Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Israel - Outline of Israel


 Israel 

Israel ( or ; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל‎‎Yisrā'el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل‎‎ Isrāʼīl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎‎Medīnat Yisrā'el ; Arabic: دولة إِسْرَائِيل‎‎ Dawlat Isrāʼīl ) is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Seaand the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, thePalestinian territories of the West Bank andGaza Strip[8] to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. It contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.[9] [10] Israel's financial and technology center is Tel Aviv[11] whileJerusalem is the proclaimed capital, although Israeli sovereignty over it isinternationally unrecognized.[note 1] [12] [13]
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This specified borders for new Arab and Jewish states and an area of Jerusalem which was to be administered by the UN under an international regime.[14] [15] 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 theZionist 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.[16] [17] [18] The borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration.[15] [19] Neighboring Arab armies invaded the former British mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces.[20] [21] Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states,[22] in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement) and the Golan Heights. It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank.[23] [24] [25] [26]Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world's longest military occupation in modern times.[note 2] [28]
The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2016 to be 8,502,900 people. It is the world's only Jewish-majority state, with 6,363,700 citizens, or 74.9%, being designated as Jewish. The country's second largest group of citizens are denoted as Arabs, numbering 1,766,500 people (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs).[1] [2] The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settledNegev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other minorities includeArameans, Assyrians, Samaritans, Armenians, Circassians, Dom people, Maronitesand Vietnamese. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia,[29] including Black Hebrew Israelites and illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and other Sub-Saharan Africans.[30]
In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state.[31] Israel is arepresentative democracy[32] with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage.[33] [34] The prime minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as the legislature. Israel is a developed countryand an OECD member,[35] with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2015. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with the one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[36] [37] The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the fourth highest in Asia,[38] [39] [40] and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.[41]
Etymology
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.[42] 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 AffairsMoshe Sharett.[43]
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 people respectively.[44] Thename "Israel" (Standard Yisraʾel, Isrāʾīl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ Israēl; 'El(God) persists/rules' though, after Hosea 12:4 often interpreted as "struggle with God"[45][46] [47] [48] ) in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, according to theHebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord.[49] 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 inCanaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations, lasting 430 years,[50] until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob,[51] led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus". The earliest known archaeological artifact to mention the word "Israel" is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE).[52]
The area is also known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religionsincluding Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith. From 1920, the whole region was known as Palestine (under British Mandate)[note 3] until the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948.[53] 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, Djahy, and Canaan.
History
Antiquity

Map of the Kingdom of Israel, 1020 BCE–930 BCE as imagined from the Bible narrative
The notion of the "Land of Israel", known inHebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the landto the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people.[54][55] On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE,[56] and the firstKingdom 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.[57] [58] [59] [60]
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."[61] 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;[62] Ancestors of the Israelites may have included Semitesnative to Canaan and the Sea Peoples.[63] McNutt says, "It is probably safe to assume that sometime during Iron Age 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.[64]
Villages had populations of up to 300 or 400,[65] [66] which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient;[67] economic interchange was prevalent.[68]Writing was known and available for recording, even in small sites.[69] The archaeological evidence indicates a society of village-like centres, but with more limited resources and a small population.[70] Modern scholars see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan.[71]

The Large Stone Structure, archaeological site of ancient Jerusalem
Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split into a southern Kingdom of Judah and a northernKingdom of Israel. From the middle of the 8th century BCE Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire. UnderTiglath-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.[72]
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[73] [74] (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, which corroborates the biblical narrative only in very broad terms, 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

Portion of the Temple Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls written during the Second Temple 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, the 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.

Masada fortress, location of the final battle in the First Jewish–Roman War
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.
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.[75] Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and Galilee became its religious center.[76] [77] The Mishnah and part of theTalmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem.[78] 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 stood under Byzantine rule. Through the 5th and 6th centuries, the dramatic events of the repeatedSamaritan 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 reconquered the country in 628.
Middle Ages and modern history

Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village, abandoned some time between the 7th–13th centuries AD.[79]
In 634–641 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the Arabs who had just recently adopted Islam. It remained under Muslim control for the next 1,300 years under various dynasties.[80] Control of the region transferred between the Rashidun Caliphs,Umayyads,[80] Abbasids,[80] Fatimids, Seljuks,Crusaders, and Ayyubids throughout the next six centuries,[80] before the area was conquered in 1260 by the Mamluk Sultanate.[81]

