The elections were normal,
already two years after the war, there was the occupation
there was the occupation which had started to stabilise,
and we talked primarily about a Palestinian state.
[AS] Did you call it occupation from the start?
The terminology changed gradually:
initially, it was a battle
between the 'held areas'
and the 'occupied territories'.
In terms of international law these were held areas.
Why 'held'?
In English it is referred to as occupied territories,
as it is in German, French and all other languages.
In Hebrew there is a problem with the word 'occupied'.
In Hebrew it has two different meanings,
and the ambiguity haunts us to this day.
You occupy an area, the area is occupied.
You hold it. But occupied also has another meaning:
occupied in English includes the sense of being impermanent.
In Hebrew you occupy an area – the area is occupied.
It can be temporary, according to international law,
but occupied also means that you hold it,
you have conquered it, you oppress it and so on.
The IDF didn't like the ambiguity so
so the IDF invented a new word: 'held'
is quite similar to 'occupied' in the narrow military sense.
And we all started talking about 'held territory'
to emphasize that it is temporary,
not ours, we are just 'holding' it.
The right-wing began to speak about 'occupied territory'
and a war started between these concepts.
In HaOlam HaZeh you would not find the term 'occupied territory' anywhere,
it was always 'held'.
But slowly we adopted 'occupied territory'
that it is an area under oppression,
under a hostile regime.
And occupied territory became
our term - that of the left-wing -
and the right-wing liked it less and less.
Although the right had coined this term,
slowly they started not to like it,
and started talking about Judea and Samaria.
including the left,
including the Labour Party, including Meretz.
[AS] Where does the term 'West Bank' come from?
The West Bank is a Jordanian term.
Jordan - as it was before the Six Day War -
Jordan was on both sides of the River Jordan
and they needed a term for it,
so they called Transjordan the East Bank
and to the west of the Jordan the West Bank.
When we occupied it we kept this name
we kept this name in order to combat any terms
that suggested annexation.
And to this day we use the term West Bank.
As soon as the occupation began,
the right began to talk about Judea and Samaria.
It didn't take very long – to the north the Golan Heights
and to the south Ophira and Sinai.
It is called Sinai in all languages.
And this linguistic battle continues to this very day.
When I hear [Isaac] Herzog talking about Judea and Samaria
I feel a new sense of shock each time.
People have no sense of language.
What does language do? Language creates facts.