A leading conservative senator on Thursday introduced a bill that would eliminate all official US references to the “West Bank” and refer to the occupied Palestinian territory as “Judea and Samaria” instead.
With just weeks left until president-elect Donald Trump and his Republican Party take full control in Washington, one of Mr Trump's key allies, Senator Tom Cotton, is leading the bill. If passed, the legislation would expunge “West Bank” references from all official US documents.
The bill comes with a wordy acronym. Mr Cotton has called it the “Retiring the Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government use of Judea and Samaria (Recognizing Judea and Samaria) Act.”
It persists on an extremist Judeo-Christian view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which denies Palestinian existence, opting instead for the more generic “Arab” identity, and holds firm that Israel is the rightful homeland of the Jewish people as dictated by the Abrahamic God.
“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years," Mr Cotton said in a statement. "The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”
The push in Washington would support Israel's far-right officials such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who after Mr Trump's election win last month said that he has ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied West Bank in the hope that the incoming US administration will recognise Israel’s “sovereignty” over the occupied territory.
In a post on X, Mr Smotrich earlier declared “2025: the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
Mr Trump has indicated a more hardline approach to Palestinians with his cabinet appointments so far. His nominee for US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has also stated that he does not believe the West Bank exists.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Mr Trump's nominee for UN ambassador, has also been a leading conservative voice on Israel during her time on Capitol Hill, equating criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism, and becoming a crusader against pro-Palestinian campus protests that swept across the US this spring.
There is a partner bill to Mr Cotton's Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act already introduced in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and with the new all-Republican Congress starting next month, the bills have a higher chance of being passed into law.
Mr Cotton has also been a leading figure on Capitol Hill to threaten sanctions against the International Criminal Court for its warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Those sanctions are also expected to clear Congress and become US policy after the new Republican government assumes power in January.
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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France 3
Umtiti (8'), Griezmann (29' pen), Dembele (63')
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Bonucci (36')
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
