Israel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 
31°N 35°E
State of Israel
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Anthem: "Hatikvah" (Hebrew)
"The Hope"
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Capital
and largest city |
 Jerusalem (disputed)
31°47′N 35°13′E |
| Official languages |
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| Ethnic groups (2013) |
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| Demonym |
Israeli |
| Government |
Unitary parliamentary republic |
| - |
President |
Reuven Rivlin |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Legislature |
Knesset |
| Independence from Mandatory Palestine under British administration |
| - |
Declared |
14 May 1948 |
| - |
Recognition |
1 May 1949 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
20,770 / 22,072 (153rd) km2
8,019 / 8,522 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
2.12 (440 km2 / 170 mi2) |
| Population |
| - |
2014 estimate |
8,904,373[1] (96th) |
| - |
2008 census |
7,412,200[2] (99th) |
| - |
Density |
387.63/km2 (34th)
1,004.00/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2014 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$286.840 billion[3] |
| - |
Per capita |
$35,658[3] (25th) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2014 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$305. 707 billion [3] |
| - |
Per capita |
$38,004[3] (25th) |
| Gini (2008) |
39.2[4]
medium · 66th |
| HDI (2013) |
 0.888[5]
very high · 19th |
| Currency |
Israeli new shekel (₪) (ILS) |
| Time zone |
Israel Standard Time (UTC+2) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
Israel Summer Time (UTC+3) |
| Date format |
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| Drives on the |
right |
| Calling code |
+972 |
| ISO 3166 code |
IL |
| Internet TLD |
.il | |
Israel //, officially the
State of Israel (
Hebrew:
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל,
Medīnat Yisrā'el,
IPA: [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel] (
listen);
Arabic:
دولة إِسرائيل,
Dawlat Isrāʼīl,
IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a country in
Western Asia, situated at the southeastern shore of the
Mediterranean Sea. It shares land borders with
Lebanon to the north,
Syria in the northeast,
Jordan on the east, the
Palestinian territories comprising the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip[6] on the east and southwest, respectively, and
Egypt and the
Gulf of Aqaba in the
Red Sea to the south. It contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.
[7][8] Israel's financial center is
Tel Aviv,
[9] while
Jerusalem is the country's
most populous city and its designated capital, although Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is not recognized internationally.
[note 1][10]
On 29 November 1947, the
United Nations General Assembly recommended the adoption and implementation of the
Partition Plan for
Mandatory Palestine. The end of the
British Mandate for Palestine was set for midnight on 14 May 1948. That day,
David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the
Zionist Organization and president of the
Jewish Agency for Palestine,
declared "the establishment of a
Jewish state in
Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel," which would start to function from the termination of the mandate.
[11][12][13] The borders of the new state were not specified. Neighboring Arab armies
invaded the former Palestinian mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces.
[14][15] Israel has since fought
several wars with neighboring Arab states,
[16] in the course of which it has
occupied the West Bank,
Sinai Peninsula (1956–1957, 1967–1982), part of
South Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip and the
Golan Heights. It annexed portions of these territories, including
East Jerusalem, but the border with the West Bank is disputed.
[17][18][19][20] Israel has signed peace treaties
with Egypt and
with Jordan, but
efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
The
population of Israel, as defined by the
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2014 to be 8,904,373 people. It is the world's only
Jewish-majority state; 6,110,600 citizens, or 75.3% of Israelis, are
Jewish. The country's second largest group of citizens are designated as
Arabs, with 1,686,000 people (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs).
[21][22] The great majority of Israeli Arabs are
settled Muslims, with smaller but significant numbers of semi-settled
Negev Bedouins; the rest are
Christians and
Druze. Other minorities include
Maronites,
Samaritans,
Dom people,
Black Hebrew Israelites, other
Sub-Saharan Africans,
[23] Armenians,
Circassians,
Roma and others. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia.
In its
Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a
Jewish and Democratic State.
[24] Israel is a
representative democracy[disputed – discuss] with a parliamentary system,
proportional representation and
universal suffrage.
[25][26] The
Prime Minister serves as head of government and the
Knesset serves as Israel's
legislative body. Israel is a
developed country and an
OECD member,
[27] with the
43rd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2012. The country has the
highest standard of living in the Middle East and the
fifth highest in Asia,
[28] and has one of the highest
life expectancies in the world.
[29]
Etymology
The
Merneptah Stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of
biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel," representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.
Upon independence in 1948, the country formally adopted the name "State of Israel" (
Medinat Yisrael) after other proposed historical and religious names including
Eretz Israel ("the
Land of Israel"),
Zion, and
Judea, were considered and rejected.
[30]
In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term
"Israeli" to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement
made by
Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.
[31]
The names
Land of Israel and
Children of Israel have historically been used to refer to the biblical
Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish nation respectively.
[32] The
name "Israel" in these phrases refers to the patriarch
Jacob (
Standard Yisraʾel,
Isrāʾīl;
Septuagint Greek:
Ἰσραήλ Israēl; "struggle with God"
[33]) who, according to the
Hebrew Bible was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord.
[34] Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the
Israelites, also known as the
Twelve Tribes of Israel or
Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in
Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations until
Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob,
[35] led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "
Exodus". The earliest archaeological artifact to mention the word "Israel" is the
Merneptah Stele of
ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE).
[36]
The area is also known as the
Holy Land, being holy for all
Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the
Bahá'í Faith. From 1920 the whole region was known as
Palestine (under British Mandate) until the
Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948. Through the centuries, the territory was known by a variety of other names, including Judea,
Samaria,
Southern Syria,
Syria Palaestina,
Kingdom of Jerusalem,
Iudaea Province,
Coele-Syria,
Retjenu, and
Canaan.
History
Antiquity
Kingdom of Israel, 1020 BCE–930 BCE
The notion of the "
Land of Israel", known in Hebrew as
Eretz Yisrael, has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the
Torah, God
promised the land to the three
Patriarchs of the Jewish people.
[37][38] On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE,
[39] and the first
Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Subsequent
Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently over the next four hundred years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.
[40][41][42][43]
The first record of the name Israel (as
ysrỉꜣr) occurs in the
Merneptah stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh
Merneptah c. 1209 BCE, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."
[44]
This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the
central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the
Egyptians as a possible challenge to their
hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state;
[45] Ancestors of the Israelites may have included
Semites native to
Canaan and the
Sea Peoples.
[46] McNutt says, "It is probably safe to assume that sometime during
Iron Age I a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'", differentiating itself from the
Canaanites through such markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.
[47]
Villages had populations of up to 300 or 400,
[48][49] which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient;
[50] economic interchange was prevalent.
[51] Writing was known and available for recording, even in small sites.
[52]
The archaeological evidence indicates a society of village-like
centres, but with more limited resources and a small population.
[53] Modern scholars see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan.
[54]
Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split into a southern Kingdom of Judah
and a northern Kingdom of Israel. From the middle of the 8th century BCE
Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding
neo-Assyrian empire. Under
Tiglath-Pileser III
it first split Israel's territory into several smaller units and then
destroyed its capital, Samaria (722 BCE). An Israelite revolt (724–722
BCE) was crushed after the siege and capture of
Samaria by the Assyrian king
Sargon II. Sargon's son,
Sennacherib, tried and failed to
conquer Judah.
Assyrian records say he leveled 46 walled cities and besieged Jerusalem, leaving after receiving extensive tribute.
[55]
In 586 BCE King
Nebuchadnezzar II of
Babylon conquered Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed
Solomon's Temple and
exiled the Jews to Babylon. The defeat was also recorded by the Babylonians
[56][57] (see the
Babylonian Chronicles).
In 538 BCE,
Cyrus the Great of
Persia
conquered Babylon and took over its empire. Cyrus issued a proclamation
granting subjugated nations (including the people of Judah) religious
freedom (for the original text see the
Cyrus Cylinder). According to the Hebrew Bible 50,000 Judeans, led by
Zerubabel, returned to Judah and
rebuilt the temple. A second group of 5,000, led by
Ezra and
Nehemiah, returned to Judah in 456 BCE although non-Jews wrote to Cyrus to try to prevent their return.
Classical period
With successive
Persian rule, the region, divided between Syria-Coele province and later the autonomous
Yehud Medinata, was gradually developing back into urban society, largely dominated by Judeans. The
Greek
conquests largely skipped the region without any resistance or
interest. Incorporated into Ptolemaic and finally Seleucid Empires,
southern Levant was heavily
hellenized, building the tensions between Judeans and Greeks. The conflict erupted in 167 BCE with the
Maccabean Revolt, which succeeded in establishing an independent
Hasmonean Kingdom in Judah, which later expanded over much of modern Israel, as the Seleucids gradually lost control in the region.
The
Roman Empire
invaded the region in 63 BCE, first taking control of Syria, and then
intervening in the Hasmonean civil war. The struggle between pro-Roman
and pro-Parthian factions in Judea eventually led to the installation of
Herod the Great and consolidation of the
Herodian Kingdom as a vassal Judean state of Rome.
Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village, abandoned some time between the 7th-13th centuries AD.
[58]
With the decline of Herodians, Judea, transformed into a Roman province, became the site of a violent struggle of
Jews against Greco-Romans, culminating in the
Jewish-Roman Wars,
ending in wide-scale destruction, expulsions, and genocide. Jewish
presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the
Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE.
[59] Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and
Galilee became its religious center.
[60][61] The
Mishnah and part of the
Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem.