The 15th-century Abuhav synagogue, established by Sephardic Jews in Safed.[82]
During the siege of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099, the Jewish inhabitants of the city fought side by side with the Fatimid garrison and the Muslim population who tried in vain to defend the city against the Crusaders. When the city fell, about 60,000 people were massacred, including 6,000 Jews seeking refuge in a synagogue.[83] 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.[84] According to Albert of Aachen, the Jewish residents of Haifa were the main fighting force of the city, and "mixed with Saracen [Fatimid] troops", they fought bravely for close to a month until forced into retreat by the Crusader fleet and land army.[85] [86] However, Joshua Prawerexpressed doubt over the story, noting that Albert did not attend the Crusades and that such a prominent role for the Jews is not mentioned by any other source.[87]
In 1165 Maimonides visited Jerusalem and prayed on the Temple Mount, in the "great, holy house".[88] In 1141 the Spanish-Jewish poet Yehuda Halevi issued a call for Jews to migrate to the Land of Israel, a journey he undertook himself. In 1187 Sultan Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and subsequently captured Jerusalem and almost all of Palestine. In time, Saladin issued a proclamation inviting Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem,[89] and according to Judah al-Harizi, they did: "From the day the Arabs took Jerusalem, the Israelites inhabited it."[90] Al-Harizi compared Saladin's decree allowing Jews to re-establish themselves in Jerusalem to the one issued by the Persian king Cyrus the Great over 1,600 years earlier.[91]
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,[92] among them RabbiSamson ben Abraham of Sens.[93] 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."[94]
In 1260, control passed to the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. The country was located between the two centres of Mamluk power, Cairo and Damascus, and only saw some development along the postal road connecting the two cities. Jerusalem, although left without the protection of any city walls since 1219, also saw a flurry of new construction projects centred around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (theTemple Mount). 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.[95] [96]

Jews at the Western Wall, 1870s
In 1470, Isaac b. Meir Latif arrived from Anconaand counted 150 Jewish families in Jerusalem.[97] 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.[98]
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 between Britain and France under the mandate system, and the British-administered area which included modern day Israel was namedMandatory Palestine.[81] [99] [100]
Zionism and British mandate
Black and white portrait of a long-bearded man.
Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State
Since the existence of the earliest Jewish diaspora, many Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel",[101] though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute.[102] [103] The hopes and yearnings of Jews living in exile are an important theme of the Jewish belief system.[102] After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.[104]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.[105] In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.[106] [107] [108]
"I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabeans will rise again. Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity."
Theodore Herzl, concluding words of The Jewish State, 1896[109]
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.[110] Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice, Austro-Hungarian journalistTheodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,[111] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, thus offering a solution to the so-called Jewish Question of the European states, in conformity with the goals and achievements of other national projects of the time.[112] 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 Zionist Congress.[113]
The Second Aliyah (1904–14), began after the Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them left eventually.[110] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,[114] although the Second Aliyah included socialist groups who established the kibbutz movement.[115] 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 "national home" within the Palestinian Mandate.[116] [117]
The Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted, in 1918, in the British conquest of Palestine.[118] 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 Irgunand Lehi, or Stern Gang, paramilitary groups later split off.[119] In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews, and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians.[120] The population of the area at this time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11%,[121] and Arab Christians at about 9.5% of the population.[122]
The Third (1919–23) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–29) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine.[110] Finally, the rise of Nazism and the increasing persecution of Jews in 1930s Europe 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 1936–39 during which the British Mandate authorities alongside the Zionist militias of Haganah and Irgun killed 5,032 Arabs and wounded 14,760,[123] [124] resulting in over ten percent of the adult malePalestinian Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.[125] The British introduced 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.[110] By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.[126] On July 22, 1946, Irgun attacked the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing[127] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.[128] [129] [130] 91 people of various nationalities were killed and 46 were injured.[131] The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces inPalestine and Transjordan.[131] [132] The attack initially had the approval of theHaganah (the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine). It was conceived as a response to Operation Agatha (a series of widespread raids, including one on theJewish Agency, conducted by the British authorities) and was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era (1920–1948).[131] [132]
After World War II

