User:MeteorMaker/Judea and Samaria

Summary
Usage of "Samaria" contravenes 3 key Wikipedia policies, "Naming Conventions", UNDUE weight and Neutral Point of View.

Modern usage sources
As requested by Jayjg and CanadianMonkey, here are all the sources that have been presented in this discussion and that state anything about the modern usage of the toponym:

Ashley kennedy3's list
Usage ."the term is sometimes used within Israel; predominantly by "fanatical Jewish chauvinists" for political motives, to describe Illegal Jewish Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Shown by the term not being applied to Tel Aviv District.(Israel insider Ma'ale Adumim larger than Tel Aviv, I don't think so) Gush Emunim apply the term to the West Bank as a geopolitical manoeuvre devoted to an ideology "greater land of Israel".(Ha'aretz) The terms "Judea and Samaria" are also highly controversial in Israeli society itself, and are often employed specifically as a collective reference to the illegal Israeli settlements in that area, historically and presently, especially by Jewish settlers and their supporters.(Jpost Arutz Sheva) "Newsweek Nov 20 1995" [...] it stretches to the fanatical Jewish chauvinists who want to expel the Arabs from the land they call Judea and Samaria--a territory that, depending on how you read the Bible, could stretch past the Jordan as far as the Euphrates. Says Sternhell: "The minimum the religious Zionists can live with is the West Bank." "Newsweek Nov 13 1995" The religious settlers in the occupied territories believe that God gave them the West Bank--which they call by the Biblical names Judea and Samaria-and that no temporal leader can give the Promised Land away. Left-wing Israelis prefer "HaGada HaMa'aravit" (הגדה המערבית "The West Bank" in Hebrew) or "Hashetahim Hakvushim" (השטחים הכבושים, The Occupied Territories). Many Arab Palestinians object to this term as a rejection of their claim to the land. Nevertheless, the term al-Yahudiyya was-Samarah is used by Arab Christians in reference to the Bible.(Murqus, Sa'īd. Tafsīr kalimāt al-Kitāb al-Muqaddas, Cairo, 1996, in Arabic)Jewish daily As used by JVL in "The College of Judea & Samaria" where the college is described As a demonstratively Zionist institution, the College has two key requirements: every student must study one course per semester on some aspect of Judaism, Jewish heritage or Land of Israel studies, and the Israeli flag must be displayed in every classroom, laboratory and auditorium on campus.JVL

APCR again used by right wing extremists for West Bank.

Now lets' look at what the official name of the geopolitical area is:

US officially designates the West Bank the occupied territories.... Library of Congress

Dore gold wants Disputed territories... B'Tselem occupied territories

Britain's position...Occupied territories. 

Ireland Occupied territories...

UN occupied territories..

Red Cross; The ICRC in Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Autonomous Territories indexed under Palestine, interesting.

and yet wiki uses a term that is controversial in Israel.

RS sources; Gershom Gorenberg OT

David Kretzmer OT

Kitty Warnock OT

Felicia Langer OT

Idith Zertal, Akiva Eldar, Vivian Eden, Vivian Sohn Eden OT

Stephen C Pelletiere OT

Eyal Benvenisti OT

Joost R. Hiltermann OT

Emma Playfair OT

Erica Lang OT

Esther Rosalind Cohen OT

Linda Bevis OT

John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt OT

Paul Hunt OT

Ghāzī Khurshīd, Ibrahim Abid OT

Lynne Rosengrant Franks OT

Neil Alger DT

William B. Quandt DT

Colin Shindler; Judea and Samaria; Used in conjunction with the right wing ultra nationalist religious movement.

Joseph Telushkin JS Judea, Samaria, and Gaza: Views on the Present and Future By Daniel Judah Elazar Published by American Enterprise Institute, 1982 ISBN 0844734594

Term used according to the Israeli settlement policy in an effort to create ‘facts’ that would eliminate once and for all the possibility of repartitioning the land west of the Jordan river. PP 3 and 18

Religious Fundamentalism in Developing Countries By Santosh C. Saha, Thomas K. Carr Contributor Santosh C. Saha Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001 ISBN 0313311552, p 71 guess how it is used?

Free Speech and National Security: Most of the Papers Were Delivered at the Conference on ..., Held in Jerusalem in December 1987 By Shimon Shetreet Published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1990 ISBN 0792310306

Judea Samaria used to describe the Israeli settlements and West bank Gaza termed territories.

As with the Britannica, the article can be about the Historical Biblical myths or about the modern area. If it is used for the modern area then it should be noted that the term is used by extremist right wingers (as in a health warning) who openly talk of being against the Israeli government.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica starts straight off with "historical region, Palestine Hebrew Shomron" making it clear that it is a historical region not the new politicised region. A clear distinction should be made between the two.

Conclusions:

The name "Samaria" is used in two entirely separate ways.
 * 1) When referring to the Biblical area. (sometimes then abused by religious fanatics see use 2.)
 * 2) Used by "fanatical Jewish chauvinists" as a means of indicating the Occupied Palestinian Territories and or the settlements.

The article should therefore read:

"the term is sometimes applied contentiously within Israel; predominantly by 'fanatical Jewish chauvinists' for political motives, to illegal Jewish Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories."

...Ashley kennedy3 (talk) 07:01, 9 December 2008 (UTC)