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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/west-bank-is-a-colonial-imposition-20dac385
"West Bank" Is a Colonial Imposition
(Wall Street Journal) Masada Siegel - Names matter. Several state legislatures have passed resolutions affirming the use of "Judea and Samaria" and rejecting "West Bank," a modern political term. After crushing the Bar Kokhba Jewish revolt in the year 135, the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea and Samaria as the province Syria Palaestina, invoking the Philistines, enemies of Israel, to erase Jewish identification with the land. The name stuck. My Jewish grandfather, born in Palestine, was considered Palestinian. Before 1948, "Palestinian" referred to the Jewish community as well as Arab people. After the Palestine Liberation Organization was established in 1964, "Palestinian" became associated with Arab nationalism. Rabbi Pinchas Allouche of Scottsdale told the Arizona Legislature: "Language matters, because when you erase names, you erase history; when you erase history, you erase truth; when you erase truth, you delegitimize people; and when you delegitimize people, peace becomes impossible." In 2024, Toronto adopted indigenous names for new public spaces. Ireland continues to restore traditional Irish names via a 2024 government initiative, the Placenames Committee. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, and Swaziland Eswatini in 2018. So, too, should Judea and Samaria be restored. These original names reconnect the land to the history of an indigenous people, including the battle David and Goliath fought in Judea. Erasing Jewish names from Jewish history is a tactic as old as Rome. It didn't work then, and doesn't work now.