UN Map, "Palestine plan of partition with economic union"
After World War II, Britain found itself in intenseconflict with the Jewish community over Jewish immigration limits, as well as continued conflict with the Arab community over limit levels. TheHaganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule.[133] 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. Escalating violence culminated with the 1946King David Hotel bombing which Bruce Hoffmancharacterized as one of the "most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century".[134] 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".[135] In the Report of the Committee dated 3 September 1947 to the UN General Assembly,[136] 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".[137] 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).[138] 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. The Arab League and Arab Higher Committee of Palestine rejected it, and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition.[139] [140]
On the following day, 1 December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab gangs began attacking Jewish targets.[141] The Jews were initially on the defensive as civil war broke out, but in early April 1948 moved onto the offensive.[142] [143] The Arab Palestinian economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled.[144]

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming theIsraeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948
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".[145] [146] The only reference in the text of the Declaration to the borders of the new state is the use of the term Eretz-Israel ("Land of Israel").[147]
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;[148] [149] Contingents from Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan joined the war.[150] [151] The apparent purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state at inception, and some Arab leaders talked about driving the Jews into the sea.[152] [153] [154] According to Benny Morris, Jews felt that the invading Arab armies aimed to slaughter the Jews.[155] The Arab league stated that the invasion was to restore law and order and to prevent further bloodshed.[156]

Raising of the Ink Flag, marking the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declaredand temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established.[157] 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 by or fled from advancing Israeli forces during the conflict—what would become known in Arabic as the Nakba ("catastrophe").[158]
First years of the State of Israel
Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations by majority vote on 11 May 1949.[159] On 1949 both Israel and Jordan were genuinely interested in a peace agreement but the British acted as a brake on the Jordanian effort in order to avoid damaging British interests in Egypt.[160]
In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics.[161] [162] The Kibbutzim, or collective farming communities, played a pivotal role in establishing the new state.[163]
Immigration to Israel during the late 1940s and early 1950s was aided by the Israeli Immigration Department and the non-government sponsored Mossad LeAliyah Bet("Institution for Illegal Immigration"[164] ). 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. Mossad LeAliyah Bet continued to take part in immigration efforts until its disbanding in 1953.[165] An influx of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab and Muslim lands immigrated to Israel during the first 3 years and the number of Jews increased from 700,000 to 1,400,000,[166] many of whom faced persecution in their original countries.[167] The immigration was in accordance with the One Million Plan.
Consequently, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958.[166] Between 1948 and 1970, approximately 1,150,000 Jewish refugees relocated to Israel.[168] The immigrants came to Israel for differing reasons. Some believed in a 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.[169]
Some new immigrants 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.[170] During this period, food, clothes and furniture had to be rationed in what became known as the Austerity Period. 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.[171]
In 1950 Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping and tensions mounted as armed clashes took place along Israel's borders. During the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen, nearly always against civilians,[172]mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip,[173] leading to several Israeli counter-raids. In 1956, Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the Suez Crisis). The continued blockade of the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, together with the growing amount of Fedayeen attacks against Israel's southern population, and recent Arab grave and threatening statements, prompted Israel to attack Egypt.[174] [175] [176] [177]Israel joined a secret alliance with Great Britain and France and 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 via the Straits of Tiran and the Canal.[178] [179] The war resulted in significant reduction of Israeli border infiltration.[180][181] [182] [183]
File:1961-04-13 Tale Of Century - Eichmann Tried For War Crimes.ogv
U.S. newsreel on the trial of Adolf Eichmann
The refugees were often treated differently according to where they had come from. Jews of European background were treated more favorably than Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries—housing units reserved for the latter were often re-designated for the former, with the result that Jews newly arrived from Arab lands generally ended up staying intransit camps for longer.[184] Tensions that developed between the two groups over such discrimination persist to the present day.[185]
In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial.[186] The trial had a major impact on public awareness of the Holocaust.[187] Eichmann remains the only person executed in Israel by conviction by an Israeli civilian court.[188]
Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War

Territory held by Israel:
  before the Six-Day War
  after the war
The Sinai Peninsula was returned toEgypt in 1982.
Since 1964, Arab countries, concerned over Israeli plans to divert waters of the Jordan Riverinto the coastal plain,[189] 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 PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel, and called for its destruction.[22] [190] [191] By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces.[192] In May 1967, Egypt massed its army near the border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea. Other Arab states mobilized their forces.[193] Israel reiterated that these actions were a casus belli. On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt. Jordan, Syria and Iraq responded and attacked Israel. In a Six-Day War, Israel defeated Jordan and captured the West Bank, defeated Egypt and captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, and defeated Syria and captured the Golan Heights.[194] Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem, and the 1949 Green Linebecame the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories.
Following the 1967 war and the "three nos" resolution of the Arab League, during the 1967–1970 War of Attrition Israel faced attacks from the Egyptians in the Sinai, and from Palestinian groups targeting Israelis in the occupied territories, in Israel proper, and around the world. 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".[195] [196] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched awave of attacks[197] [198] against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,[199]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.

