State legislators in Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, South Dakota, Arizona, Mississippi, New Jersey, Iowa, West Virginia and Rhode Island introduced at least 23 state laws calling for local governments to refer to “Judea and Samaria” rather than the “West Bank,” mandate Holocaust education, define Jew-hatred or create task forces on antisemitism.
Eight states have introduced legislation on Judea and Samaria recently, according to Yigal Dilmoni, co-founder and CEO of American Friends of Judea and Samaria. “What we are seeing today is the result of a combination of long-term educational efforts and a significant shift in both Israeli and American reality,” he told JNS.
In recent years, Dilmoni’s group and elected leaders from Judea and Samaria have led “extensive educational and public-awareness initiatives across the United States,” in order to provide “accurate, fact-based information about Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland and historical homeland of the Jewish people,” he told JNS.
They have also tried to explain the region’s importance to Israeli security and to counter efforts by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to “erase the biblical and historical truth of the Land of Israel,” he said.
The new U.S. state-level legislation is a “reaffirmation of biblical truth and historical integrity,” he told JNS. “These legislative efforts also provide an opportunity for open public discussion, deeper education of lawmakers and a powerful message to younger generations about the true historical roots of the region.”
Matthew Incantalupo, assistant professor of political science at Yeshiva University, told JNS that “it is quite common for states to consider similar legislation at the same time.”
He added that “interest group activity” could be the cause of such overlap.
‘Foundational locations’ to Christians, Jews
Chris Todd, a Republican state legislator in Tennessee, told JNS that he was “honored” to file HB 1446 “to highlight the importance to be accurate when it comes to a historic region of Israel.” The bill, which was filed in October, was introduced on Jan. 13. (Paul Rose, a state senator, introduced the companion bill SB 1663 on Jan. 15.)
“I’m not aware of coordination between legislators for the filing in different states,” Todd told JNS.
Many of the legislators probably attended meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council or the National Association of Christian Lawmakers and “came away compelled to act,” he said. “I believe others will see our efforts and desire to file similar bills for their states.”
“God created the very foundations of the world through His speech, and as a result I’m convinced of the importance of using accurate terminology when it comes to the land God set aside for the Jews,” Todd told JNS. “As I have learned just how long these areas in Israel have been referred to as ‘Judea and Samaria’ over 3,000 years, I find it quite astounding that media outlets and antisemites refer to at least a portion of this as the ‘West Bank.’”
Todd added that he hopes that Israeli officials “would assert their rightful and appropriate authority over every square inch of Judea and Samaria, acknowledging what God gave them over 3,000 years ago.”
Dr. Julie McIntosh, a Republican state senator in Oklahoma and a physician, pre-filed SB 1208, which is scheduled to be heard on Feb. 2.
“At a time when hostile actors and terrorist organizations actively work to delegitimize Israel through coordinated misinformation campaigns, legislation like the Judea and Samaria Act offers a way to fight back with honesty and integrity by declaring truth,” she told JNS.
The bill “affirms historical accuracy, educational integrity and a shared commitment across many states to stand with our strong ally, Israel, to protect ordered liberty under God,” she said.
Standing with Israel reflects “America first” principles, according to McIntosh, and it reinforces the “moral foundations upon which both nations were built while remaining mindful of the complex and contested nature of the region’s modern political history.”
McIntosh told JNS that “the language used by government entities matters—particularly when it is relied upon by educators, students, media and the public as a reference point for understanding history and geography.”
The bill doesn’t aim to resolve sovereignty or foreign policy questions. “Instead, it ensures Oklahoma’s official communications rely on historically grounded terminology rather than a modern political designation by Jordan, who relinquished control of the region,” McIntosh said.
A nearly identical bill, SB 2153, was pre-filed in the Oklahoma state Senate and is also slated for a Feb. 2 reading. Julie Daniels, an Oklahoma Republican state senator who filed the bill, told JNS that it happens “from time to time” that the same legislation gets filed twice and the state body wouldn’t run “two identical bills through committee.”
Daniels said that she is working with Dilmoni and Rafi Lazerowitz from American Friends of Judea and Samaria on the legislation. Lazerowitz told JNS that the group has “deep appreciation” for Daniels and her colleagues in the Oklahoma legislature.
In South Dakota, John Carley, a Republican state senator, co-sponsored SB 59, introduced on Jan. 13, which also calls on the state to refer to “Judea and Samaria.” He told JNS this bill is “important for a number of reasons.”
“That land has been lived in by the Jewish people for thousands of years,” Carley said. “It was named that thousands of years ago.”
“Judea and Samaria has many of the foundational locations dear to Christians and Jews,” Carley added. (He noted that Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel, has called it a “historical injustice” and a “denial of the Bible” to refer to Judea and Samaria by any other name.)
