Another Letter To The NYTimes That Went Unpublished

In your correspondent's Memo from Jerusalem (July 19), Ms. Isabel Kershner writes of "Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the West Bank".

Indeed, as related in Acts 8:1, Jesus, a Jew living in his homeland, did traverse in his travels not the "West Bank" but rather Judea and Samaria. But a perusal of the United Nations Partition resolution of 1947, a more modern document, will reveal that not the term "West Bank" is used there to describe "Palestine" but again, Judea and Samaria. So, too, for the past hundreds of years do the books of travelers give witness to the names Judea and Samaria.

Throughout the period of the British Mandate, 1920-1948, Samaria was the name foran administrative district. A map published by the US State Department on July 18, 1948, during Israel's War of Independence, calls the "Arab-held" area north of Jerusalem "Samaria". The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945-1946, issued a Survey of Palestine and the place names "Judea" and "Samaria" were used, not the "West Bank". Judea and Samaria are the ancient and the modern names for the region.

Actually, emphasis rather should be made to inform all that the term "West Bank" originated in April 1950 when the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan illegally occupied and annexed Judea and Samaria, an act of international law violation not recognized by the United States.