Operation Gazelle, Israel's ground maneuver, encircles the Egyptian Third Army, October 1973
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, that opened the Yom Kippur War. 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 10–35,000 lives in just 20 days.[200] 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.[201]
Further conflict and peace process
In July 1976 an airliner was hijacked during its flight to Tel Aviv by Palestinian guerrillas and landed at Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos carried out an operation in which 102 out of 106 Israeli hostages were successfully rescued.
The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history asMenachem Begin's Likud party took control from the Labor Party.[202] Later that year, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before theKnesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state.[203] In the two years that followed, Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords (1978) and the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty (1979).[204] In return, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967, and agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[205]
On 11 March 1978, a PLO guerilla raid from Lebanon led to the Coastal Road Massacre. 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.

Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law declared Jerusalem to be Israel's "eternal and indivisible capital".
Meanwhile, Begin's government provided incentives for Israelis to settle in the occupied West Bank, increasing friction with the Palestinians in that area.[206] 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 thestatus of the city. No Israeli legislation has defined the territory of Israel and no act specifically included East Jerusalem therein.[207] 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.[208] In 1981 Israel annexed theGolan Heights, although annexation was not recognized internationally.[209]
On 7 June 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's sole nuclear reactor, in order to impede Iraq's nuclear weapons program. The reactor 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.[210] 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, from where Israeli forces engaged in conflict with Hezbollah.
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, while between 1990 and 1994, Russian immigration to Israel increased Israel's population by twelve percent.[211]
The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,[212] 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.[213]During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Scudmissile attacks against Israel. Despite public outrage, Israel heeded US calls to refrain from hitting back and did not participate in that war.[214] [215]

Bill Clinton watches Jordan's King Hussein (left) and Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin (right) sign the Israel–Jordan peace treaty
In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following an election in which his party called for compromise with Israel's neighbors.[216] [217]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.[218] The PLO also recognized Israel's right to exist and pledged an end to terrorism.[219] In 1994, theIsrael–Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.[220] Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the continuation of Israelisettlements[221] and checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions.[222]Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by Palestinian suicide attacks.[223] Finally, while leaving a peace rally in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords.[224]
At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron,[225] and signed the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority.[226] Ehud Barak, elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanonand 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. The proposed state included the entirety of the Gaza Strip and over 90% of the West Bank with Jerusalem as a shared capital,[227] although some argue that the plan was to annex areas which would lead to a cantonization of the West Bank into three blocs, which the Palestinian delegation likened to South African "bantustans", a loaded word that was disputed by the Israeli and American negotiators.[228] Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks.

The Tel Aviv Dolphinarium, the site of the 2001 Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing, in which 21 Israelis, mostly teenagers, were killed.
After the collapse of the talks and a controversial visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharonto the Temple Mount, the Second Intifadabegan. Some commentators contend that the uprising was pre-planned by Yasser Arafat due to the collapse of peace talks.[229] [230] [231] [232]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,[233] ending the Intifada.[234] [235] By this time 1,100 Israelis had been killed, mostly in suicide bombings.[236] The Palestinian fatalities, by 30 April 2008, reached 4,745 killed by Israeli security forces, 44 killed by Israeli civilians, and 577 killed by Palestinians.[237]
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-longSecond Lebanon War.[238] [239] On 6 September 2007, the Israeli Air Force destroyeda 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.[240] 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.[241] [242] 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.[243] In what Israel described as a response to more than a hundred Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities,[244] Israel began an operation in Gaza on 14 November 2012, lasting eight days.[245] Israel started another operation in Gaza following an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas in July 2014.[246]
Geography and environment

