The heart of the Jewish religion extends back to the ancient Israelites 4,000 years ago in the land of Judea and Samaria after the God of the Bible called Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob to inherit that land (Genesis 12). Following the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites settled in Judea and Samaria where they built their Tabernacle (Joshua 18:1) and where David was anointed king over the tribe of Judah, reigning in Hebron for more than seven years (2 Samuel 2:4) and over all Israel from Jerusalem for thirty-three years (2 Samuel 5:5). The biblical patriarchs were buried in Hebron in the Judean Hills as well (Genesis 25). The southern tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Menasseh lived in Judea, and the northern tribes of Israel lived in Samaria. After various nations conquered Israel, exile and return became the pattern for the Jewish people and the land. Miraculous defeat against Israel’s enemies, like with the Maccabees of the Chanukah story, took place in Judea. The miraculous birth of Jesus occurred in the Roman-occupied Jewish town of Bethlehem of Judea (Matthew 2:1).

Despite the continued historical significance and centrality of Judea and Samaria to the Jewish people, most of today’s international community views this land, which they call the “West Bank,”¹ as usurped by Israel and illegal for Jewish settlement. Many Jewish people and Christians, however, view Judea and Samaria as inseparable from the current greater Israel and a fundamental part of the Jewish historic homeland.²

Modern-Day Settlements in Judea and Samaria

For 2,000 years after the last exile, it has been challenging for Jewish people to return to Judea and Samaria, the core of ancient Israel’s territory. Since the acceleration of the restoration of Jewish people to the land through modern-day Zionism, the situation has become more inflamed between Arabs and the Jewish population in the land. Most notably, in 1929 during the British Mandate,³ Arabs attacked Jewish people living in Hebron, killing 67 and wounding 53.⁴ When Israel was re-established as a state in 1948, neighboring Arab countries sought to attack the new nation, resulting in Egypt occupying Gaza and Jordan illegally annexing the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While ruling the area from 1948–1967, Jordan pushed out 17,000 Jewish people and left the land mostly undeveloped.⁵ After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel retook Judea and Samaria—restoring Israel’s authority over that land—and built its first official settlement, Kfar Etzion, a community that had previously existed there.⁶ Under Jordanian rule, somewhere between 600,000 to 800,000 Palestinians lived in the West Bank, although many fled to the East Bank of the Jordan River right after the war begun.⁷ About a decade after Israel took back the land, 400,000 Arabs entered from 1976–2000 on tourist visas from Jordan, Syria, and North Africa and remained, mostly because of good economic conditions.⁸

After the Six-Day War, Israel’s Labor-led government established 32 Jewish settlements, mostly in the Jordan Valley and around Jerusalem, for security purposes, considering the Jordan River as Israel’s eastern security border. These were inhabited by mostly secular Zionists in agricultural communities.⁹ From 1977 onward, religious Zionists created about 80 new settlements, but the Likud national unity governments slowed new settlements from 1984–1990. Israel also established 8 neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and 4 settlement blocs in Gaza, and from 1969–1980s Israel declared some areas of the West Bank as nature reserves and military zones.¹⁰ From 1990–1992, only two new settlements in Samaria were created, and Labor Party Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stopped the building of any new settlements. Since 1996, religious Zionists have set up more than 100 outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but for 25 years, no new settlements were approved by the Israeli government until 2017.¹¹

Despite international opposition, today more than half a million Jewish people have established communities in parts of Judea and Samaria. The total area of Judea and Samaria consists of 2,183 square miles of hilly terrain surrounded by Jordan, greater Israel, and the Dead Sea,¹² but only 17 percent of the land has been developed by Israelis and Palestinians combined, with Israelis building towns on only 2 percent of the land.¹³ Sources dispute the number of settlements, but estimates start at 130 settlements and around 191 outposts.¹⁴ To qualify as a settlement rather than an outpost, it must be on state land, receive government permitting, and be supported by a government resolution.

