Tel Aviv, Israel — Last week, an influential group of American Christians publicly reaffirmed Jews' rights to Jews and Samaria as Israel's biblical centre. The Jewish and Samaria regions are more commonly known as the West Bank.
The declaration was announced at the annual National Religious Broadcasting Agency Treaty held in Dallas by Israeli American Christian leaders, and was expected to be signed by 3,000 religious leaders before reaching President Donald Trump.
The driving force for applying Israeli sovereignty to the region comes after Trump said last month that his administration would announce the issue in the coming weeks when asked about annexation.
The Oslo agreement, which was falsified under the Clinton administration, divided the West Bank into three regions. Area A, under the jurisdiction of completely Palestinians. Area B under Israeli security controls and Israeli Citizens' Bureau. Area C, under full Israeli authorities.
Decades of Israeli Arab timeline, Palestinian conflict
The Cave of the Patriarch, also known as the Cave of Macepella. This site is the burial site for the Jews, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and the patriarchs and chiefs of Jacob and Leah, and is located in Hebron, Judea and Samaria, and is more commonly referred to as the Jordan River Bank.
Dubbed Trump Plan for 2020 Peace to prosperity, Israel had envisioned annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria, but was shelved in favour of Abraham's agreement that normalized relations with the four Arab states in Jerusalem.
“The evangelicals were awarded to Trump to the president. He supports our position on the Bible, which is why he chose Mike Huckabee. [as ambassador to Jerusalem]I support Israel's sovereignty over Jews and Samaria,” Dr. Mike Evans, founder of Friends of Zion, which boasts just under 30 million members, told Fox News Digital.
declaration “It reaffirms Jews' intransitable rights to the Biblical center of Israel, rejects all efforts from the United States and the international community, and puts pressure on Jews to abandon the homelands of Jews and Samaria's ancestors.”
Joseph's grave near Shechem (Nablus). Samaria, July 6, 2021. (Roee Oz/TPS)
Evans said evangelicals support Israel. “They believe in moral clarity, good and evil, so they are Zion's friends. They see Jews being killed not for the land but for being Jews.”
“Evangelicals know the Gods of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” the influential founder and chairman of Israel's Christian United, Pastor John Haggie told Fox News Digital.
“For almost half a century, I have been preaching the message that Israel will not occupy the land. Israel owns the land. Its title deed is recorded on the Bible page, which was fascinated by God to the Jews,” added Haggie.
An aerial map of Joshua's changes in Jewish and Samaria, more commonly referred to as the Jordan River. (TPS-IL)
Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported that some Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (RN.Y.) had urged the president to recognize Jews and Samaria as Israeli territory. Their letter to the President expressed support for the application of sovereignty over Jerusalem to the region, saying that lawmakers were “center of our shared Jewish-Christian heritage.”
Israeli Parliament President Amir Ohana on February 23 urged the Jerusalem government to expand its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, saying that having full control over the region was the “only way” to achieve lasting peace.
Another Likudo MP Dan Illues has proven to Fox News Digital that Hamas' October 7, 2023 massacre “proves that the illusion of retreat, concession and coexistence with those seeking our destruction is not simply naive.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister answer questions at a joint press conference in the East Room held at the White House in Washington, DC on February 4, 2025. (Reuters/Ra Milis)
“The push for sovereignty of Jews and Samaria will be the end of Israel,” former Israeli lawmaker and architect of the 1993 Oslo Accord, Yossi Bailin, told Fox News Digital. “If Israel became a small Jewish man who ruled the majority of Palestinians, it would not be Jewish or democratic. [idea] It's bad enough,” he said.
“I believe Israel's rights support anything Trump demands, but five years ago he suggested there could be a two-state solution, so that's not as clear as it looks,” he added.
Later last month, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to carry out a “large-scale” anti-terrorist operation in Jews and Samaria after three buses exploded near Tel Aviv, and the bomb was found in two other people being investigated as a coordinated attack.
Israeli soldiers will take part in operations at Jenin as they are trying to steal Iran-backed terrorist groups. February 24th, 2025. (Reuters/Ranleen Sawafuta)
“This atrocities and powerful displacement of civilians in the West Bank were not about self-defense, but rather a colonial expansion scheme and ethnic cleansing campaign,” Ahmad Fatu, spokesman for the dominant Fatah president of the Palestinian authoritative Mahmoud Abbas, told Fox News Digital Digital.
“Annexing the West Bank will bring us back to 1948 and destroy the prospects of future stability and peace. All reasonable voices are well aware that there is no other way than a two-state solution, otherwise it will lead to endless chaos,” he added.
Israel Gantz is the head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing the Israeli community in Jewisha and Samaria, and is working with the government of Jerusalem to push sovereignty.
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Pastor John Huggy will speak at the “March of Israel” at the National Mall in Washington, DC on November 14th, 2023
“We've launched a campaign to drive it, but we won't do it without US support,” he told Fox News Digital. “Many of the Trump administration is very connected, they know the area and they believe in our rights to this place. They understand that if they want to stabilize the situation, we must be sovereign in Judea and Samaria.”
“We must control the high grounds of Judea and Samaria to ensure that Israel can survive and continue to thrive along the coastal plains that produce around 80% of the country's GDP.”
“If other entities, such as Palestinians, are used as a way to threaten Israel's security, their core infrastructure, including Bengulion Airport, and its population, are concentrated in the narrow strip between Haifa. [in the north] and ashdod [in the south]- 15 kilometres wide,” he said.
The Palestinian terrorists acquired their position on July 3, 2023 during a confrontation with Israeli forces at Jenin. The Israeli Army said it had launched a drone strike on Jenin as part of a “broad terrorism effort.” (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP by Getty Images)
Another factor, Conricus said, is that half a million Israelis currently live in Judea and Samaria and need to be protected.
“The trend of escalation in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem is at its highest since October 7th. We see significant terrorist activity in almost every Palestinian city and the continued debilitation of PAs exerting control,” he said.
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Zeef Orenstein, director of international affairs at the Jerusalem-based David Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the long-standing connections to the land of Israel gives them the inherent rights to Jews and Samaria.
“The reality is that today there may be connections to land deeper than Jews with Israeli lands, especially Jews in Jews, Samaria and Jerusalem, and there may not be any other people on earth, especially Orenstein added.