Satellite images of Israel and neighboring territories during the day (left) and night (right)
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 (according to the demarcation lines of the 1949 Armistice Agreements and 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.[9] However Israel is so narrow that theexclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is double the land area of the country.[247] The total area under Israeli law, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is 22,072 square kilometers (8,522 sq mi),[248] and the total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially Palestinian-governedterritory of the West Bank, is 27,799 square kilometers (10,733 sq mi).[249] 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 theGolan in the north. The Israeli Coastal Plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to 57 percent of the nation's population.[250] [251] [252]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.
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.[253]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.[254] The largest makhtesh in the world is Ramon Crater in the Negev,[255] which measures 40 by 8 kilometers (25 by 5 mi).[256] 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.[257]
Tectonics and seismicity
The Jordan Rift Valley is the result of tectonic movements within the Dead Sea Transform (DSF) fault system. The DSF forms the transform boundary between theAfrican Plate to the west and the Arabian Plate to the east. The Golan Heights and all of Jordan are part of the Arabian Plate, while the Galilee, West Bank, Coastal Plain, and Negev along with the Sinai Peninsula are on the African Plate. This tectonic disposition leads to a relatively high seismic activity in the region. The entire Jordan Valley segment is thought to have ruptured repeatedly, for instance during the last two major earthquakes along this structure in 749 and 1033. The deficit inslip that has built up since the 1033 event is sufficient to cause an earthquake ofMw~7.4.[258]
The most catastrophic earthquakes we know of occurred in 31 BCE, 363, 749, and 1033 CE, that is every ca. 400 years on average.[259] Destructive earthquakes leading to serious loss of life strike about every 80 years.[260] While stringent construction regulations are currently in place and recently built structures are earthquake-safe, as of 2007 the majority of the buildings in Israel were older than these regulations and many public buildings as well as 50,000 residential buildings did not meet the new standards and were "expected to collapse" if exposed to a strong quake.[260]Given the fragile political situation of the Middle East region and the presence there of major holy sites, a quake reaching magnitude 7 on the Richter scale could have dire consequences for world peace.[259]
Climate

Israel map of Köppen climate classification.
Temperatures in Israel vary widely, especially during the winter. Coastal areas, such as those of Tel Aviv and Haifa, have a typicalMediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers. The area of Beershebaand the Northern Negev has a semi-arid climatewith hot summers, cool winters and fewer rainy days than the Mediterranean climate. The Southern Negev and the Arava areas havedesert climate with very hot and dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain. The highest temperature in the continent of Asia (54.0 °C or 129.2 °F) was recorded in 1942 at Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan river valley.[261] [262]
At the other extreme mountainous regions can be windy, cold, and areas at elevation of 750 meters or more (same elevation as Jerusalem) will usually receive at least one snowfall each year.[263] From May to September, rain in Israel is rare.[264][265] With scarce water resources, Israel has developed various water-saving technologies, including drip irrigation.[266] 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).[267]
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.[268] There are 380 Israeli nature reserves.[269]
Demographics
In 2016, Israel's population was an estimated 8,502,900 million people, of whom 6,363,700 (74.9%) were recorded by the civil government as Jews. 1,766,500 Arabscomprised 20.7% of the population, while non-Arab Christians and people who have no religion listed in the civil registry made up 4.4%.[1] [2] 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,[271] but estimates run in the region of 203,000.[29] By June 2012, approximately 60,000 African migrants had entered Israel.[272] About 92% of Israelis live in urban areas.[273]
Retention of Israel's population since 1948 is about even or greater, when compared to other countries with mass immigration.[274] Jewish emigration from Israel (calledyerida in Hebrew), primarily to the United States and Canada, is described by demographers as modest,[275] but is often cited by Israeli government ministries as a major threat to Israel's future.[276] [277]
In 2009, over 300,000 Israeli citizens lived in West Bank settlements[278] such asMa'ale Adumim and Ariel, including settlements that predated the establishment of the State of Israel and which were re-established after the Six-Day War, in cities such as Hebron and Gush Etzion. In 2011, there were 250,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem.[279] 20,000 Israelis live in Golan Heights settlements.[209] 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.[280]

Immigration to Israel in the years 1948–2008. The two peaks, of at least 200,000 each, were in 1949 and 1990.
Israel was established as a homeland for theJewish people and is often referred to as aJewish state. The country's Law of Return grants all Jews and those of Jewish ancestry the right to Israeli citizenship.[281] Over three quarters, or 75.5%, of the population are Jews from adiversity 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.[282][283] [284] Approximately 75% of Israeli Jews are born in Israel, 17% are immigrants from Europe and the Americas, and 8% are immigrants from Asia and Africa (including theArab World).[285] [286] Jews from Europe and the former Soviet Union and their descendants born in Israel, 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,[287] form most of the rest of the Jewish population.[288] [289] [290] 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.[291]
^a This number includes East Jerusalem and West Bank areas. Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized.
Language