In the past, settlements also referred to communities in the Sinai desert and Gaza before Israel withdrew from those locations. While some refer to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as settlements, Israel’s establishment in those areas function differently under Israeli law. Palestinians make up the majority (85.2 percent) of West Bank residents.¹⁵ Major Palestinian cities include Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron, Nablus, Jericho, and Bethlehem, and only 1 percent are Christian.¹⁶ Major Jewish cities include Ma’alei Adumim, the Gush Etzion bloc, Ariel, and Modi’in Illit. The Palestinian population surpassed the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria by six times.¹⁷ While there are more than 3 million Palestinians in that territory, predictions estimate the Jewish population will exceed 600,000 by 2030.¹⁸

The makeup of Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria is divided evenly among the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), secular Jewish people, and religious Zionists, and they all live there for different reasons.¹⁹ Only one third settle there out of religious conviction. Many move there for economic reasons and quality of life, like new immigrants, because housing is more affordable and the government offers subsidies. Many also believe settlements help Israel’s overall security. At its smallest width without Judea and Samaria, Israel is only nine miles wide. The Israel Defense Forces could not protect greater Israel’s population or industry from rockets without Jewish people living in the mountains of Judea and Samaria that tower over Israel’s population.²⁰ Jewish settlements are laid out in a disconnected linear way along the Green Line (separating greater Israel from the West Bank since 1949) through the central mountain ridge and in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area, and they rely on Israel for their economy and security.

Division of the Land and Accusations of Apartheid

In the 1990s, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with Norway and the United States worked on the Oslo II Accords, which divided the West Bank between Israelis and Palestinians into three areas. Area A, which is about 18 percent of Judea and Samaria, and Area B, which is about 22 percent, were designated Palestinian land where almost all 3.36 million Palestinians live (Israelis think the number of Palestinians is lower). In Area A, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has full civil and security control, and Israelis are forbidden, except for the Israel Defense Forces. In Area B, which serves mostly a rural Arab population, the PA has civil control and shares security with Israel. Israelis are not encouraged to enter Area B. Jewish people who owned land in these areas were forced to give up their property.

In Area C, which makes up 60 percent of the territory, Israel is in control of civil and security matters. Arabs can visit all areas, and some Palestinians have built homes, schools, and infrastructure in Area C; about 2 percent of Arabs live in or near Area C.²¹ A large part of Area C is made up of military zones, state land, and nature reserves. Palestinians are governed by the PA, and Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria are citizens of Israel. Roads are open to all, but while the PA issues license plates, Israelis may ensure security of the roads when needed.²² Overall, 40 percent of Judea and Samaria fall under the PA’s authority, and Jewish Israelis cannot enter or travel on those roads. Conversely, Arabs live in more than 30 Jewish settlements and attend university there, particularly in the city of Ariel, which undermines the accusation of apartheid.²³

Both Jewish people and Arabs live under restrictions in Judea and Samaria due to the Oslo partition plan and for security reasons. The term “Apartheid”—South Africa’s systematic and oppressive discriminatory policies by whites against blacks and other non-whites—has been wrongly used by governments and people worldwide to describe Israel’s relationship with Palestinians inside Gaza and the West Bank or toward Arab Israeli citizens within Israel proper.

Israel, however, aims to treat all its citizens equally through its democratic institutions and independent courts. Arab Israelis serve in a variety of roles, including as judges, legislators, and professors in Israel. In 2021, United Arab List, a religious Islamic party, joined Israel’s governing coalition in Israel’s parliament.²⁴ The situation in Judea and Samaria is complex and because there is no final peace agreement, policies are fluid depending on security issues. The Anti-Defamation League negates the apartheid accusation against Israel stating, “While Israel’s policies and practices can certainly be criticized, it is not factually accurate to say they are akin to a permanent and institutionalized system motivated and designed by racism.”²⁵

The Legality of Settlements

The international community draws on the United Nations (UN) resolutions and its International Court of Justice (ICJ) to determine the legality of settlements; however, many legal scholars argue that the UN does not have jurisdiction to do so.²⁶ Israel does not recognize the ICJ opinions as it relies on its own independent courts. The United Nations, supported by most in the international community, claims that the Fourth Geneva Convention—which was adopted in 1949 after the Holocaust and forbids an occupying power to annex territory by transferring populations to an occupied area—applies to the West Bank area.²⁷ Those who maintain Israel has a right to allow its population to move to Judea and Samaria state that this Geneva Convention was meant to protect civilians and uphold war regulations but not to adjudicate disputed land.²⁸ A former president of the ICJ, Stephen Schwebel, states that a country defending itself and ensuring security may seize and occupy land.²⁹

Additionally, not only were Judea and Samaria included as part of the area for Jewish settlement in the 1922 League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, but no sovereign power has secured title to the land—Jordan merely occupied, or illegally annexed, Judea and Samaria in 1950.³⁰ Legal scholars would thus change “occupied territories” to “disputed territory,” where neither Israel nor Palestinians have rights over it. However, legal scholars also note that because the Jewish people had sovereignty for hundreds of years, “Israel has the strongest claim to the land.”³¹ Israel has not technically annexed the West Bank and therefore settlements do not fall under Israeli sovereignty; Israel renews regulations every few years to extend civil and criminal law over the settlements.³² Most American State Departments, except for Carter’s, did not declare the settlements illegal, even if some saw them as “illegitimate.”³³

