A group of Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), is urging President Donald Trump to recognize Judea and Samaria as Israeli territory.
In a letter sent to the president on Tuesday and published by Fox News, members of the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus on Capitol Hill stressed the region’s significance to the “shared Judeo-Christian heritage” and expressed strong support for Jerusalem applying sovereignty over the area.
The letter also opposes recognizing any Arab state in Judea and Samaria that supports terrorism.
It was signed by five other members of the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus: Reps. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.), and Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.).
Additionally, the lawmakers praised Trump for lifting sanctions on Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria imposed under the Biden administration.
“This region is the heart of our shared Judeo-Christian heritage and recognition of the right of Israel to declare sovereignty over this region would build upon your previous recognition of the importance of this heritage,” the letter reads.
“In anticipation of a potential policy announcement regarding Judea and Samaria in the next few weeks, we want to express our strong support for recognizing Israel’s right to declare sovereignty over this historically and biblically significant region. We also wish to express our strong opposition to the recognition of any hostile Arab state in Judea and Samaria that supports terrorism and fails to recognize Israel.”
Earlier this month, Trump teased a potential policy announcement regarding Judea and Samaria.
“We’re discussing that with many of your representatives,” he remarked. “People do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet. But we will be making an announcement on that very specific topic in the next four weeks,” he said alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Feb. 4.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday expressed his long-held support for Israel and its biblically rooted right to the Jewish people’s historic homeland in Judea and Samaria.
Addressing the Sovereignty Conference 2025 in Jerusalem via video, Cruz reiterated his long-held position that Israel has an “absolute right to determine what happens in Judea and Samaria.”
That right “starts in the Bible and extends through modern times,” he said.
A group of American Christian leaders have publicly reaffirmed the Jewish people’s right to the biblical heartland of Israel.
The declaration was set to be made public on Tuesday at the annual National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Dallas, an international association of evangelical communicators, and was expected to be signed by thousands of Christian leaders from across the U.S. before being presented to the American president.
“We reaffirm the Jewish people’s inalienable right to the biblical heartland of Israel and reject all efforts—both from the United States and the international community—to pressure the Jewish people to relinquish their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria,” the declaration reads.
At the end of last week, a resolution was passed during an international summit on the sidelines of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, calling on the United States and its allies to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Yesha Council Chairman and head of the Binyamin Regional Council Israel Ganz, who had been working with senior CPAC members to help consolidate the resolution, thanked it for passing the motion and said: “Your declaration is akin to the Balfour Declaration.”
Ganz was referring to the British government’s famous public statement in 1917 in support of the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in the Land of Israel, which was then under Ottoman rule.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Sunday backed calls for Jerusalem to extend its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, saying full control over the territory was the “one and only way” to achieve peace in the region.
“These biblical, original parts of our land, which in the Bible tells the story of our people, are intended for us, for the people of Israel, need to be in the territory of the State of Israel, under the ownership of Israel, under full Israeli sovereignty,” said Ohana, a lawmaker for Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, during a visit to northern Samaria. “Today, this thing is clearer than ever,” he added.
“On the 7th of October, not only Israeli citizens were murdered but also the idea that was mistakenly called ‘the two-state solution,’” he stated, referring to Hamas’s 2023 massacre.
Jewish communities in the area are “not only not an obstacle to peace” but rather “our one and only way, for the people of Israel, of the State of Israel, to arrive at peace,” said Ohana.