Multiple states introducing similar legislation “is common among good common sense legislation,” according to Carley.
“America’s partnership with Israel as the flourishing single democracy in the area, plus Israel’s immense technological and intellectual capabilities that benefit the world, as well as partnering in defense of Judeo-Christian values has been stepped up in the past 12 months,” he told JNS.
“This has been from a national level, but it’s also good time the states acknowledge this unique partnership and bless Israel by calling an important part of their country the proper current and historical names,” he told JNS.
David Livingston, a Republican state representative in Arizona, prefiled HR 2002, recognizing Judea and Samaria, on Jan. 9. The state representative traveled to Israel in November with the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, of which he is a founding member.
The trip “reinforced his decision to introduce the measure,” he told JNS.
“Judea and Samaria are not abstractions. They are the center of Jewish history, faith and national identity,” Livingston stated. “Language matters. When governments adopt terminology meant to sever Jewish ties to the land, they choose politics over truth.”
In Florida, HB 31, a Judea and Samaria bill which was filed on Sept. 23, had a first reading in the state House on Jan. 13, the same day that the companion state Senate bill, SB 1106, was introduced. Both would bar the state from using “moneys to create an official government material that refers to Judea and Samaria as the ‘West Bank.’”
Judea and Samaria bills were also introduced in the Missouri state Senate—SB 1244, which was prefiled in December and first read on Jan. 7—and in South Carolina, where H 4865 was introduced in the state House on Jan. 14, and in Alabama, where HB 81 was pre-filed in December and first read on Jan. 13.
The Judea and Samaria bills are a “return to historical truth,” according to Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center.
“For decades, ‘West Bank’ has functioned less as a neutral descriptor than as a framing device designed to sever the Jewish people from our own history and homeland,” he told JNS.
Goldfeder called the bills “a principled step toward restoring accuracy, clarity and historical truth in official public documents.”
Brian Cole, a Republican state representative in New Hampshire who is running for Congress, has said that after visiting Israel with the American Friends of Judea and Samaria, he would bring forward a resolution recognizing Judea and Samaria.
Other measures
In addition to the Judea and Samaria bills, state legislators also introduced measures designed to protect Jews and to remember the Holocaust and combat Jew-hatred.
Dr. Steve Bradley, a Republican Iowa state representative and a dentist, introduced HB 2005, which calls for middle and high schoolers to be educated about the Holocaust starting in the 2026-27 school year, on Jan. 13.
The bill states that “antisemitism remains a persistent, pervasive and disturbing problem in contemporary American society.”
In New Jersey, state senators introduced six measures on Jan. 13.
Robert Singer and Michael Testa, both Republicans, introduced SB 780, SB 835 and SB 868 (a version of which dates back to 2022), all of which drew bipartisan support.
The bills, respectively, call for adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred for state use, appointment of Jew-hatred monitors on college campuses and creating a state antisemitism task force.
Singer introduced SB 825, which would bar state aid to schools that fail to respond appropriately to Jew-hatred on campus, with his Democrat colleague John McKeon.
James Beach, a Democrat New Jersey state senator, introduced SB 589 that calls for colleges and universities to stop “authorizing, funding or supporting hate speech or antisemitic events and organizations,” using the IHRA definition, and Beach introduced SB 529, which exempts Holocaust restitution payments from inheritance taxes, with his Democrat colleague Patrick Diegnan.
Michael Gottlieb, a Democrat state representative in Florida, filed HB 111, which would create a state antisemitism task force, on Oct. 7, 2025. That bill had a first reading on Jan. 13. In the Florida state senate, Alexis Calatayud, a Republican, filed a companion bill, SB 072, on Jan. 5. It was introduced on Jan. 13.
Among the other state laws introduced recently are the Republican-led HB 3226 in Oklahoma—which is slated to be read on Feb. 1 and which would enact a state policy on Jew-hatred—and HB 480, which a Republican introduced in the Mississippi state House on Jan. 12 and which would require public schools to treat Jew-hatred like other forms of discrimination and to monitor and respond to it.
In West Virginia, Republican and Democrat state senators introduced S B9, which requires age-appropriate Holocaust instruction at state public schools, on Jan. 14, and in Rhode Island, state representatives introduced the bipartisan HB 7093 on Jan. 14.
That Rhode Island bill states that the IHRA definition has been “an essential tool used to determine contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and includes useful examples of discriminatory anti-Israel acts that cross the line into antisemitism.”
“Awareness of this conduct-based definition of antisemitism, although it is not to be taken as an exclusive definition, will increase understanding of the parameters of contemporary anti-Jewish crime and discrimination in certain circumscribed areas,” it said, with respect to the Civil Rights Act of 1990.