The international community has believed that an exchange of “land for peace” is the solution toward peace between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.³⁴ However, in Israel’s experience the opposite has proven true. Palestinians would not agree to any peace process even when Jewish people were forbidden to live in the West Bank (1949–67). Freezing settlements did not bring Arabs to the peace table. The forcible removal of settlements from Sinai (1982) and Gaza (2005) gave Hamas a chance to prepare for terror attacks against Israel, culminating in the October 7 massacre, the day when Hamas terrorists brutally attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting more than 250 hostages.

Understanding Settler Violence

Today, the media, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Boycott Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) supporters are claiming that settler violence in the West Bank is precipitously on the rise, particularly since October 7, 2023. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, says that settler violence and harassment, which includes vandalism, arson, and theft, has displaced 57 Palestinian communities in Areas C and B since October 7.³⁵ Claims are also made that Israel does not follow up on investigations after attacks.³⁶ Yet, other investigative reports maintain that many of these accounts are exaggerated, inaccurate, and sometimes fabricated. Often these claims weave their way through a variety of sources until everyone believes it; according to Tablet Magazine, “The way the op generally works is that human-rights organizations collect ‘evidence,’ which the United Nations then compiles. Politicians repeat the ‘evidence’ laundered by the United Nations, and the press disseminates it.”³⁷

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded more than 1,800 incidents in 2025 of what it calls “settler violence,” the highest number since 2006.³⁸ An investigation by Tablet revealed that most of the attacks against Palestinians were retaliatory and questions OCHA’s record-keeping due to its counting every violent incident as an act of violence against Palestinians, even when Palestinian militants attack Jewish civilians.

Additionally, a percentage of recorded attacks do not take place within Judea and Samaria: OCHA counts as “settler violence” visits to the Temple Mount area as well as clashes between the Israel Defense Forces and rioting Muslims on the Temple Mount because it considers the Temple Mount area as occupied territory. OCHA also categorizes non-violent situations as “violence,” like tourist visits to archaeological sites, Israeli hikers, traffic accidents, and infrastructure work by the Israeli government in the West Bank. OCHA’s inaccurate numbers, which omit acts of Palestinian violence, are then disseminated widely.³⁹

Additionally, the main culprit for “settler violence,” which includes only a small subset of the entire Jewish settler community, are the “Hilltop Youth,” who come from several generations of community dwellers, are disenfranchised, disassociated from traditional education, reject authority, and often live in farms and outposts, mostly in Area C (the jurisdiction under Israeli control).⁴⁰ Their violence since the 1990s coincides with Israeli policy relating to moving Palestinian communities out of Area C, mostly in the South Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley. Statistics omit noting that political violence in the West Bank rose by 50 percent in the year prior to October 7, partly due to 20 distinct armed Palestinian groups who fought with Israel Defense Forces in more than 500 incidents in connection with Gaza militant groups.⁴¹

As a result of hearing the falsified statistics from OCHA about settler violence, various administrations in the United States and elsewhere have levied sanctions against the settlers, which the Trump administration reversed. While disturbing, settler violence is minimal and explained without historical context of the land, a broader picture of the Jewish population being 16 percent of the population of Judea and Samaria, the even smaller percentage of “activist” settlers, or the diminutive size of the Israeli territory in Judea and Samaria compared to that of the Palestinians. Moreover, Israel’s government is committed to reducing what it views as extremist settler violence in Judea and Samaria, including President Isaac Herzog, Eyal Zamir (the IDF’s chief of staff), and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.⁴² Current Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on social media that “the Jewish rioters in Judea and Samaria harm the State of Israel, disgrace Judaism, and cause damage to the settlement project. They are not us. They are not the State of Israel.”⁴³

Judea and Samaria Inseparable from the Land of Israel

The God of Israel chose to grant the land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, to the Jewish people. Thus, Israel views its Jewish settlements as voluntary communities on ancestral land, not illegal acts of colonization.⁴⁴ Because of support for biblical truth, some Christians encourage excising the word “settler” and “settlements” from their vocabulary and replacing them with the idea of “citizens” and “Israel’s biblical heartland.”⁴⁵ Issues of security and legality make Judea and Samaria relevant to the Jewish people and Christians today. More crucially, however, biblical history and future biblical promises make that land, where God has chosen to put His name (1 Kings 11:36), inseparable from God’s people and divine plan.