Netz Responds to Rosenbluh

I am fairly certain that the monastery is under the Palestinian Authority. Whether we wish to refer to the “Palestinian Authority” as Palestine is a delicate question. At any rate, it is not in “today’s Israel,” since the area never became Israeli territory; it is no longer in “today’s Jordan.” A case can be made for calling the area simply “the West Bank.” But “Palestine” is the standard geographical name, and the monks of Mar Saba certainly consider themselves Palestinian. Of course, the issue is strongly politicized; it’s good that we didn’t get into the question of whether Archimedes was Greek or Sicilian!