[62]
The region came to be populated predominantly by Greco-Romans on the
coast and Samaritans in the hill-country. Christianity was gradually
evolving over Roman paganism, when the area under Byzantine rule was
transformed into Deocese of the East, as Palaestina Prima and Palaestina
Secunda provinces. Through the 5th and 6th centuries, dramatic events
of
Samaritan Revolts
reshaped the land, with massive destruction to Byzantine Christian and
Samaritan societies and a resulting decrease of the population. After
the Persian conquest and the installation of a short-lived
Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE, the
Byzantine Empire reinstalled its rule in 625 CE, resulting in further decline and destruction.
Middle Ages and caliphates
In 635 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by
Arabs. It remained under Muslim control and predominately Muslim occupancy for the next 1300 years under various caliphates.
[64] Control of the region transferred between the
Umayyads,
[64] Abbasids,
[64] and
Crusaders throughout the next six centuries,
[64] before the area was conquered in 1260 by the
Mamluk Sultanate.
[65]
Siege and Capture of Jerusalem in 1099, where the Jews had participated in its defense
In 1099, the Jews were among the rest of the population who tried in vain to defend Jerusalem against the
Crusaders.
When the city fell, a massacre of 6,000 Jews occurred when the
synagogue they were seeking refuge in was set alight. Almost all
perished.
[66] The Jews almost single-handedly defended
Haifa
against the crusaders, holding out in the besieged town for a whole
month (June–July 1099) in fierce battles. At this time, a full thousand
years after the fall of the Jewish state, there were Jewish communities
all over the country. Fifty of them are known and include Jerusalem,
Tiberias,
Ramleh,
Ashkelon,
Caesarea, and
Gaza.
[67][68]
In 1165
Maimonides visited Jerusalem and prayed on the Temple Mount, in the "great, holy house".
[69] In 1141 Spanish poet,
Yehuda Halevi, issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to the Land of Israel, a journey he undertook himself. In 1187
Ayyubid Sultan
Saladin defeated the Crusaders in the
Battle of Hattin
and took Jerusalem and most of Palestine. In time, Saladin issued a
proclamation inviting all Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem,
[70] and according to
Judah al-Harizi, they did: "From the day the Arabs took Jerusalem, the Israelites inhabited it."
[71]
al-Harizi compared Saladins decree allowing Jews to re-establish
themselves in Jerusalem to the one issued by the Persian Cyrus the Great
over 1,600 years earlier.
[72]
In 1211, the Jewish community in the country was strengthened by the
arrival of a group headed by over 300 rabbis from France and England,
[73] among them Rabbi
Samson ben Abraham of Sens.
[74] Nachmanides,
the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and recognised leader of Jewry greatly
praised the land of Israel and viewed its settlement as a positive
commandment incumbent on all Jews. He wrote "If the gentiles wish to
make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms; but as
for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of
any nation, not in any generation."
[75]
In 1260, control passed to the Egyptian
Mamluks. In 1266 the Mamluk Sultan
Baybars converted the
Cave of the Patriarchs in
Hebron
into an exclusive Islamic sanctuary and banned Christians and Jews from
entering, which previously would be able to enter it for a fee. The ban
remained in place until Israel took control of the building in 1967.
[76][77]
In 1470, Isaac b. Meir Latif arrived from
Ancona and counted 150 Jewish families in Jerusalem.
[78] Thanks to
Joseph Saragossi
who had arrived in the closing years of the 15th century, Safed and its
environs had developed into the largest concentration of Jews in
Palestine. With the help of the Sephardic immigration from Spain, the
Jewish population had increased to 10,000 by the early 16th century.
[79]
In 1516, the region was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire; it remained under
Turkish rule until the end of the
First World War,
when Britain defeated the Ottoman forces and set up a military
administration across the former Ottoman Syria. In 1920 the territory
was divided under the
mandate system, and the area which included modern day Israel was named
Mandatory Palestine.
[65][80][81]
Zionism and the British mandate
Jews praying at the Western Wall, 1870s
Since the
Diaspora, some Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel",
[82] though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute.
[83][84] The hopes and yearnings of Jews living in exile were articulated in the Hebrew Bible,
[85] and are an important theme of the Jewish belief system.
[83] After the Jews were
expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.
[86] During the 16th century, Jewish communities struck roots in the
Four Holy Cities—
Jerusalem,
Tiberias,
Hebron, and
Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem.
[87] In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European
opponents of
Hasidism, known as the
Perushim, settled in Palestine.
[88][89][90]
The first wave of modern Jewish migration to Ottoman-ruled Palestine, known as the
First Aliyah, began in 1881, as Jews fled
pogroms in Eastern Europe.
[91] Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice,
Austro-Hungarian journalist
Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political
Zionism,
[92] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, by elevating the
Jewish Question to the international plane.
[93] In 1896, Herzl published
Der Judenstaat (
The State of the Jews), offering his vision of a future Jewish state; the following year he presided over the first
World Zionist Congress.
[94]
The
Second Aliyah (1904–14), began after the
Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them left eventually.
[91] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly
Orthodox Jews,
[95] although the Second Aliyah included
socialist groups who established the
kibbutz movement.
[96] During World War I,
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 to
Baron Rothschild
(Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British
Jewish community, that stated that Britain intended for the creation of a
Jewish homeland within the Palestinian Mandate.
[97][98]
The
Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted, in 1918, in the British conquest of Palestine.
[99] Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the
1920 Palestine riots and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the
Haganah (meaning "The Defense" in Hebrew), from which the
Irgun and
Lehi, or
Stern Gang, paramilitary groups later split off.
[100] In 1922, the
League of Nations granted Britain a
mandate over Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration.
[101] The population of the area at this time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11%,
[102] Christians 9.5%.
[103]
The
Third (1919–1923) and
Fourth Aliyahs (1924–1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine.
[91] Finally, the
rise of Nazism and the increasing persecution of Jews in the 1930s led to the
Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This was a major cause of the
Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led the British to introduce restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine with the
White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing
the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as
Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine.
[91] By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.
[104]
Independence and first years
After World War II, Britain found itself in fierce
conflict with the
Jewish community, as the
Haganah joined
Irgun and
Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule.
[105]
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors
and refugees sought a new life far from their destroyed communities in
Europe. The Yishuv attempted to bring these refugees to Palestine but
many were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps in
Atlit and
Cyprus by the British. In 1947, the British government announced it would withdraw from
Mandatory Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews.
On 15 May 1947, the
General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations resolved that a committee,
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
(UNSCOP), be created "to prepare for consideration at the next regular
session of the Assembly a report on the question of Palestine".
[106] In the Report of the Committee dated 3 September 1947 to the UN General Assembly,
[107]
the majority of the Committee in Chapter VI proposed a plan to replace
the British Mandate with "an independent Arab State, an independent
Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem ... the last to be under an
International Trusteeship System".
[108] On 29 November 1947, the
General Assembly adopted a
resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the
Plan of Partition with Economic Union as Resolution 181 (II).
[109]
The Plan attached to the resolution was essentially that proposed by
the majority of the Committee in the Report of 3 September 1947.
The
Jewish Agency, which was the recognized representative of the Jewish community, accepted the plan, but the
Arab League and
Arab Higher Committee of Palestine rejected it.
[110] On 1 December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets.
[111] The Jews were initially on the defensive as
civil war broke out, but gradually moved onto the offensive.
[112] The Palestinian Arab economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.
[113]
On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate,
David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency,
declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in
Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel".
[114][115] The only reference in the text of the Declaration to the borders of the new state is the use of the term,
Eretz-Israel.
[116]
An example of Israel's first visas from 1948
The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria,
Transjordan and Iraq—entered what had been British Mandatory Palestine,
launching the
1948 Arab–Israeli War;
[117][118] Saudi Arabia sent a military contingent to operate under Egyptian command; Yemen declared war but did not take military action.
[119] In the introduction to the
cablegram[120]
from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN
Secretary-General of 15 May 1948, the Arab League gave reasons for its
intervention, "On the occasion of the intervention of Arab States in
Palestine to restore law and order and to prevent disturbances
prevailing in Palestine from spreading into their territories and to
check further bloodshed". After a year of fighting, a
ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the
Green Line, were established.
[121] Jordan annexed what became known as the
West Bank, including
East Jerusalem, and
Egypt took control of the
Gaza Strip. The United Nations estimated that more than 700,000 Palestinians were
expelled or fled during the conflict from what would become Israel.
[122]
Kibbutznikiyot (female Kibbutz members), during the
1948 Arab-Israeli war. The
Kibbutzim, or collective farming communities, played a pivotal role in establishing the new state.
[123]
Israel was admitted as a
member of the United Nations by majority vote on 11 May 1949.
[124] In the early years of the state, the
Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics.
[125][126] One such policy, the
One Million Plan, led to an
an influx of
Holocaust survivors and
Jews from Arab and Muslim lands, many of whom faced persecution and expulsion from their original countries.
[127] Consequently, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958.
[128] During this period, food, clothes and furniture had to be rationed in what became known as the
Austerity Period. Between 1948 and 1970, approximately 1,150,000 Jewish refugees relocated to Israel.
[129] Some arrived as refugees with no possessions and were housed in temporary camps known as
ma'abarot; by 1952, over 200,000 immigrants were living in these tent cities.
[130] The need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a
reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered mass protests by Jews angered at the idea that Israel could accept monetary compensation for the Holocaust.
