularly about the need for Israel to move forward with strength. There are many ways in which we are doing this today. In considerable measure this means acting on our own behalf and not with regard to what the world imagines we should be doing.
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Here I want to consider Judea & Samaria. It is time: I have been heavily focused on Gaza and other hotspots and will return to them after this post.
In the map below, the area above Jerusalem is Samaria and below is Judea – each divided into sub-regions. (Bik’at Hayarden is the Jordan Valley.)
Properly, this area is referred to as Judea & Samaria and not the “West Bank,” which was a designation applied by Jordan after it seized the area in the War of Independence in 1948 and illegally annexed it.
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The information about it that follows is exceedingly relevant to what we are dealing with today.
Judea & Samaria were at the very heart of the historical homeland of the Jewish People. Shilo, in Samaria, is mentioned 33 times in the Bible. It is there that a Tabernacle was established, where the Ark was housed. It served as the spiritual center of the people for well over 300 years, until the Temple was built in Jerusalem.
See a video tour of the ancient site of Shilo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7qssYGGhg
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Ancient Hevron, in Judea, goes back even further in time: It is where Avraham bought the Machpelah and established a burial place for Sarah and then for himself and the other matriarchs and patriarchs (except Rachel, who died along the way – her tomb is outside of Bethlehem).
When David was anointed king, he ruled in Hevron for over seven years, before going to Jerusalem.
Over the centuries, Jews continued to live in Hevron – until the 1929 massacre. From my website, on the Jewish presence in Hevron over the centuries: https://41k.82b.myftpupload.com/hebron/
We must not cut ourselves off from this history. And I haven’t even mentioned other cities in Judea & Samaria with venerable and ancient Jewish connections, such as Tiberias, Beit El and Shechem.
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Judea & Samaria is also ours legally. The Mandate for Palestine, established in international law, defined the borders around Palestine, which was to be the Jewish homeland.
The border to the east enveloped Judea & Samaria. (Actually, it enveloped what later became Jordan as well, until Britain gave this region to the Hashemites of Saudi Arabia.) Today, we hear the cry “From the river to the sea” coming from pro-Palestinian Arab elements. They are claiming this entire area for a Palestinian state, which would mean the erasure of Israel. But our history is antithetical to what they attempt to promote now: Palestine, as the Jewish homeland, was recognized in international law as stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. This includes Judea & Samaria.
There is a principle in international law, uti possidetis juris, which posits that the borders of a newly established sovereign state are the same as the borders of its last administrative entity prior to statehood. This means that Judea & Samaria are legally recognized as part of Israel. The fact that Jordan acted illegally in seizing the area does not change this legal reality.
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Israel liberated Judea & Samaria (and eastern Jerusalem) from Jordanian control during the Six Day War in 1967.
But Israel failed to apply sovereignty to the area at that time. (Eastern Jerusalem became part of a United Jerusalem fully under Israeli sovereignty.) The proper term here is application of sovereignty, not annexation. The two terms are used loosely in the media as if they are interchangeable, which they are not, although the conceptualization is close.
Broadly, application of sovereignty refers to application of the laws of a state to a region that has a connection to that state – exerting full control over that region. Annexation refers to incorporating a region into a state that was not previously part of that state. As Judea & Samaria are legally and historically part of ancient Israel, we cannot speak about annexing it to Israel.
Nor can Israel be properly accused of occupation, which refers to establishment of a controlling presence on territory that belongs to another sovereign entity. You cannot “occupy” land that is yours historically and legally. Judea & Samaria do not “belong” to any other sovereign entity.
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I further note that the Green Line has no legal significance today. It was never intended to be a permanent border. It was an armistice line, set when an armistice agreement was signed with Jordan in 1949 – a line behind which the armies on either side agreed to remain.
That line held until 1967. In spite of a message sent to the king of Jordan by Israel indicating that if Jordan stayed out of the war, Israel would not attack, Jordan – lured by Egyptian stories of victory – decided to attack Israel. In doing so, the Jordanian army crossed the armistice line, thereby voiding it.
