Arizona’s House of Representatives recently passed a controversial resolution clearly positioning itself as pro-Israel by officially rejecting use of the term “West Bank” going forward.
The West Bank is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians, and more than 700,000 Israeli settlers have come to the region over the past several decades. While governance of the West Bank is theoretically split between Palestinians and Israel, the Israeli military has occupied the area since 1967. There are about 45,000 to 50,000 Christians in the West Bank, most living around Bethlehem, where Christ was born.
Christians have struggled in the West Bank in recent years as Israeli settler communities are newly constructed and many families who have been there for generations are effectively forced out or suffer. Numerous Christians from the area have spoken out and used public interviews or social media to sound the alarm about the pressure placed on Christian families.
Settlers are often motivated by financial reasons. The land is cheaper in the West Bank, and native-born Israelis can move freely between Israel and the West Bank, while Palestinians must obtain permission to enter Israel and use a system of checking in and out of the territory.
House Concurrent Resolution 2047, also titled “Recognizing the Legitimacy of Judea and Samaria,” from the second regular session of 2026, uses various Scripture references to argue that the regions of Judea and Samara are explicitly Jewish in nature and history, saying nothing of the Christian presence in the land, and backing Israeli sovereignty over the area.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River in Judea. Christ battled with the devil for 40 days and nights in the Judean desert, and His life and ministry occurred in and around Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, and yet Arizona’s resolution essentially claims that Judea and Samaria belong to the modern political state of Israel. The only mention of Christianity occurs within the context of citing the “Judeo-Christian” heritage of the United States.
The resolution rejects the legitimacy of the West Bank and describes the term as a “political construct” and “a deliberate attempt to erase the Jewish identity of Judea and Samaria” and draws a line between America’s constitutional republic and Israeli sovereignty.
The resolution declares that “supporting Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria is an affirmation of the moral and historical legitimacy of the Jewish people’s connection to the land, the authenticity and enduring relevance of the Bible and the values that underpin both Western civilization and American constitutional democracy.”
Arizona ranks 21st in the nation for dollars provided to Israel each year at just under $57,000,000 per year. This figure is according to an analysis which determines each state’s share in total dollars given by dividing the state’s federal income taxes by the total amount of US federal income taxes and multiplying it by the year’s annual military aid to Israel. This figure does not include emergency packages that are separate from the standard aid given.
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