[131]
The immigrants came to Israel for differing reasons. Some believed in
the Zionist ideology, while others moved to escape persecution. There
were others that did it for the promise of a better life in Israel and a
small number that were expelled from their homelands, such as British
and French Jews in Egypt after the
Suez Crisis.
[132] According to
Tom Segev,
the refugees were often treated differently according to where they
were from. Jews of European descent were considered critical to the
strengthening and peopling of Israel, so they were generally allowed to
enter Israel first and thus were given abandoned Arab houses to live in.
On the other hand, Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries
were viewed by many Ashkenazi Jews as lazy, poor, culturally and
religiously backward, and a threat to established communal life in
Israel and remained in transit camps for longer periods of time.
[133]
During the 1950s, the standard of living gap between Ashkenazi and
Mizrahi Jews widened so much that tensions developed between the two
groups. This tension first moved to hostility during the
Wadi Salib riots in 1959; other instances of domestic turmoil would occur over the following decades.
[134]
Immigration to Israel during the late 1940s and early 1950s was aided
by the Israeli Immigration Department and the non-government sponsored
Organization for Illegal Immigration, called
Mossad le-aliyah bet.
Both groups facilitated regular immigration logistics like arranging
transportation, but the latter also engaged in clandestine operations in
countries, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where
the lives of Jews were believed to be in danger and exit from those
places was difficult. The Organization for Illegal Immigration continued
to take part in immigration efforts until its disbanding in 1953.
[135]
In the 1950s, Israel was frequently
attacked by
Palestinian fedayeen, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip,
[136] leading to several Israeli
counter-raids.
In 1950 Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping and tensions
mounted as armed clashes took place along Israel's borders. In 1956,
Israel joined
a secret alliance with Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the
Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the
Suez Crisis). Israel overran the
Sinai Peninsula but was pressured to withdraw by the United Nations in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights in the
Red Sea and the Canal.
[137][138]
In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial.
[139] The trial had a major impact on public awareness of the Holocaust.
[140] Eichmann remains the only person executed after conviction by an
Israeli civilian court.
[141]
Further conflict and peace treaties
Since 1964, Arab countries, concerned over Israeli plans to divert waters of the
Jordan River into the coastal plain,
[142] had been trying to divert the headwaters to deprive Israel of water resources, provoking
tensions between Israel on the one hand, and Syria and Lebanon on the other.
Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel, and called for its destruction.
[16][143][144] By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces.
[145] In 1967, Egypt expelled
UN peacekeepers,
stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and announced a partial
blockade of Israel's access to the Red Sea. In May 1967 a number of Arab
states began to mobilize their forces.
[146] Israel saw these actions as a
casus belli. On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a
pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. In a
Six-Day War,
Israeli military superiority was clearly demonstrated against their
more numerous Arab foes. Israel succeeded in capturing the West Bank,
the Gaza Strip,
Sinai Peninsula and the
Golan Heights.
[147] Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating
East Jerusalem, and the 1949
Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the
occupied territories.
Following the war, Israel faced much internal resistance from the Palestinians and Egyptian
hostilities in the Sinai. Most important among the various Palestinian and Arab groups was the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, which initially committed itself to "armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland".
[148][149] In the late 1960s and early 1970s,
Palestinian groups launched a
wave of attacks[150][151] against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,
[152] including
a massacre of Israeli athletes at the
1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The Israeli government responded with an
assassination campaign against the organizers of the massacre, a
bombing and a
raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon.
On 6 October 1973, as Jews were observing
Yom Kippur, the Egyptian and Syrian armies
launched a surprise attack
against Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. The
war ended on 26 October with Israel successfully repelling Egyptian and
Syrian forces but having suffered over 2,500 soldiers killed in a war
which collectively took between 10-35,000 lives in just 20 days.
[153] An
internal inquiry exonerated the government of responsibility for failures before and during the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister
Golda Meir to resign.
[154]
In July 1976 Israeli commandos carried out a
rescue mission which succeeded in rescuing 102 hostages who were being held by Palestinian guerillas at
Entebbe International Airport close to
Kampala, Uganda.
Operation Gazelle, Israel's ground maneuver, encircles the Egyptian Third Army, October 1973
The
1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as
Menachem Begin's
Likud party took control from the
Labor Party.
[155] Later that year, Egyptian President
Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before the
Knesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state.
[156] In the two years that followed, Sadat and Begin signed the
Camp David Accords (1978) and the
Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty (1979).
[157]
Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter
negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip.
[158]
On 11 March 1978, a PLO guerilla raid from Lebanon led to the
Coastal Road Massacre, in which 38 Israeli civilians were killed and 71 injured. Israel responded by launching an
invasion of southern Lebanon
to destroy the PLO bases south of the Litani River. Most PLO fighters
withdrew, but Israel was able to secure southern Lebanon until a UN
force and the Lebanese army could take over. The PLO soon resumed its
policy of attacks
against Israel. In the next few years, the PLO infiltrated the south
and kept up a sporadic shelling across the border. Israel carried out
numerous retaliatory attacks by air and on the ground.
Meanwhile, Begin's government provided incentives for Israelis to
settle in the occupied West Bank, increasing friction with the Palestinians in that area.
[159] The
Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel, passed in 1980, was believed by some to reaffirm Israel's 1967 annexation of Jerusalem by government decree, and
reignited international controversy over the
status of the city. No Israeli legislation has defined the territory of Israel and no act specifically included East Jerusalem therein.
[160]
The position of the majority of UN member states is reflected in
numerous resolutions declaring that actions taken by Israel to settle
its citizens in the West Bank, and impose its laws and administration on
East Jerusalem, are illegal and have no validity.
[161] In 1981 Israel
annexed the
Golan Heights, although annexation was not recognized internationally.
[162]
On 7 June 1981, the Israeli air force
destroyed Iraq's sole
nuclear reactor, which was under construction just outside Baghdad. Following a series of PLO attacks in 1982, Israel
invaded Lebanon that year to destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and missiles into northern Israel.
[163]
In the first six days of fighting, the Israelis destroyed the military
forces of the PLO in Lebanon and decisively defeated the Syrians. An
Israeli government inquiry – the
Kahan Commission – would later hold Begin, Sharon and several Israeli generals as indirectly responsible for the
Sabra and Shatila massacre. In 1985, Israel responded to a Palestinian terrorist attack in Cyprus by
bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunis. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but maintained a
borderland buffer zone in
southern Lebanon until 2000.
Israel's ethnic diversity expanded in the 1980s and 1990s due to immigration. Several waves of
Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s and between 1990 and 1994,
Russian immigration to Israel increased Israel's population by twelve percent.
[164]
The
First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,
[165]
broke out in 1987, with waves of uncoordinated demonstrations and
violence occurring in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Over the
following six years, the Intifada became more organised and included
economic and cultural measures aimed at disrupting the Israeli
occupation. More than a thousand people were killed in the violence.
[166]
Responding to continuing PLO guerilla raids into northern Israel,
Israel launched another punitive raid into southern Lebanon in 1988.
Amid rising tensions over the Kuwait crisis, Israeli border guards fired
into a rioting Palestinian crowd near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
20 people were killed and some 150 injured. During the 1991
Gulf War, the PLO supported
Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Scud
missile attacks against Israel. Despite public outrage, Israel heeded US calls to refrain from hitting back and did not participate in that war.
[167][168]
In 1992,
Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following
an election in which his party called for compromise with Israel's neighbors.
[169][170] The following year,
Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel, and
Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO, signed the
Oslo Accords, which gave the
Palestinian National Authority the right to govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
[171] The PLO also
recognized Israel's right to exist and pledged an end to terrorism.
[172] In 1994, the
Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.
[173] Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the continuation of Israeli
settlements[174] and
checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions.
[175] Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by
Palestinian suicide attacks.
[176] Finally, while leaving a peace rally in November 1995,
Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords.
[177]
At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of
Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from
Hebron,
[178] and signed the
Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority.
[179] Ehud Barak,
elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by
withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the
2000 Camp David Summit. During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a
Palestinian state, but Yasser Arafat rejected it.
[180] After the collapse of the talks and a controversial visit by
Likud leader
Ariel Sharon to the
Temple Mount, the
Second Intifada began, which was allegedly pre-planned by Yasser Arafat.
[181][182][183] Sharon became prime minister in a
2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried out his plan to
unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and also spearheaded the construction of the
Israeli West Bank barrier,
[184] defeating the Intifada.
[185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196]
In July 2006, a
Hezbollah
artillery assault on Israel's northern border communities and a
cross-border abduction of two Israeli soldiers precipitated the
month-long
Second Lebanon War.
[197][198] On 6 September 2007, Israeli Air Force
destroyed
a nuclear reactor in Syria. In May 2008, Israel confirmed it had been
discussing a peace treaty with Syria for a year, with Turkey as a
go-between.
[199] However, at the end of the year, Israel entered another conflict as a ceasefire between
Hamas and Israel collapsed. The
Gaza War lasted three weeks and ended after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire.
[200][201]
Hamas announced its own ceasefire, with its own conditions of complete
withdrawal and opening of border crossings. Despite neither the
rocket launchings nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped, the fragile ceasefire remained in order.
[202] In what it said was a response to more than a hundred Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities,
[203] Israel began an
operation in Gaza on 14 November 2012, lasting eight days.
[204][205][206] Israel started another
operation in Gaza following an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas in July 2014.
[207]
Geography and climate
Israel is at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean Sea,
bounded by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan and the
West Bank to the east, and Egypt and the Gaza strip to the southwest.
