Tom Cotton Introduces Bill to Ban Federal Use of the Term ‘West Bank’

Photo Credit: Haim Zach/GPO

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced legislation on Thursday that would ban the US federal government from using the term “West Bank” and instead use Judea and Samaria, the terminology preferred by Israel.

Formally titled the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea and Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria) Act,” the bill would prohibit government funds from being used to describe “the land annexed by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War” as the “West Bank,” except in international treaties and agreements.

“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years,” Cotton said. “The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”

In a social-media post, he added that using the term “West Bank” is “a slap in the face to historical truth.”

“It’s time to call this region by its rightful name and stop playing into anti-Israel propaganda,” he said.

The Kingdom of Jordan promulgated the term after the 1948 Israeli War of Independence to describe the territory it controlled west of the Jordan River. Since the Six-Day War in June 1967, when Israel captured those territories, it has governed them as Judea and Samaria, and annexed the former eastern Jerusalem into the unified Jerusalem District.

The use of “West Bank” as opposed to Judea and Samaria is often viewed as a proxy for “Palestinian” and Israeli territorial claims and has also become a partisan issue in the United States, with many Republicans favoring Judea and Samaria while many Democrats using the phrase “West Bank.”

David Friedman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel in the first Trump administration, welcomed Cotton’s legislation on Thursday.

“Thank you, Tom Cotton, for standing with Israel, recognizing its biblical heritage and supporting one Jewish state,” he wrote.

The co-sponsors of the House companion version of the bill also touted Cotton introducing it in the Senate.

“Words matter,” wrote Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.). “It’s not ‘the West Bank.’ It’s ‘Judea and Samaria.’”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), who introduced the House version of the bill in February, said that it reaffirmed Israel’s “undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria.”

“This bill reaffirms Israel’s rightful claim to its territory,” she wrote. “I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”