West Bank

In my first follow-up to the posting by me on the new regulations which instructs consular officials at the Jerusalem Consulate-General to note an American citizen's birthplace in Judea or Samaria as the "West Bank",(*) everyone knows that

The name "West Bank" was apparently first used by Jordanians at the time of their annexation of the region in 1950, and has become the most common name used in English and some of the other Germanic languages.

America's officialdom does get its foot stuck in its bureaucratic mouth, so to say.

So, in other words, the "West Bank" which doesn't really exist as a geo-political entity, and let us not forget as I was reminded, that in 1988, Jordan yielded any claim to represent the Arabs who prefer to be called "Palestinians", now takes precedence over a city 3000 years old which was the capital of the two Jewish commonwealths during the monarchy, the First and Second Temple periods and throughout the years of exile?

This is politics at its worse.

The CIA Handbook asserts:

The West Bank - the larger of the two areas comprising the Palestinian Authority (PA)...

P.S.

And it seems that there's a newer regulation, CT.CON 280 from February 2009 but doesn't affect the essence of the registration process.


UPDATE

As I stressed in a previous post, in principle, there is no such a thing as "West Bank" for, if the US claims it is sticking to the 1947 UN Resolution as its basis, the WB never existed even then, and I would argue that not even now does it officially exist as a geopolitical entity.

But even so, can a Jew or anyone for that matter, since alternatives are allowed, ask that the terms "Judea" or "Samaria" since "Gaza" is permitted? Why not?

And let's continue our search for names that would illustrate the silliness of the State Dept. attempt to whitewash geopolitical reality.

Hebron, Wales

Palestine, Texas, US

Bethel, Alaska (maybe Governor Sarah Palin can help?)

Bethel in the Berkshires that's CT

Bethel, Anglesey, Scotland

And this:

West Bank provides lending, deposit and trust services for individual and businesses. We have ten full-service banking locations in Des Moines, Iowa City and Coralville, Iowa