It lies between latitudes
29° and
34° N, and longitudes
34° and
36° E.
The sovereign territory of Israel, excluding all territories captured by Israel during the 1967
Six-Day War, is approximately 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 sq mi) in area, of which two percent is water.
[7] However Israel is so narrow that the
exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is double the land area of the country.
[208] The total area under Israeli law, including
East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights, is 22,072 square kilometers (8,522 sq mi),
[209] and the total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially
Palestinian-governed territory of the
West Bank, is 27,799 square kilometers (10,733 sq mi).
[210] Despite its small size, Israel is home to a variety of geographic features, from the
Negev desert in the south to the inland fertile
Jezreel Valley, mountain ranges of the
Galilee,
Carmel and toward the
Golan in the north. The
Israeli Coastal Plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to 57 percent of the nation's population.
[211][212][213] East of the central highlands lies the
Jordan Rift Valley, which forms a small part of the 6,500-kilometer (4,039 mi)
Great Rift Valley.
Ramon Crater, a unique type of crater that can be found only in Israel and the Sinai peninsula
The
Jordan River runs along the Jordan Rift Valley, from
Mount Hermon through the
Hulah Valley and the
Sea of Galilee to the
Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.
[214] Further south is the
Arabah, ending with the
Gulf of Eilat, part of the
Red Sea. Unique to Israel and the
Sinai Peninsula are
makhteshim, or erosion cirques.
[215] The largest makhtesh in the world is
Ramon Crater in the Negev,
[216] which measures 40 by 8 kilometers (25 by 5 mi).
[217]
A report on the environmental status of the Mediterranean basin states
that Israel has the largest number of plant species per square meter of
all the countries in the basin.
[218]
Temperatures in Israel vary widely, especially during the winter. The
more mountainous regions can be windy, cold, and sometimes snowy;
Jerusalem usually receives at least one snowfall each year.
[219] Meanwhile, coastal cities, such as
Tel Aviv and
Haifa, have a typical
Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers. The area of
Beersheba and the Northern Negev has a
semi-arid climate
with hot summers, cool winters and fewer rainy days than the
Mediterranean climate. The Southern Negev and the Arava areas have
desert climate
with very hot and dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain.
The highest temperature in the continent of Asia (53.7 °C or 128.7 °F)
was recorded in 1942 at
Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan river valley.
[220]
From May to September, rain in Israel is rare.
[221][222] With scarce water resources, Israel has developed various water-saving technologies, including
drip irrigation.
[223] Israelis also take advantage of the considerable sunlight available for
solar energy, making
Israel the leading nation in solar energy use per capita (practically every house uses solar panels for water heating).
[224]
Four different
phytogeographic
regions exist in Israel, due to the country's location between the
temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the
west and the desert in the east. For this reason the flora and fauna of
Israel is extremely diverse. There are 2,867 known species of plants
found in Israel. Of these, at least 253 species are
introduced and non-native.
[225] There are 380 Israeli nature reserves.
[226]
Politics
The
Knesset chamber, home to the Israeli parliament
Israel operates under a
parliamentary system as a democratic republic with
universal suffrage.
[7] A member of parliament supported by a parliamentary majority becomes the
prime minister—usually this is the chair of the largest party. The prime minister is the
head of government and head of the
cabinet.
[227][228] Israel is governed by a 120-member parliament, known as the
Knesset. Membership of the Knesset is based on
proportional representation of
political parties,
[229] with a
2% electoral threshold, which in practice has resulted in coalition governments.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled every four years, but unstable coalitions or a
no-confidence vote by the Knesset can dissolve a government earlier. The
Basic Laws of Israel function as an
uncodified constitution. In 2003, the Knesset began to draft an official constitution based on these laws.
[7][230] The
president of Israel is
head of state, with limited and largely ceremonial duties.
[227]
Media
In 2014, Israel proper was ranked 96th of 180 according to
Reporters Without Borders'
Press Freedom Index, 2nd below
Kuwait (at 91) in the Middle East and North Africa region.
[231] The 2013
Freedom in the World annual survey and report by U.S.-based
Freedom House, which attempts to measure the degree of democracy and political freedom in every nation, ranked Israel as the
Middle East and North Africa's only free country.
[232]
Legal system
Israel has a
three-tier court system. At the lowest level are
magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country. Above them are
district courts, serving both as
appellate courts and
courts of first instance; they are situated in five of Israel's six
districts. The third and highest tier is the
Supreme Court, located in Jerusalem; it serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the
High Court of Justice.
In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first
instance, allowing individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, to
petition against the decisions of state authorities.
[233][234] Although Israel supports the goals of the
International Criminal Court, it has not ratified the
Rome Statute, citing concerns about the ability of the court to remain free from political impartiality.
[235]
Israel's legal system combines three legal traditions:
English common law,
civil law, and
Jewish law.
[7] It is based on the principle of
stare decisis (precedent) and is an
adversarial system,
where the parties in the suit bring evidence before the court. Court
cases are decided by professional judges rather than juries.
[233] Marriage and divorce are under the jurisdiction of the religious courts:
Jewish,
Muslim,
Druze, and Christian. A committee of Knesset members, Supreme Court
justices, and Israeli Bar members carries out the election of judges.
[236]
Administration of Israel's courts (both the "General" courts and the
Labor Courts) is carried by the Administration of Courts, situated in
Jerusalem. Both General and Labor courts are paperless courts: the
storage of court files, as well as court decisions, are conducted
electronically. Israel's
Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty seeks to defend
human rights and liberties in Israel.
Administrative divisions
The State of Israel is divided into six main administrative districts, known as
mehozot (מחוזות; singular:
mahoz) –
Center,
Haifa,
Jerusalem,
North,
Southern, and
Tel Aviv Districts, as well as the
Judea and Samaria Area in the
West Bank.
All of the Judea and Samaria Area and parts of the Jerusalem and North
districts are not recognized internationally as part of Israel.
Districts are further divided into fifteen sub-districts known as
nafot (נפות; singular:
nafa), which are themselves partitioned into fifty natural regions.
[237]
| North |
Nazareth |
Acre, Karmiel, Kiryat Shmona, Nazareth, Nazareth Illit, Qatsrin, Safed, Tiberias |
1,242,100 |
| Haifa |
Haifa |
Haifa, Hadera |
880,000 |
| Center |
Ramla |
Herzliya, Kfar Saba, Modi'in, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Ra'anana, Ramla, Rehovot, Rishon LeZion |
1,770,200 |
| Tel Aviv |
Tel Aviv |
Bat Yam, Bnei Brak, Giv'atayim, Holon, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv |
1,227,000 |
| Jerusalem |
Jerusalem |
Jerusalem, Mevaseret Zion |
910,300 (Including approximately 200,000 Israeli settlers and 208,000 Palestinians.[238][239][240]) |
| South |
Beersheba |
Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheba, Eilat, Kiryat Gat, Sderot |
1,053,600 |
| Judea and Samaria (West Bank) |
Ariel |
Ariel, Beitar Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Modi'in Illit |
375,000 Israeli citizens[241] |
For statistical purposes, the country is divided into three metropolitan areas:
Tel Aviv metropolitan area (population 3,206,400),
Haifa metropolitan area (population 1,021,000), and
Beer Sheva metropolitan area (population 559,700).
[242] Israel's largest municipality, both in population and area,
[243] is
Jerusalem
with 773,800 residents in an area of 126 square kilometres (49 sq mi)
(in 2009). Israeli government statistics on Jerusalem include the
population and area of
East Jerusalem, which is widely recognized as part of the
Palestinian territories under
Israeli occupation.
[244] Tel Aviv,
Haifa, and
Rishon LeZion rank as Israel's next most populous cities, with populations of 393,900, 265,600, and 227,600 respectively.
[243]
Israeli-occupied territories
Map of Israel showing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights
In 1967, as a result of the
Six-Day War, Israel took control of the
West Bank, including
East Jerusalem, the
Gaza Strip and the
Golan Heights. Israel also took control of the
Sinai Peninsula, but returned it to Egypt as part of the 1979
Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty.
[245] Between 1982 and 2000, Israel occupied part of
southern Lebanon, in what was known as the
Security Zone.
Following Israel's capture of these territories and until this day,
settlements (Jewish civilian communities) and military installations were built within each of them. Israel applied civilian law to the
Golan Heights and
East Jerusalem,
incorporating them into its sovereign territory and granting their
inhabitants permanent residency status and the choice to apply for
citizenship. In contrast, the West Bank has remained under
military occupation,
and Palestinians in this area cannot become citizens. The Gaza Strip is
independent of Israel with no Israeli military or civilian presence,
but Israel continues to maintain control of its airspace and waters. The
UN Security Council has declared the annexation of the Golan Heights
and East Jerusalem to be "null and void" and continues to view the
territories as occupied.
[246][247] The
International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the United Nations, asserted, in its
2004 advisory opinion on the legality of the construction of the
Israeli West Bank barrier, that the lands captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem, are occupied territory.
[248]
The status of East Jerusalem in any future peace settlement has at
times been a difficult hurdle in negotiations between Israeli
governments and representatives of the Palestinians, as Israel views it
as its sovereign territory, as well as part of its capital. Most
negotiations relating to the territories have been on the basis of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242,
which emphasises "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory
by war", and calls on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories in
return for normalization of relations with Arab states, a principle
known as "
Land for peace".
