Wikipedia:Naming conventions (West Bank)

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus.

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The arbitration committee monitored the formation of consensus of these guidelines, pursuant to this remedy in the case on West Bank - Judea and Samaria.

This page details the naming conventions for places in the West Bank.

Guidelines

1. References for antiquity follow sources and use Judea and Samaria for the period up to the first century CE.
2. In the context of events during the British Mandate (1920–1948), terms used by the British administration (i.e. "Judea" and "Samaria") are probably most appropriate. When used, they should be prefixed with "the British Mandate district/s".
3. Guidelines 4–6 refer to modern times (after 1948).
4. "West Bank" or "the West Bank" (capitalized) is the most commonly used name for the land area known by that name, and is to be used. The terms "northern West Bank" and "southern West Bank" can be used to refer to parts of it.
5. When discussing specifically the administrative area of Judea and Samaria, in the context of that administration and not merely referring to a specific land area, the term "the administrative area of Judea and Samaria" or Judea and Samaria Area (with the last word capitalised as here) may be used, subject to clause 6 below, namely that it cannot be used without qualification as though it is the neutral point of view.
6. As of the time these guidelines were proposed (in March 2009), given the references which had been examined, some editors were not convinced that there was a proportion of nonpartisan usage in reliable sources of the terms "Samaria" and "Judea" to refer to places in the context of events in modern times sufficient that the terms could be used without qualification while conveying a sufficiently neutral voice. The terms "Samaria" or "Judea" cannot be used without qualification in the NPOV neutral voice; for example, it cannot be asserted without qualification that a place is "in Samaria". Any uses of the terms must be in one of the situations described below:
   1. The terms are used inside verbatim quotations from sources, or
   2. When discussing physical geography using the terminology that appears in international expert journals, for example as part of a proper name ("the Judea Group aquifer"), or as an adjective qualifying a term ("The Samarian hills"), or
   3. The term is being mentioned rather than used, as in "Samaria is a term used for ...", or
   4. The term is being used within the article about itself, where its meaning and usage has already been explained to the reader; although additional qualifications may be needed for some uses even there.

See also

• Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/West Bank - Judea and Samaria