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And so how did we get to our current tangled situation?
A good number of analysts today, myself included, deeply regret the fact that sovereignty was not applied to Judea & Samaria after the end of the war in 1967. There were those who were hopeful that there might be some sort of land for peace arrangement, a hope that was not based in reality. And there were others, without a doubt, who hesitated because of expectations that this would not be well received by the international community. Because sovereignty was not applied, Israeli law did not pertain in Judea & Samaria. Governance is via the Civil Administration, a function of the IDF.
The establishment of Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria followed the end of the war fairly quickly, starting with Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, set up by children of the original residents of the kibbutz, most of whom had been killed in a Jordanian-led massacre in May 1948. Within a year, Jews began to return to Hevron for the first time since 1929, and the adjacent community of Kiryat Arba was established. In 1974, Gush Emunim began to work towards setting up Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria. This was followed by the Women in Green – today called the Sovereignty Movement, headed by Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar – which promotes building in Judea & Samaria. More recently, Daniella Weiss established Nachala, dedicated to establishing settlements.
Today there are over 200 officially recognized Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria, ranging from villages and farms to major cities such as Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’in, Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit, and Ariel (pictured). In addition there are numbers of outposts, not yet official but aspiring to this recognition.
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But it can hardly be said that the progress towards Jewish development in Judea and Samaria has gone smoothly. There have been stops and starts, periods when all building was frozen, instances when Jewish building, declared illegal, was torn down.
The major stumbling block to Jewish development in Judea & Samaria has been the Oslo Accords, forged with the PLO in signings in 1993 and 1995. This disastrous agreement should never have happened. Founded on a delusional notion that the terrorist PLO was going to moderate, it gave Yasser Arafat and his cronies a new legitimacy. The Palestinian Authority was established as a function of Oslo: It was to be an interim administrative authority within allocated areas, pending final negotiations between Israel and the PLO. Nowhere in the Accords was the PLO promised a full state – PM Yitzhak Rabin declared that he envisioned something less than a full state, something more akin to an autonomy.
Those negotiations, which were to be completed within five years, have not reached resolution 30 years later.
Deluded left-leaning officials within Israeli governments (beginning with then foreign minister Shimon Peres, who was instrumental in promoting Oslo) did not perceive – or chose not to acknowledge – that there was no way the PLO would ever reach a final agreement. To do this, they would have had to sign on to recognition of the State of Israel, and cessation of hostilities – something totally untenable for Arafat or for his successor Abbas.
From the time of the signing until this day, the PA has behaved deceptively – sometimes adopting a pretense of moderation to further its goals. It has continuously supported terrorists and incited terrorism, this in spite of a requirement of the Accords that terrorism be combatted.
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Oslo II of 1995 gave the PA a foothold in Judea & Samaria. The region was divided into Area A, where the PA has both civil and security responsibility; Area B, where the PA has civil responsibility and Israel is responsible for security; and Area C, where Israel has full responsibility and where all the Jews of Judea & Samaria live.
The PA, however, has not adhered to the Oslo restrictions with regard to where it could build.
In 2009, Salam Fayyad, who was the prime minister of the PA, advanced a plan for the de facto establishment of the State of Palestine via facts on the ground: “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State”. This called for major building, including significant development projects in Area C.
https://questdev.palestine-studies.org/en/overallchronology%3F%26sideid%3D12519
The goal was, and remains, contiguity across Judea and Samaria. Fayyad’s vision set the Green Line as the border of a projected Palestinian state. The amount of building that has taken place over the years is staggering. There are not just small homes that have been built but also infrastructure such as schools, large mansions and, in 2022, even a water park.
As of 2024, there were 97,566 illegal structures built by Palestinian Arabs in Area C of Judea and Samaria, the region under full Israeli jurisdiction.
