A state senator in Tennessee threatened to hit an independent reporter who asked questions about the senator’s bill to require state agencies to refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, then asked why the senator was a shill for Israel.
Paul Rose, who represents District 32 in the suburbs of Memphis, was none too happy with Justin Kanew of The Tennessee Holler when the reporter attempted to grill Rose about his attachment to the foreign country.
But Rose’s measure is only one of many that have been introduced or even passed nationwide. And those don’t count legislation in the U.S. Congress that would also require the government to call the West Bank by what proponents argue are its proper, historical names.
The Act
Rose’s “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act” bears the same name as many such measures, although its text differs slightly. Indeed, the seven-page bill offers a history of the region and a biblical justification for state legislators to pass it.
“Judea and Samaria are repeatedly and explicitly referenced in the Hebrew Bible as the setting for key events that form the foundation of the Jewish people’s religious and national identity,” the bill says:
Among these references are:
(A) Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people, who first entered the Land of Israel at Shechem, located in Samaria, where God promised the land to His descendants, as recorded in Genesis 12:6-7;
(B) Abraham’s subsequent purchase of the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, in Judea, as a burial place for he and his wife Sarah, thereby making the first recorded land acquisition by a Jew in the Land of Israel, as recorded in Genesis 23 and 25;
(C) Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, who had his prophetic dream of a ladder reaching heaven while in Bethel, in Samaria, as recorded in Genesis 28:10-22, and later purchased land near Shechem, building an altar to God there, as described in Genesis 33:18-20.
That historical record goes on for almost three pages, after which the measure claims that “‘West Bank’ is a deliberate attempt to erase the Jewish identity of Judea and Samaria, and to obscure the deep historical, religious, and legal connections of the Jewish people to the land.”
During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel “liberated” the territory, which is vital to Israel’s security, the measure continues.
“The ideological and cultural conflict over Judea and Samaria represents a broader civilizational struggle between Judeo-Christian values and radical Islamic ideologies that seek to undermine Western democratic principles and religious freedom,” the bill claims.
The bill continues in that vein until it avers that “the land liberated by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War should be referred to by its historical names of ‘Judea’ and ‘Samaria,’ with the land south of Jerusalem being considered ‘Judea’ and the land north of Jerusalem being considered ‘Samaria.’”
The measure bans the government from calling the area the West Bank.
Doing so, the bill says, will ensure “that America stands in defense of truth and moral clarity, by supporting the sovereignty of Israel over Judea and Samaria, thereby affirming the Judeo-Christian heritage upon which the United States was founded, and recognizing the Bible as a legitimate historical document and Israel as the rightful steward of its ancestral homeland.”
“I’d Bust Your Face”
Trouble began for Rose when Kanew, who identified himself as Jewish, confronted the senator after a hearing at which a Palestinian-American Navy veteran testified against the bill. Kanew’s X post of the testimony does not identify the former officer. The Vanderbilt University graduate said he testified “not to argue foreign policy, not to tell my family’s story of displacement and death, [and] not to debate theology.”
Rather, “I’m here because this bill does not belong in Tennessee law,” he said:
This legislator was elected to serve Tennesseans, not to dictate political language for a disputed territory thousands of miles away. Not to pass divisive bills that seek [the] continued destruction of [the] identity of millions of Palestinians in the Levant and in the Diaspora. And yet that is exactly what this bill does. It forces Tennessee agencies to replace West Bank with Judea and Samaria, language aligned with one side of a foreign conflict. That is not neutrality, that is compelled political speech.
The veteran claimed that the bill was written by Israeli interest groups and channeled through the American Legislative Exchange Council, which features model legislation at its website.
After that testimony, Kanew tried to chase down Rose.
“Senator Rose, who gave you that bill about the West Bank?” Kanew asked. He said that Israel pushed the U.S. into war against Iran, and “here you are doing their bidding.” He continued:
What do you think about that? What do you think about that, Senator Rose? What do you think about that?
You’re doing Israel’s bidding as they push us into war. I say this as a Jew with family in Israel, Senator Rose. Why are you doing Israel’s bidding as they push us into war?
Rose finally blew his top: “You know, if I was at home I’d bust your face right now.” Kanew continued pressing. Rose denied that he threatened the reporter.
The senator refused to speak with Kanew, who continued to ask the same question, said his family “survived the Holocaust,” and said the issue is nonpartisan.
Why is it “our business to change the name” of the West Bank? Kanew asked. Rose didn’t answer.
Other Bills
Judea-Samaria bills are spreading like kudzu, notably across deep-red states.
Arkansas has already passed such a bill, which GOP Governor Sarah Huckabee happily signed. It was the first of its kind in the nation. Others await passage in Texas, West Virginia, and many other states.
On Capitol Hill last year, GOP Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced such a bill, as did GOP Representative Claudia Tenney of New York. Cotton’s bill boasts one co-sponsor, GOP Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio. Tenney’s has 11, all Republicans, including Andy Ogles of Tennessee.
Cotton has received almost $3 million from the Israel lobby, while Tenney has received a little more than $784,000.