[249][250][251]
The West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950, following the Arab
rejection of the UN decision to create two states in Palestine. Only
Britain recognized this annexation and Jordan has since
ceded its claim to the territory to the
PLO. The West Bank was occupied by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The population are mainly
Palestinians, including
refugees of the
1948 Arab-Israeli War.
[252] From their occupation in 1967 until 1993, the Palestinians living in these territories were under
Israeli military administration. Since the
Israel–PLO letters of recognition, most of the
Palestinian population and
cities have been under the internal jurisdiction of the
Palestinian Authority, and only partial Israeli military control, although Israel has on several occasions redeployed its
troops and reinstated full military administration during periods of unrest. In response to increasing attacks as part of the
Second Intifada, the Israeli government started to construct the Israeli West Bank barrier.
[253]
When completed, approximately 13% of the Barrier will be constructed on
the Green Line or in Israel with 87% inside the West Bank.
[254][255]
The Gaza Strip was
occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967 and then by Israel after 1967. In 2005, as part of
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan,
Israel removed all of its settlers and forces from the territory.
Israel does not consider the Gaza Strip to be occupied territory and
declared it a "foreign territory". That view has been disputed by
numerous international humanitarian organizations and various bodies of
the United Nations.
[256][257][258][259][260] Following June 2007, when
Hamas assumed power in the Gaza Strip,
[261]
Israel tightened its control of the Gaza crossings along its border, as
well as by sea and air, and prevented persons from entering and exiting
the area except for isolated cases it deemed humanitarian.
[261] Gaza has a border with Egypt and an agreement between Israel, the European Union and the
PA governed how border crossing would take place (it was monitored by European observers).
[262]
Egypt adhered to this agreement under Mubarak and prevented access to
Gaza until April 2011 when it announced it was opening its border with
Gaza.
Foreign relations
Diplomatic relations
Diplomatic relations suspended
Former diplomatic relations
No diplomatic relations, but former trade relations
No diplomatic relations
Israel maintains diplomatic relations with 157 countries and has 100
diplomatic missions around the world.
[263] Only three members of the
Arab League have normalized relations with Israel: Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties in
1979 and
1994,
respectively, and Mauritania opted for full diplomatic relations with
Israel in 1999. Despite the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt,
Israel is still widely considered an enemy country among Egyptians.
[264] Under Israeli law, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen are enemy countries
[265] and Israeli citizens may not visit them without permission from the
Ministry of the Interior.
[266]
The
Soviet Union
and the United States were the first two countries to recognize the
State of Israel, having declared recognition roughly simultaneously.
[267] The United States regards Israel as its "most reliable partner in the Middle East,"
[268] based on "common democratic values, religious affinities, and security interests".
[269] The United States has provided $68 billion in military assistance and $32 billion in grants to Israel since 1967, under the
Foreign Assistance Act (period beginning 1962),
[270] more than any other country for that period until 2003.
[270][271][272] Their bilateral relations are multidimensional and the United States is the principal proponent of the Arab-Israeli
peace process. The United States and Israeli views differ on some issues, such as the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and settlements.
[273]
India established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992 and has
fostered a strong military, technological and cultural partnership with
the country since then.
[274]
According to an international opinion survey conducted in 2009 on
behalf of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, India is the most pro-Israel
country in the world.
[275][276]
India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment and Israel
is the second-largest military partner of India after the Russian
Federation.
[277] India is also the third-largest Asian economic partner of Israel
[278] and the two countries have
military as well as extensive
space technology ties.
[279][280] India became the top source market for Israel from Asia in 2010 with 41,000 tourist arrivals in that year.
[281]
Germany's
strong ties with Israel include cooperation on scientific and
educational endeavors and the two states remain strong economic and
military partners.
[282][283] Under the reparations agreement, by 2007 Germany had paid 25 billion euros in reparations to the Israeli state and individual Israeli holocaust survivors.
[284]
The UK has kept full diplomatic relations with Israel since its
formation having had two visits from heads of state in 2007. Relations
between the two countries were also made stronger by former prime
minister
Tony Blair's efforts for a two state resolution. The UK is seen as having a "natural" relationship with Israel on account of the
British Mandate for Palestine.
[285] Iran had diplomatic relations with Israel under the
Pahlavi dynasty[286] but withdrew its recognition of Israel during the
Islamic Revolution.
[287]
Although Turkey and Israel did not establish full diplomatic relations until 1991,
[289]
Turkey has cooperated with the State since its recognition of Israel in
1949. Turkey's ties to the other Muslim-majority nations in the region
have at times resulted in pressure from Arab and Muslim states to temper
its relationship with Israel.
[290] Relations between Turkey and Israel took a downturn after the
Gaza War and Israel's raid of the
Gaza flotilla.
[291] IHH, which organized the flotilla, is a Turkish charity that has been challenged on ties to
Hamas and
Al-Qaeda.
[292][293][294][295][296]
Relation between Israel and Greece have improved since 1995 due to the decline of Israeli-Turkish relations.
[297] The two countries have a defense cooperation agreement and in 2010, the
Israeli Air Force hosted Greece’s
Hellenic Air Force in a joint exercise at the
Uvda base. The joint Cyprus-Israel oil and gas explorations centered on the
Leviathan gas field are also an important factor for Greece, given its strong links with
Cyprus.
[298] Israel is the second largest importer of Greek products in the Middle East.
[299] In 2010, the
Greek Prime minister George Papandreou made an official visit to Israel after many years, in order to improve
bilateral relations between the two countries.
[300]
Israel and Cyprus have a number of bilateral agreements and many
official visits have taken place between the two countries. The
countries have ties on energy, agricultural, military and tourism
matters. The prospects of joint exploitation of oil and gas fields off
Cyprus, as well as cooperation in the world's longest sub-sea electric
power cable has strengthened relations between the countries.
[301][302][303]
Azerbaijan is one of the few majority Muslim countries to develop
bilateral strategic and economic relations with Israel. The relationship
includes cooperation in trade and security matters and cultural and
educational exchanges. Azerbaijan supplies Israel with a substantial
amount of its oil needs, and Israel has helped modernize the Armed
Forces of Azerbaijan. In the spring of 2012, the two countries
reportedly concluded an arms deal worth $1.6 billion.
[304][305] In 2005, Azerbaijan was Israel's fifth largest trading partner.
[306][307]
In Africa, Ethiopia is Israel's main and closest ally in the
continent due to common political, religious and security interests.
[308] Israel provides expertise to Ethiopia on irrigation projects and thousands of Ethiopian Jews (
Beta Israel) live in Israel.
As a result of the 2009
Gaza War, Mauritania, Qatar, Bolivia, and Venezuela suspended political and economic ties with Israel.
[292][309]
Israel is included in the European Union's
European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which aims at bringing the EU and its neighbours closer.
International humanitarian efforts
Israel has a history of providing emergency aid and humanitarian
response teams to disasters across the world. For the past 26 years,
Israel has sent out 15 aid missions to countries struck by natural
disasters.
[310]
In Haiti, immediately following the devastating 2010 earthquake, Israel
was the first country to set up a field hospital. Israel sent over 200
medical doctors and personnel to start treating injured Haitians at the
scene.
[311][312]
At the end of its humanitarian mission, the Israeli delegation treated
more than 1,110 patients, conducted 319 successful surgeries, delivered
16 births and rescued or assisted in the rescue of 4 individuals.
[313]
Despite radiation concerns, Israel was one of the first countries to
send a medical delegation to Japan following the devastating earthquake
and tsunami disaster.
[314] Israel sent a medical team and set up a field clinic in tsunami-stricken city of
Kurihara, which included a pediatric ward, surgical ward, maternity and gynecological wards and intensive care unit.
[315] Overall, medical care was given to more than 2,300 people in afflicted areas, and 220 were saved from certain death.
Israel's humanitarian efforts officially began in 1958, with the establishment of
MASHAV, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agency for International Development Cooperation.
[316]
MASHAV has provided humanitarian aid to over 140 countries, trained
thousands in capacity building skills, distributed food to
poverty-stricken countries, built medical treatment facilities and
provided medical training across the world.
[317] There are additional Israeli humanitarian and emergency response that are work with the Israel government, including
IsraAid, The Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team (FIRST), Israeli Flying Aid (IFA), Save a Child's Heart (SACH) and LATET.
[318]
Military
Israel has the one of the highest ratios of defense spending to GDP
of all developed countries, only topped by Oman and Saudi Arabia.
[319] The Israel Defense Forces is the sole military wing of the
Israeli security forces, and is headed by its
Chief of General Staff, the
Ramatkal, subordinate to the
Cabinet. The IDF consist of the
army,
air force and
navy. It was founded during the
1948 Arab–Israeli War by consolidating paramilitary organizations—chiefly the
Haganah—that preceded the establishment of the state.
[320] The IDF also draws upon the resources of the
Military Intelligence Directorate (
Aman), which works with the
Mossad and
Shabak.
[321]
The Israel Defense Forces have been involved in several major wars and
border conflicts in its short history, making it one of the most
battle-trained armed forces in the world.
[322][323]
Most Israelis are drafted into the military at the age of 18. Men serve three years and women two to three years.
[324] Following mandatory service, Israeli men join the
reserve forces and usually do up to several weeks of reserve duty every year until their forties. Most women are exempt from reserve duty.
Arab citizens of Israel (except the
Druze) and those engaged in full-time religious studies are exempt from military service, although the
exemption of yeshiva students has been a source of contention in Israeli society for many years.
