TEL AVIV, Israel – Last week, an influential group of American Christians publicly reaffirmed the Jewish people’s right to Judea and Samaria as the biblical heartland of Israel. The Judea and Samaria area is more commonly known as the West Bank.

The declaration was unveiled at the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas by American Christian Leaders for Israel and was expected to be signed by 3,000 religious leaders before being delivered to President Donald Trump. 

The push to apply Israeli sovereignty to the area comes after Trump said last month that his administration would make an announcement on the matter in the coming weeks when asked about annexation.

The Oslo Accords, forged under the Clinton administration, divided the West Bank into three regions: Area A, under full Palestinian jurisdiction; Area B, under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control; and Area C, under full Israeli authority.

Pastor John Hagee speaks during “March For Israel” at the National Mall on Nov. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C.

“We started a campaign to push for it, but we won’t do it without the support of the U.S.,” he told Fox News Digital. “Many in the Trump administration are very connected, they know the area, and they believe in our right to this place. They understand that if they want to stabilize the situation, we must have sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

“For Israel to be able to continue to survive and thrive along the coastal plain, which produces about 80% of the country’s GDP, then it must keep control of the high grounds in Judea and Samaria,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (ret.), a former IDF international spokesperson and now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.

“If any other entity, Palestinian or otherwise, holds that, it would be used as a way to threaten Israel’s security; its core infrastructure, including Ben-Gurion Airport, and also its population– concentrated in a narrow strip between Haifa [in the north] and Ashdod [in the south]–approximately 15 kilometers wide,” he said.

Palestinian terrorists take up position during a confrontation with the Israeli army in Jenin on July 3, 2023. The Israeli army said it had launched drone strikes in Jenin as part of an “extensive counterterrorism effort.” (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)

Another element, Conricus explained, is that some 500,000 Israelis currently live in Judea and Samaria, and they need to be protected.

“The trends of escalation in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem are highest now since Oct. 7. We see significant terrorist activity in almost all Palestinian cities and continued weakness of the P.A. in exercising control,” he said.

Ze’ev Orenstein, director of international affairs at the Jerusalem-based City of David Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the Jewish people’s millenia-long connection to the Land of Israel bestows upon them an inherent right to Judea and Samaria.

“The reality is that there is likely no other people on the planet today with a deeper–and longer–connection to any piece of land than the Jewish people with the Land of Israel, in general, and Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, in particular; where the inhabitants continue to worship the very same G-d, speak the same language, practice the same faith, celebrate the same festivals, and walk upon the very same stones, as their ancestors did so many thousands of years ago,” Orenstein added.