What’s In A Name?
Justin Amler
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Many people today don’t like to use the proper names of things and places, out of some fear of being political incorrect. They fear they must use the names that people have been told rather than their historical names.
I disagree
, because avoiding names or even using different ones changes the nature of how many conflicts are addressed. Most people in the world today refer to the lands of Judea and Samaria as the West Bank, but historically the West Bank was never the name of any designated land mass. This area of land only ever became known as the “West Bank” when the State of Israel was formed – and that was when the Hashemite Kingdom’s army of Trans-Jordan crossed over their border in the united Arab effort to conquer and destroy the fledging Jewish State and throw all the Jews into the sea. The invented country of Trans-Jordan, creatively created by British officials, then tried to illegally annex the area west of the Jordan River by applying their laws and giving the Arab residents Jordanian citizenship – which is why many palestinians today have Jordanian citizenship.
This imperialist action by Trans-Jordan was not recognized by the world, except for Great Britain and Pakistan and was only ever done in an effort to illegally expand their borders at the expense of the State of Israel. Shortly after the Arabs were defeated, Trans-Jordan became Jordan, perhaps in an effort to make the world believe they belonged on both sides of the Jordan River rather than just the East side.
So today when so-called experts appear on international television they constantly use the newly created term “West Bank” and no one questions them, accepting that the people they are interviewing are talking facts rather than fiction. But the only reason that the name “West Bank” is constantly emphasized rather than the original and ancient names of Judea and Samaria is purely an attempt to remove the many Jewish historical connections of these areas which form the heartland of the Jewish people. It’s an action that has appeared to work on a lot of people, as we’ve seen a constant push and demand to create a palestinian state not based on any kind of factual history, but rather the fictitious claims by unelected dictators like Abbas who claim the palestinians have been there for over 6000 years. This falsehood of history is further perpetrated by groups like UNESCO who recognize historically Jewish areas as Arabic without even mentioning any connection to the Jews. And if a world believes the area was never Jewish, then it’s much easy to believe in a new false state without Jews.
But for those who are prepared to do just a little bit of research, rather than react to the false rhetoric of an ignorant world, it will soon become clear that, just as it’s always been, Jews are from Judea and Arabs are from Arabia.
Names are important to the Jewish tradition, because in a name lies a meaningful history and a story – our story. The name of the West Bank is meaningless to us, simply an empty vessel devoid of any significance. But Judea and Samaria is our heartland, rich in history and culture and tradition.
And every time we speak using those proper terms and proper names, being proud to shout them loud and clear, we are honoring all the history of our people that goes with it.
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Justin Amler