[325][326] An alternative for those who receive exemptions on various grounds is
Sherut Leumi, or national service, which involves a program of service in hospitals, schools and other social welfare frameworks.
[327]
As a result of its conscription program, the IDF maintains
approximately 176,500 active troops and an additional 445,000
reservists.
[328]
The nation's military relies heavily on
high-tech weapons systems
designed and manufactured in Israel as well as some foreign imports.
Since 1967, the United States has been a particularly notable foreign
contributor of
military aid to Israel: the US is expected to provide the country with $3.15 billion per year from 2013–2018.
[329][330] The
Arrow missile is one of the world's few operational
anti-ballistic missile systems.
[331] Israel's
Iron Dome anti-missile air defense system gained worldwide acclaim after intercepting hundreds of
Qassam,
122 mm Grad and
Fajr-5 artillery
rockets fire by Palestinian militants from the
Gaza Strip.
[332][333]
Since the
Yom Kippur War, Israel has developed a network of
reconnaissance satellites.
[334] The success of the
Ofeq program has made Israel one of seven countries capable of launching such satellites.
[335]
Since its establishment, Israel has spent a significant portion of its
gross domestic product on defense. In 1984, for example, the country
spent 24%
[336] of its GDP on defense. By 2006, that figure had dropped to 7.3%.
[7]
Israel is widely believed to
possess nuclear weapons[337] as well as
chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.
[338] Israel has not signed the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons[339] and maintains a
policy of deliberate ambiguity toward its nuclear capabilities.
[340] Since the
Gulf War in 1991, when Israel was attacked by Iraqi
Scud missiles, all homes in Israel are required to have a reinforced security room,
Merkhav Mugan, impermeable to chemical and biological substances.
[341]
Israel is consistently rated very low in the
Global Peace Index, ranking 145th out of 153 nations for peacefulness in 2011.
[342]
Israel is one of the world's largest arms exporters, reaching the world's 4th largest arms-exporter in 2007.
[343] The majority of Israel's arms exports are unreported for security reasons.
[344]
-
-
-
The
Python missile series, are considered among the most crucial weapons in Israel's military history.
[346]
-
IAI Harop. Israel is the world's largest exporter of both military and civilian drones.
[347]
-
-
The
Spike missile is one of the most widely exported
ATGMs in the world.
[348]
-
-
-
Economy
Graphical depiction of Israel's product exports
[vague] in 28 color-coded categories.
Israel is considered one of the most advanced countries in Southwest
Asia in economic and industrial development. In 2010, it joined the
OECD.
[27][349] The country is ranked 3rd in the region and 38th worldwide on the
World Bank's
Ease of Doing Business Index[350] as well as in the
World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.
[351] It has the second-largest number of
startup companies in the world (after the United States)
[352] and the largest number of
NASDAQ-listed companies outside North America.
[353]
In 2010, Israel ranked 17th among the world's most economically developed nations, according to
IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook.
The Israeli economy was ranked as the world's most durable economy in
the face of crises, and was also ranked first in the rate of research
and development center investments.
[354]
The Bank of Israel was ranked first among central banks for its
efficient functioning, up from 8th place in 2009. Israel was also ranked
as the worldwide leader in its supply of skilled manpower.
[354] The Bank of Israel holds $78 billion of
foreign-exchange reserves.
[355]
Despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the
agricultural
and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely
self-sufficient in food production, apart from grains and beef. Imports
to Israel, totaling $77.59 billion in 2012, include raw materials,
military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain,
consumer goods.
[7] Leading exports include electronics, software, computerized systems, communications technology, medical equipment,
pharmaceuticals, fruits, chemicals, military technology, and
cut diamonds;
[356] in 2012, Israeli exports reached $64.74 billion.
[7]
Israel is a leading country in the
development of solar energy.
[358][359] Israel is a global leader in
water conservation and
geothermal energy,
[360] and its development of cutting-edge technologies in software, communications and the life sciences have
evoked comparisons with
Silicon Valley.
[361][362] According to the
OECD, Israel is also ranked 1st in the world in expenditure on
Research and Development (R&D) as a percentage of GDP.
[363] Intel[364] and
Microsoft[365] built their first overseas
research and development centers in Israel, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as
IBM,
Google,
Apple,
HP,
Cisco Systems, and
Motorola, have opened R&D facilities in the country.
In July 2007, American business magnate and investor
Warren Buffett's holding company
Berkshire Hathaway bought an Israeli company,
Iscar, its first non-U.S. acquisition, for $4 billion.
[366]
Since the 1970s, Israel has received military aid from the United
States, as well as economic assistance in the form of loan guarantees,
which now account for roughly half of Israel's
external debt.
Israel has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and
is a net lender in terms of net external debt (the total value of
assets vs. liabilities in debt instruments owed abroad), which in June
2012 stood at a surplus of US$60 billion.
[367]
Days of
working time in Israel are Sunday through Thursday (for a five-day
workweek), or Friday (for a six-day workweek). In observance of
Shabbat,
in places where Friday is a work day and the majority of population is
Jewish, Friday is a "short day", usually lasting till 14:00 in the
winter, or 16:00 in the summer. Several proposals have been raised to
adjust the work week with the majority of the world, and make Sunday a
non-working day, while extending working time of other days, and/or
replacing Friday with Sunday as a work day.
[368]
Science and technology
Israel has nine public universities that are subsidized by the state.
[369][370][371] The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel's second-oldest university after the
Technion,
[372][373] houses the
National Library of Israel, the world's largest repository of Judaica and Hebraica.
[374] The
Technion, the Hebrew University, and the
Weizmann Institute consistently ranked among world's 100 top universities by the prestigious
ARWU academic ranking.
[375][376][377] Other major universities in the country include
Tel Aviv University (TAU),
Bar-Ilan University, the
University of Haifa,
The Open University, and
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Ariel University, in the
West Bank,
is the newest university institution, upgraded from college status, and
the first in over thirty years. Israel's seven research universities
(excluding the Open University) are consistently ranked among top 500 in
the world.
[378] Israel has produced six Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2002
[379][379][380] and has been frequently ranked as one of the countries with the highest ratios of scientific papers per capita in the world.
[381][382][383]
Israel has embraced
solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology
[359] and its solar companies work on projects around the world.
[358][385] Over 90% of
Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest per capita in the world.
[224][386]
According to government figures, the country saves 8% of its
electricity consumption per year because of its solar energy use in
heating.
[387] The high annual incident
solar irradiance at its geographic
latitude creates ideal conditions for what is an internationally renowned solar research and development industry in the
Negev Desert.
[358][359][385]
Israel is one of the world's technological leaders in water
technology. In 2011, its water technology industry was worth around $2
billion a year with annual exports of products and services in the tens
of millions of dollars. The ongoing shortage of water in the country has
spurred innovation in
water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernization,
drip irrigation, was invented in Israel. Israel is also at the technological forefront of
desalination
and water recycling. The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO)
plant, the largest in the world, was voted 'Desalination Plant of the
Year' in the Global Water Awards in 2006. Israel hosts an annual Water
Technology Exhibition and Conference (WaTec) that attracts thousands of
people from across the world.
[389][390] By the end of 2013, 85 percent of the country's water consumption will be from reverse osmosis.
[dated info] As a result of innovations in
reverse osmosis technology, Israel is set to become a net exporter of water in the coming years.
[391]
Israel has led the world in stem-cell research papers per capita since 2000.
[392] In addition, Israeli universities are among 100 top world universities in mathematics (
Hebrew University,
TAU and
Technion), physics (TAU, Hebrew University and
Weizmann Institute of Science),
chemistry (Technion and Weizmann Institute of Science), computer
science (Weizmann Institute of Science, Technion, Hebrew University, TAU
and
BIU) and economics (Hebrew University and TAU).
[393]
Israel had a modern electric car infrastructure involving a
countrywide network of recharging stations to facilitate the charging
and exchange of car batteries. It was thought that this would have
lowered Israel's oil dependency and lowered the fuel costs of hundreds
of Israel's motorists that use cars powered only by electric batteries.
[394][395][396] The Israeli model was being studied by several countries and being implemented in Denmark and Australia.
[397] However, Israel's trailblazing electric car company
Better Place shut down in 2013.
[398]
The
Israeli Space Agency
coordinates all Israeli space research programs with scientific and
commercial goals. In 2012 Israel was ranked ninth in the world by the
Futron's
Space Competitiveness Index.
[399] Israel is one of only seven countries that both build their own satellites and launch their own launchers. The
Shavit is a
space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small
satellites into
low earth orbit.
[400] It was first launched in 1988, making Israel the
eighth nation to have a space launch capability. Shavit rockets are launched from the
spaceport at the
Palmachim Airbase by the
Israeli Space Agency. Since 1988
Israel Aerospace Industries have indigenously designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites.
[401] Some of Israel's satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems.
[402] In 2003,
Ilan Ramon became Israel's first astronaut, serving as payload specialist of
STS-107, the
fatal mission of the
Space Shuttle Columbia.
Transport
Israel has 18,096 kilometers (11,244 mi) of paved roads,
[403] and 2.4 million motor vehicles.
[404] The number of motor vehicles per 1,000 persons was 324, relatively low with respect to developed countries.