Road sign in Hebrew, Arabic, andEnglish
Israel has two official languages, Hebrew andArabic.[9] Hebrew is the primary language of the state and is spoken everyday by the majority of the population, and Arabic is spoken by the Arab minority and Hebrew is taught in Arab schools.English was an official language during the Mandate period; it lost this status after the creation of Israel, but retains a role comparable to that of an official language,[293] [294] [295] as may be seen in road signs and official documents. Many Israelis communicate reasonably well in English, as many television programs are broadcast in English with subtitles and the language is taught from the early grades in elementary school. In addition, Israeli universities offer courses in the English language on various subjects.[296] 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),[297] [298]Russian and Amharic are widely spoken.[299] More than one million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union states between 1990 and 2004.[300] French is spoken by around 700,000 Israelis,[301] mostly originating from France and North Africa (see Maghrebi Jews).
Religion
A large open area with people bounded by old stone walls. To the left is a mosque with large golden dome.
The Dome of the Rock and theWestern Wall, Jerusalem.
Israel comprises a major part of the Holy Land, a region of significant importance to all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druzeand Bahá'í Faith.
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".[302] Haredi Jews are expected to represent more than 20% of Israel's Jewish population by 2028.[303]

9th Station of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa street in Jerusalem. TheChurch of the Holy Sepulchre in the background is venerated by Christians as the site of the Burial of Jesus.[304]
Making up 16% of the population, Muslims constitute Israel's largest religious minority. About 2% of the population is Christian and 1.5% is Druze.[305] The Christian population primarily comprises Arab Christians, but also includes post-Soviet immigrants, the foreign laborers of multinational origins, and followers of Messianic Judaism, considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity.[306] Members of many other religious groups, includingBuddhists and Hindus, maintain a presence in Israel, albeit in small numbers.[307] Out of more than one million immigrants from the formerSoviet Union in Israel, about 300,000 are considered not Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinate.[308]
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 Old City that incorporates the Western Wall and theTemple Mount, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[309]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 Citiesin Judaism), the White Mosque in Ramla (holy in Islam as the shrine of the prophetSaleh), 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; 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.[310] [311] [312] A few miles south of the Bahá'í World Centre is the Middle East centre of the reformist Ahmadiyya movement. Its mixed neighbourhood of Jews and Ahmadi Arabs is the only one of its kind in the country.[313] [314]
Education
Education in Israel is highly valued in the national culture with its historical values dating back to Ancient Israel and was viewed as one fundamental blocks of ancient Israelite life.[315] Israeli culture views higher education as the key to higher mobility and socioeconomic status in Israeli society.[316] The emphasis of education within Israeli society goes to the gulf within the Jewish diaspora from the Renaissance andEnlightenment Movement all the way to the roots of Zionism in the 1880s. Jewish communities in the Levant were the first to introduce compulsory education for which the organized community, not less than the parents, was responsible for the education of the next generation of Jews.[317] With contemporary Jewish culture's strong emphasis, promotion of scholarship and learning and the strong propensity to promote cultivation of intellectual pursuits as well as the nations high university educational attainment rate exemplifies how highly Israeli society values higher education.[318] [319] [320] [321] [322] [323] The Israeli education system has been praised for various reasons, including its high quality and its major role in spurring Israel's economic development and technological boom.[324] Many international business leaders and organizations such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates have praised Israel for its high quality of education in helping spur Israel's economic development.[325][326] In 2012, the country ranked second among OECD countries (tied with Japan and after Canada) for the percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds that have attained tertiary education with 46 percent compared with the OECD average of 32 percent. In addition, nearly twice as many Israelis aged 55–64 held a higher education degree compared to other OECD countries, with 47 percent holding an academic degree compared with the OECD average of 25%.[36] [37] In 2012, the country ranked third in the world in the number of academic degrees per capita (20 percent of the population).[327] [328]
Israel has a school life expectancy of 15.5 years[329] and a literacy rate of 97.1% according to the United Nations.[330] 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.[331] Education is compulsory in Israel for children between the ages of three and eighteen.[332] [333] 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.[334] In Arab, Christian and Druze schools, the exam on Biblical studies is replaced by an exam on Muslim, Christian or Druze heritage.[335] Christian Arabs are one of the most educated groups in Israel.[336] Maariv have describe the Christian Arabs sectors as "the most successful in education system",[336] since Christian Arabs fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other group receiving an education in Israel.[337] Israeli children from Russian-speaking families have a higher bagrut pass rate at high-school level.[338] Although amongst immigrant children born in the FSU, the bagrut pass rate is highest amongst those families from Western FSU states of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova (at 62.6%), and lower amongst those from Central Asian and Caucasian FSU states.[339] In 2003, over half of all Israeli twelfth graders earned a matriculation certificate.



