DAWN issues the following statement below in response to the decision to refer to the occupied West Bank by its Hebrew biblical name, Judea and Samaria, in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast reportedly ordered committee staff to make the change on February 25, 2025, days ahead of an expected announcement by President Trump about whether he will support the illegal annexation of the territory by Israel.
"Renaming the West Bank by decree from across the world and over the heads of the people who live there holds no more legitimacy than the U.S. president, Israeli prime minister, or anyone other than the Palestinian people agreeing to annexation," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. "Palestinians have an inalienable right to self-determination and no decision by a U.S. congressman to cross out names on a map can erase that right, or the Palestinian people for that matter."
"Rather than going along with President Trump's plans to support Israeli annexation, a grave international crime, congress should be pushing back against this administration's ongoing assault on the rule of law, domestically and internationally," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director. "Members of Congress should speak out forcefully to oppose any attempt to erase Palestinian identity—or geography—with U.S. tax dollars."
"While it is true that across Israel-Palestine there are placenames that vary from language to language, from Hebron/al-Khalil to al-Quds/Jerusalem and others, this is not a case of merely picking one language over another," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "Choosing to refer to the occupied West Bank as Judea and Samaria is a declaration that Palestine does not exist."
