Yesha (Hebrew: יש"ע) is a Hebrew acronym for "Judea, Samaria Gaza" (Hebrew: יהודה שומרון עזה, "Yehuda Shomron 'Azza", also known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip), and is one of a number of terms used to describe the areas occupied by Egypt and Jordan between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Six-Day War of June 1967. The term "Yesha" is still commonly used in Israel even though Israel has evacuated the settlements and military bases from the Gush Katif settlement bloc and the other Jewish villages in Gaza and retreated to the Green Line. Other acronyms used by Israelis even prior to the tabling of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to refer to the West Bank only, are Shai (ש"י Shomron VeYehuda - Samaria and Judea), and Ayosh (איו"ש Ezor Yehuda VeShomron - Judea and Samaria Area).
The Yesha Council is the umbrella organization of the various municipal councils (local, regional, and cities) which oversees the resettlement of Jews in the area.
Terminology[]
The West Bank and Gaza Strip are referred to by the United Nations and from the Palestinian perspective as the "occupied Palestinian territories." Some Israelis refer to them as the "disputed territories," and many others call them simply "Judea and Samaria" and "Gaza."
After 1967, the UN used the term "occupied Palestinian territories," but the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 passed on November 29, 1947 used "the boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea" as part of the description of the border between the proposed Jewish and Arab states. [1]
Various Israelis and their supporters (particularly Orthodox Jews, who believe that the Land of Israel is an eternal Divine Gift) argue that acquisition of these territories during the War of 1967 was a legitimate liberation of land that rightfully belongs to the Jewish people, while others favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian State in parts or all of the territories.