This is from a report released by Regavim, which I urge my readers to see:
https://www.regavim.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/RegavimHatashaENG24-1601.pdf
It is to the credit of Regavim, which is a public movement dedicated to the protection of Israel’s national lands that the situation today is somewhat better, although somewhat better is not yet good enough. Regavim employs monitors to track the illegal building, issues reports, and applies pressure on the Civil Administration to respond, going to the courts when that is appropriate. For a long time the Civil Administration was severely remiss in responding with vigor to this situation.
The international community has been largely supportive of the PA, with the EU openly funding illegal building. https://www.regavim.org/category/battle-for-area-c/
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This illegal building is only one piece of a larger story. The international community to a considerable extent ignores Palestinian Arab terrorism and its abrogation of the commitments of the Oslo Accords and supports the founding of a Palestinian state across all of Judea & Samaria. Israeli rights are disregarded.
As recently as a year ago, we were subjected to the diplomatic babble of then secretary of state Anthony Blinken who spoke incessantly about the two states living side by side in peace and prosperity. Now it has gone further, as various nations are coming forward formally in recognition of such a state – never mind that the PA does not conform to the international requirements for a new state and is a promoter of terrorism.
This is not a situation that can be permitted to persist.
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And there is yet one other issue of major dimensions with regard to Judea & Samaria: It is one of the terror fronts against which Israel has been fighting for the last two years.
According to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
“Hamas’s ambition was to turn Judea and Samaria into an arena for terrorism as part of the campaign to destroy Israel…However, the counterterrorism actions taken by the Israeli security forces, which included the detention and elimination of thousands of wanted persons and terrorist operatives and the seizure of weapons prevented a wave of terrorism from Judea and Samaria.
“Following the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) began efforts to shift the center of the ‘resistance’ to Judea and Samaria, encouraging attacks on Israeli security forces and settlers.
“Iran also continues its central role in efforts to turn Judea and Samaria into an active terrorist arena against Israel. A shipment of weapons from Iran was intercepted, which included powerful explosive charges and explosive-carrying drones…”
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At a minimum, reinforcing Jewish presence in Judea & Samaria is critical. I noted above groups working towards increased settlement.
At the same time we are seeing a very encouraging official endorsement of settlement growth. For this a great deal of credit goes to Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Chair, Religious Zionists). Smotrich wears two hats, one as Finance Minister and the other as Deputy Head of the Civil Administration. Essentially, he has been tasked with overseeing the body responsible for approving construction in Area C.
Smotrich is extremely savvy about the situation in Judea & Samaria. He founded Regavim but had to withdraw when he joined the Knesset.
What we seeing then is a surge in new Jewish housing within Judea & Samaria – a movement to help ensure our rights in the land and strengthen our presence. Building approvals are facilitated more efficiently, and several settlements have had new housing starts announced over the course of this year. Beitar Illit, 230 units; Alon Shvut, 1,300 new apartments; Efrat, 974 new homes.
Earlier this month, the Israeli government formally unveiled plans to establish 11 new settlements in Judea & Samaria and to grant official status to 8 additional outposts.
Said Smotrich: “We are stopping the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state on the ground. We will continue to develop, build and settle in the land of our ancestors, with faith in the righteousness of the path.”
Right on!
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Some recognize this building as de facto sovereignty. What remains to be accomplished is the legal application of sovereignty. I believe this is essential and that it is coming. The Israeli people have moved to the right over the last two years and are ready for it now.
In July, a majority of 71 out of 120 Knesset members passed a non-binding resolution in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. It was submitted by Mks Dan Illouz (Likud, pictured), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu).
Said Illouz: “This is not a symbolic statement but the beginning of a national decision. The world does not respect evasions, but a clear stand on our right to the Land of Israel. The time for sovereignty has come.”
https://www.jns.org/knesset-passes-non-binding-motion-on-judea-and-samaria-sovereignty/
What remains to be threshed out is the precise form of that sovereignty.
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Please, pray for all of Am Yisrael: for the wisdom and courage of our leaders, the strength of our people, and an awakening of the Western world to the horrors of radical Islam.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