[404] Israel has 5,715 buses on scheduled routes,
[405] operated by several carriers, the largest of which is
Egged, serving most of the country. Railways stretch across 949 kilometers (590 mi) and are operated solely by government-owned
Israel Railways[406]
(All figures are for 2008). Following major investments beginning in
the early to mid-1990s, the number of train passengers per year has
grown from 2.5 million in 1990, to 35 million in 2008; railways are also
used to transport 6.8 million tons of cargo, per year.
[406]
Israel is served by two international airports,
Ben Gurion International Airport, the country's main hub for international air travel near
Tel Aviv-Yafo,
Ovda Airport in the south, as well as several small domestic airports.
[407] Ben Gurion, Israel's largest airport, handled over 12.1 million passengers in 2010.
[408]
On the
Mediterranean coast,
Haifa Port is the country's oldest and largest port, while
Ashdod Port is one of the few deep water ports in the world built on the open sea.
[407] In addition to these, the smaller
Port of Eilat is situated on the
Red Sea, and is used mainly for trading with Far East countries.
[407]
Tourism
Tourism, especially
religious tourism, is an important industry in Israel, with the country's temperate climate, beaches,
archaeological, other historical and
biblical
sites, and unique geography also drawing tourists. Israel's security
problems have taken their toll on the industry, but the number of
incoming tourists is on the rebound.
[409] In 2013, a record of 3.54 million tourists visited Israel with the most popular site of attraction being the
Western Wall with 68% of tourists visiting there.
[410][411] Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world.
[412]
Demographics
In late 2014, Israel's population was an estimated 8.9 million people, of whom 6,135,000 are
Jews.
[1] Arab citizens of Israel comprise 20.7% of the country's total population.
[22]
Over the last decade, large numbers of migrant workers from Romania,
Thailand, China, Africa and South America have settled in Israel. Exact
figures are unknown, as many of them are living in the country
illegally,
[413] but estimates run in the region of 203,000.
[414] By June 2012, approximately 60,000
African migrants had entered Israel.
[415] About 92% of Israelis live in urban areas.
[416]
Retention of Israel's population since 1948 is about even or greater, when compared to other countries with mass immigration.
[417] Emigration from Israel (
yerida) to other countries, primarily the United States and Canada, is described by demographers as modest,
[418] but is often cited by Israeli government ministries as a major threat to Israel's future.
[419][420]
In 2009, over 300,000 Israeli citizens lived in
West Bank settlements
[421] such as
Ma'ale Adumim and
Ariel, and communities that predated the establishment of the State but were re-established after the
Six-Day War, in cities such as
Hebron and
Gush Etzion. 20,000 Israelis live in
Golan Heights settlements.
[162] In 2011, there were 250,000 Jews living in
East Jerusalem.
[422] The total number of
Israeli settlers is over 500,000 (6.5% of the Israeli population). Approximately 7,800 Israelis lived in settlements in the
Gaza Strip, until they were evacuated by the government as part of its 2005
disengagement plan.
[423]
Israel was established as a homeland for the
Jewish people and is often referred to as a
Jewish state. The country's
Law of Return grants all Jews and those of Jewish lineage the right to
Israeli citizenship.
[424] Over three quarters, or 75.5%, of the population are Jews from a
diversity of Jewish backgrounds. Around 4% of Israelis (300,000), ethnically defined as "others", are
Russian-descendants
of Jewish origin or family who are not Jewish according to rabbinical
law, but were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
[425][426][427] Approximately 73% of
Israeli Jews are
Israeli-born, 18.4% are immigrants from Europe and the Americas, and 8.6% are immigrants from Asia and Africa (including the
Arab World).
[428][429] Jews from Europe and the former Soviet Union and their Israeli-born descendants, including
Ashkenazi Jews, constitute approximately 50% of Jewish Israelis.
Jews who left or fled Arab and Muslim countries and their descendants, including both
Mizrahi and
Sephardi Jews,
[430] form most of the rest of the Jewish population.
[431][432][433]
Jewish intermarriage rates run at over 35% and recent studies suggest
that the percentage of Israelis descended from both Sephardi and
Ashkenazi Jews increases by 0.5 percent every year, with over 25% of
school children now originating from both communities.
[434]
|
|
|
Rank |
Name |
District |
Pop. |
|
Jerusalem
Tel Aviv |
1 |
Jerusalem |
Jerusalem |
796,200* |
Haifa
Rishon LeZion |
| 2 |
Tel Aviv |
Tel Aviv |
404,500 |
| 3 |
Haifa |
Haifa |
269,300 |
| 4 |
Rishon LeZion |
Central |
231,700 |
| 5 |
Ashdod |
Southern |
211,400 |
| 6 |
Petah Tikva |
Central |
210,800 |
| 7 |
Beersheba |
Southern |
195,800 |
| 8 |
Netanya |
Central |
188,200 |
| 9 |
Holon |
Tel Aviv |
182,000 |
| 10 |
Bnei Brak |
Tel Aviv |
161,100 |
* This number includes occupied
East Jerusalem and
West Bank areas.
Language
Israel has two official languages,
Hebrew and
Arabic.
[7]
Hebrew is the primary language of the state and is spoken by the
majority of the population, and Arabic is spoken by the Arab minority.
Many Israelis communicate reasonably well in English, as many television
programs are broadcast in this language and English is taught from the
early grades in elementary school. As a country of
immigrants, many languages can be heard on the streets. Due to mass immigration from the former Soviet Union and
Ethiopia (some 130,000
Ethiopian Jews live in Israel),
[436][437] Russian and
Amharic are widely spoken.
[438] More than one million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union states between 1990 and 2004.
[439] French is spoken by around 700,000 Israelis,
[440] mostly originating from France and North Africa (see
Maghrebi Jews).
Religion
Israel and the
Palestinian territories comprise the major part of the
Holy Land, a region of significant importances to all
Abrahamic religions – Jews, Christians, Muslims and
Baha'is.
The religious affiliation of
Israeli Jews
varies widely: a social survey for those over the age of 20 indicates
that 55% say they are "traditional", while 20% consider themselves
"secular Jews", 17% define themselves as "
Religious Zionists"; 8% define themselves as "
Haredi Jews".
[442] While the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, represented only 5% of Israel's population in 1990,
[443] they are expected to represent more than one-fifth of Israel's Jewish population by 2028.
[444]
Making up 16% of the population, Muslims constitute Israel's largest
religious minority. About 2% of the population are Christian and 1.5%
are
Druze.
[445] The Christian population primarily comprises
Palestinian Christians, but also includes post-Soviet immigrants and the Foreign Laborers of multinational origins and followers of
Messianic Judaism, considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity.
[446] Members of many other religious groups, including
Buddhists and
Hindus, maintain a presence in Israel, albeit in small numbers.
[447] Out of more than one million immigrants from the former
Soviet Union in Israel, about 300,000 are considered not Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinate.
[448]
The city of
Jerusalem
is of special importance to Jews, Muslims and Christians as it is the
home of sites that are pivotal to their religious beliefs, such as the
Israeli-controlled
Old City that incorporates the
Western Wall and the
Temple Mount, the
Al-Aqsa Mosque and the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
[449]
Other locations of religious importance in Israel are
Nazareth (holy in Christianity as the site of the
Annunciation of
Mary),
Tiberias and
Safed (two of the
Four Holy Cities in Judaism), the
White Mosque in
Ramla (holy in Islam as the shrine of the prophet
Saleh), and the
Church of Saint George in
Lod (holy in Christianity and Islam as the tomb of
Saint George or
Al Khidr).
A number of other religious landmarks are located in the
West Bank, among them
Joseph's Tomb in
Nablus, the
birthplace of Jesus and
Rachel's Tomb in
Bethlehem, and the
Cave of the Patriarchs in
Hebron.
The administrative center of the
Bahá'í Faith and the
Shrine of the Báb are located at the
Bahá'í World Centre in
Haifa and the leader of the faith is buried in
Acre. Apart from maintenance staff, there is no Bahá'í community in Israel, although it is a destination for
pilgrimages. Bahá'í staff in Israel do not teach their faith to Israelis following strict policy.
[450][451][452]
Education
Israel has a school life expectancy of 15.5 years
[453] and a literacy rate of 97.1% according to the United Nations.
[454]
The State Education Law, passed in 1953, established five types of
schools: state secular, state religious, ultra orthodox, communal
settlement schools, and Arab schools. The public secular is the largest
school group, and is attended by the majority of Jewish and non-Arab
pupils in Israel. Most Arabs send their children to schools where Arabic
is the language of instruction.
[455]
Education is
compulsory in Israel for children between the ages of three and eighteen.
[456][457] Schooling is divided into three tiers – primary school (grades 1–6),
middle school (grades 7–9), and high school (grades 10–12) – culminating with
Bagrut matriculation exams. Proficiency in core subjects such as mathematics, the
Hebrew language, Hebrew and general literature, the
English language, history, Biblical scripture and civics is necessary to receive a Bagrut certificate.
[369] In Arab, Christian and
Druze schools, the exam on Biblical studies is replaced by an exam on Muslim, Christian or Druze heritage.
[458] Christian Arabs are one of the most educated groups in Israel.
[459] Maariv have describe the
Christian Arabs sectors as "the most successful in education system",
[459] since Christian Arabs fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other group receiving an education in Israel.
[460]
In 2003, over half of all Israeli twelfth graders earned a matriculation certificate.
[461] The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University are ranked among the world's top 100 universities by
Times Higher Education magazine.
[462] Israel ranks third in the world in the number of academic degrees per capita (20 percent of the population).