Outline of Israel 



The location of Israel

An enlargeable map of Israel
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Israel:
Israel – sovereign state located along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea inSouthwest Asia, an area known historically in the Western World as the Near East or Middle East.[1] It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.[2]The West Bank, which is partially administrated by the Palestinian National Authority, and theHamas-reigned Gaza Strip are also adjacent. With a population of about 8.1 million,[3] the majority of whom are Jews, Israel is the world's only Jewish state.[4] It is also home to ArabMuslims, Christians, Druze, and Samaritans, as well as other religious and ethnic minority groups.
The modern state of Israel has its roots in theLand of Israel, a concept central to Judaism for over three thousand years. After World War I, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate of Palestine with the intent of creating a "national home for the Jewish people."[5] In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of the Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.[6] The Arab League rejected the plan, but on May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. The new country's victory in the subsequent Arab-Israeli War expanded the borders of the Jewish state beyond those in the UN Partition Plan. Since then, Israel has been in conflict with many of the neighboring Arab countries, resulting in several major wars and decades of violence until this day.[7] Since its foundation, Israel's boundaries and even the State's very right to exist have been subject to dispute, although Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and efforts are being made to reach a permanent accord with the Palestinians.
Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage.[8] [9] The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knessetserves as Israel's legislative body. In terms of nominal gross domestic product, the nation's economy is estimated as being the 44th-largest in the world;[10] Israel ranks the highiest among Middle Eastern countries on the basis of human development,[11]freedom of the press,[12] and economy.[13] [14] Jerusalem is the country's capital, seat of government, and largest city, and Israel's main financial center encompasses Tel Aviv.
General reference
Geography of Israel

An enlargeable topographic map ofIsrael
Environment of Israel

An enlargeable satellite image of Israeland surrounding areas
Natural geographic features of Israel
Regions of Israel
Ecoregions of Israel
Administrative divisions of Israel
  • Districts of Israel (6)
    • Subdistricts of Israel (15)
      • Natural regions of Israel (50)
        • Municipalities of Israel
Districts of Israel
Subdistricts of Israel
Natural regions of Israel
Municipalities of Israel
Demography of Israel
Main article: Demographics of Israel
Government and politics of Israel
Main article: Politics of Israel
Branches of the government of Israel
Executive branch of the government of Israel
Legislative branch of the government of Israel
Judicial branch of the government of Israel
  • The Supreme Court of Israel serves as an appellate court, High Court of Justice and constitutional court
  • District Courts serve as appellate courts and also serve as courts of first instance for some cases
  • Magistrate Courts serve as the court of first instance; some magistrate courts deal with specific affairs
  • Separate systems, which include religious courts, military courts, labor courts
Foreign relations of Israel
International organization membership
Israel is a member of:[1]

Law and order in Israel
Main article: Law of Israel
Military of Israel
Main article: Israel Defense Forces
Local government in Israel
History of Israel
Main article: History of Israel and Current events of Israel
Years in Israel
1940s
1948
1949
1950s
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960s
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
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1970
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1980s
1980
1981
1982
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1989
1990s
1990
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1998
1999
2000s
2000
2001
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2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010s
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Culture of Israel
Main article: Culture of Israel
Art in Israel
Sports in Israel
Main article: Sports in Israel
Economy and infrastructure of Israel
Main article: Economy of Israel
Education in Israel
Main article: Education in Israel
See also
Hebrew language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arabic language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
References
  1. "Israel". The World Factbook. United States Central Intelligence Agency. July 14, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  2. Skolnik 2007, pp. 132–232
  3. "Monthly Bulletin of Statistics for Population". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 7 August 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  4. "Israel". Country Report. Freedom House. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  5. "The Palestine Mandate". The Avalon Project. Yale University. 1922-07-24. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
  6. "United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181". The Avalon Project. Yale University. 1947-11-29. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  7. "Global Peace Index Rankings". http://www.visionofhumanity.com, In cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit. 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  8. Rummel 1997, p. 257. "A current list of liberal democracies includes: Andorra, Argentina, ... , Cyprus, ... , