I dislike religion and Zionism as much as the next guy, but are you sure the "Judean desert" isn't just a historical term from the time where the artefact originated?

Jericho has been in existence since about 11,000BC and the original Israelites were around at some point after that for quite a long time.

The Judean desert is a desert area which is now divided between Israel and the West Bank. How would you call this area? It's a perfectly correct term, bloody hell.  http://wikitravel.org/en/Judean_Desert

More references:

You need only go to the "Israel Map", on Israeli Ministry of Tourism's official website, to see the Golan Heights and the West Bank depicted as part of Israel (the latter being labelled "Judean Desert" and "Shomron" [Samaria], while the Palestinian city of Nablus is given only the Hebrew name "Shechem").
 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article501.shtml

Map of West Bank (2006):
 http://stopthewall.org/maps/1159.shtml

Ain Sakhri lovers figurine
 http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/p/ain_sakhri_lovers_figurine.aspx
Probably from the cave of Ain Sakhri, Wadi Khareitoun, Judea, Natufian, about 11,000 years old
This is the oldest known sculpture of a human couple making love. The natural shape of a calcite cobble has been used to represent the outline of the lovers.
Their heads, arms and legs appear as raised areas around which the surface has been picked away with a stone point . The figures look at one another but have no faces. The arms of one hug the shoulders of the other and its knees are bent up underneath those of the slightly smaller figure. The image is also phallic whichever way you look at it.
Found by a Bedouin in the Wadi Khareitoun not far from Bethlehem, the sculpture comes from the cave of Ain Sakhri. This site was occupied in the early Natufian period when the people of this region lived by hunting gazelle.
As the gazelle were not constantly on the move, their hunters also stayed in one place and varied their diet by collecting seeds, fruit and nuts. By gathering the seeds of wild forms of wheat and barley they inadvertently began the slow process of natural genetic modification which eventually allowed their deliberate cultivation.
The descendants of the Ain Sahkri lovers were farmers.
The sculpture may have had special significance, perhaps representing ideas about fertility or, reflecting new understanding of the part men played in reproduction. Less complex carvings of phalli are known from other sites of this period.

I know placenames are quite political e.g. St.Petersburg/Leningrad, etc.

I guess the problem is that "Judean" comes from the ancient Kingdom of Judah from which the Jews are descended. So the name gives the implicit idea that the area somehow "belongs" to the Jews, despite Palestinian non-Jews living there for many generations.

Surely though it is a historical fact that the Kingdom of Judah existed there many centuries ago? The fact that things have changed since then are irrelevant. It's like a road being called Mill Road despite the mill having long since gone.

What are people suggesting as a more "politically correct" name for this desert?

It does not surprise me the europeans call Judea 'the West Bank'.
They want to wipe the Jewish names off the map, like his ancestors wanted to wipe off the Jews.

But surely you cannot stand to hear the truth...

@Israel, the wests banks don't want to wipe off the jewish names off the map, they financially fully support the illegal state of israel. It's one of the main reasons for the problems in the middle east - european interference.
Standing, sitting or even lying down, the truth is the truth - israel is an occupation! Ask yourself, when was the last time you thought for yourself outside the confines of the brainwashing you received as a child.

"Israel"'s opinion is the opposite of the truth. "Israel"'s tone makes me suspect he is a Christian Zionist.

Israel's plan to wipe Arabic names off the map
Jonathan Cook
 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10667.shtml

Internet users paid to spread Israeli propaganda
Jonathan Cook
 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10671.shtml

I'm not an expert, but I thought the Judean Desert was an old name for a large area of which the West Bank is a small part?

to Stitz: (Ask yourself, when was the last time you thought for yourself outside the confines of the brainwashing you received as a child.) Erm, I have received the communistic, anti-imperialistic, and internationalistic brainwashing as a child, thank you very much.

to Anon: (I'm not an expert, but I thought the Judean Desert was an old name for a large area of which the West Bank is a small part?) Yes, physical and political boundaries are not the same. The Judean Desert is the area east of the Judean Mountains (which run north-south from Bet El to Hebron via Jerusalem) but west of the Dead Sea/Jordan river, reaching the Negev desert in the south. Thus, the southern part of the Judean Desert is inside the 1967 borders.