[463][464]
Culture
Israel's diverse culture stems from the diversity of the population:
Jews from diaspora communities around the world have brought their
cultural and religious traditions back with them, creating a melting pot
of Jewish customs and beliefs.
[465] Israel is the only country in the world where life revolves around the
Hebrew calendar.
Work and school holidays are determined by the
Jewish holidays, and the official day of rest is Saturday, the
Jewish Sabbath.
[466] Israel's substantial Arab minority has also left its imprint on Israeli culture in such spheres as architecture,
[467] music,
[468] and cuisine.
[469]
Literature
Amos Oz's works have been translated into 36 languages, more than any other Israeli writer.
[470]
Israeli literature is primarily poetry and prose written in Hebrew, as part of the renaissance of
Hebrew
as a spoken language since the mid-19th century, although a small body
of literature is published in other languages, such as English. By law,
two copies of all printed matter published in Israel must be deposited
in the
National Library of Israel at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2001, the law was amended to include audio and video recordings, and other non-print media.
[471] In 2011, 86 percent of the 6,302 books transferred to the library were in Hebrew.
[472]
The
Hebrew Book Week
is held each June and features book fairs, public readings, and
appearances by Israeli authors around the country. During the week,
Israel's top literary award, the
Sapir Prize, is presented.
In 1966,
Shmuel Yosef Agnon shared the
Nobel Prize in Literature with German Jewish author
Nelly Sachs.
[473] Leading Israeli poets have been
Yehuda Amichai,
Nathan Alterman and
Rachel Bluwstein.
Internationally famous contemporary Israeli novelists include
Amos Oz,
Etgar Keret and
David Grossman. The Israeli-Arab satirist
Sayed Kashua (who writes in Hebrew) is also internationally known.
Israel has also been the home of two leading Palestinian poets and writers:
Emile Habibi, whose novel
The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, and other writings, won him the Israel prize for Arabic literature; and
Mahmoud Darwish, considered by many to be "the Palestinian national poet."
[474] Darwish was born and raised in northern Israel, but lived his adult life abroad after joining the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
Music and dance
Israeli music contains musical influences from all over the world;
Sephardic music,
Hasidic melodies,
Belly dancing music,
Greek music,
jazz, and
pop rock are all part of the music scene.
[475][476]
The nation's canonical
folk songs, known as "Songs of the Land of Israel," deal with the experiences of the pioneers in building the Jewish homeland.
[478] The
Hora
circle dance introduced by early Jewish settlers was originally popular
in the Kibbutzim and outlying communities. It became a symbol of the
Zionist reconstruction and of the ability to experience joy amidst
austerity. It now plays a significant role in modern Israeli folk
dancing and is regularly performed at weddings and other celebrations,
and in group dances throughout Israel.
Modern dance in Israel is a flourishing field, and several Israeli choreographers such as
Ohad Naharin, Rami Beer,
Barak Marshall
and many others, are considered to be among the most versatile and
original international creators working today. Famous Israeli companies
include the
Batsheva Dance Company and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.
Among Israel's world-renowned
[479][480] orchestras is the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been in operation for over seventy years and today performs more than two hundred concerts each year.
[481] Israel has also produced many musicians of note, some achieving international stardom.
Itzhak Perlman,
Pinchas Zukerman and
Ofra Haza are among the internationally acclaimed musicians born in Israel.
Israel has participated in the
Eurovision Song Contest nearly every year since 1973, winning the competition three times and hosting it twice.
[482][483] Eilat has hosted its own international music festival, the
Red Sea Jazz Festival, every summer since 1987.
[484]
Israel is home to many Palestinian musicians, including internationally acclaimed
oud and violin virtuoso Taiseer Elias, singer
Amal Murkus, and brothers Samir and
Wissam Joubran.
Israeli Arab musicians have achieved fame beyond Israel's borders:
Elias and Murkus frequently play to audiences in Europe and America, and
oud player Darwish Darwish (Prof. Elias's student) was awarded first
prize in the all-Arab oud contest in Egypt in 2003. The
Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance has an advanced degree program, headed by Taiseer Elias, in Arabic music.
Cinema and theatre
Ten Israeli films have been final nominees for
Best Foreign Language Film at the
Academy Awards since the establishment of Israel. The 2009 movie
Ajami was the third consecutive nomination of an Israeli film.
[485] Continuing the strong theatrical traditions of the
Yiddish theatre in Eastern Europe, Israel maintains a vibrant theatre scene. Founded in 1918,
Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv is Israel's oldest
repertory theater company and national theater.
[486]
Palestinian Israeli filmmakers have made a number of films dealing with
the Arab-Israel conflict and the status of Palestinians within Israel,
such as
Mohammed Bakri's 2002 film
Jenin, Jenin and
The Syrian Bride.
Museums
The
Israel Museum in Jerusalem is one of Israel's most important cultural institutions
[487] and houses the
Dead Sea scrolls,
[488] along with an extensive collection of
Judaica and
European art.
[487] Israel's national
Holocaust museum,
Yad Vashem, is the world central archive of Holocaust-related information.
[489] Beth Hatefutsoth (the Diaspora Museum), on the campus of
Tel Aviv University, is an interactive museum devoted to the history of Jewish communities around the world.
[490]
Apart from the major museums in large cities, there are high-quality artspaces in many towns and
kibbutzim.
Mishkan Le'Omanut on Kibbutz
Ein Harod Meuhad is the largest art museum in the north of the country.
[491]
Several Israeli museums are devoted to Islamic culture, including the
Rockefeller Museum and the
L. A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art,
both in Jerusalem. The Rockefeller specializes in archaeological
remains from the Ottoman and other periods of Middle East history. It is
also the home of the first
hominid fossil skull found in
Western Asia called
Galilee Man.
[492] A cast of the skull is on display at the Israel Museum.
[493]
Cuisine
Israeli
cuisine includes local dishes as well as dishes brought to the country by Jewish immigrants from the
diaspora. Since the establishment of the State in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli
fusion cuisine has developed. Most Israeli food is
kosher and cooked in accordance with the Jewish
Halakha. As most of its population is either Jewish or Muslim,
pork is very rarely consumed in Israel.
Israeli cuisine has adopted, and continues to adapt, elements of various styles of
Jewish cuisine, particularly the
Mizrahi,
Sephardic, and
Ashkenazi styles of cooking, along with
Moroccan Jewish,
Iraqi Jewish,
Ethiopian Jewish,
Indian Jewish,
Iranian Jewish and
Yemeni Jewish influences. It incorporates many foods traditionally eaten in the
Arab,
Middle Eastern and
Mediterranean cuisines, such as
falafel,
hummus,
shakshouka,
couscous, and
za'atar, which have become common ingredients in Israeli cuisine.
Schnitzel,
pizza,
hamburgers,
French fries,
rice and
salad are also very common in Israel.
Sports
The
Maccabiah Games,
an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes and Israeli athletes, was
inaugurated in the 1930s, and has been held every four years since then.
In 1964
Israel hosted and won the
Asian Nations Cup; in 1970 the
Israel national football team managed to qualify to the
FIFA World Cup, which is still considered the biggest achievement of Israeli football.
The
1974 Asian Games
held in Tehran, were the last Asian Games in which Israel participated,
and was plagued by the Arab countries which refused to compete with
Israel, and Israel since ceased competing in Asian competitions.
[494] Israel was excluded from the
1978 Asian Games due to security and expense involved if they were to participate.
[495] In 1994,
UEFA agreed to admit Israel and all Israeli sporting organizations now compete in Europe.
The most popular spectator sports in Israel are association football and basketball.
[496] The
Israeli Premier League is the country's premier football league, and the
Israeli Basketball Super League is the premier basketball league.
[497] Maccabi Haifa,
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
Hapoel Tel Aviv and
Beitar Jerusalem are the largest sports clubs. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv have competed in the
UEFA Champions League and Hapoel Tel Aviv reached the
UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. has won the
European championship in basketball six times.
[498] Israeli tennis champion
Shahar Pe'er ranked 11th in the world on 31 January 2011.
Chess is a leading sport in Israel and is enjoyed by people of all ages. There are many
Israeli grandmasters
and Israeli chess players have won a number of youth world championships.
[499] Israel stages an annual international
championship and hosted the
World Team Chess Championship in 2005. The Ministry of Education and the
World Chess Federation agreed upon a project of teaching chess within Israeli schools, and it has been introduced into the curriculum of some schools.
[500][501][502] The city of
Beersheba has become a national
chess
center, with the game being taught in the city's kindergartens. Owing
partly to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of
chess grandmasters of any city in the world.
[503][504] The Israeli chess team won the silver medal at the
2008 Chess Olympiad[505] and the bronze, coming in third among 148 teams, at the
2010 Olympiad. Israeli grandmaster
Boris Gelfand won the
Chess World Cup in 2009
[506] and the
2011 Candidates Tournament for the right to challenge the world champion. He only lost the
World Chess Championship 2012 to reigning world champion
Anand after a speed-chess tie breaker.
Krav Maga,
a martial art developed by Jewish ghetto defenders during the struggle
against fascism in Europe, is used by the Israeli security forces and
police. Its effectiveness and practical approach to self-defense, have
won it widespread admiration and adherence round the world.
To date, Israel has won
seven Olympic medals since its first win
in 1992, including a gold medal in
windsurfing at the
2004 Summer Olympics.
[507] Israel has won
over 100 gold medals in the
Paralympic Games and is ranked about 15th in the
all-time medal count. The
1968 Summer Paralympics were hosted by Israel.
[508]
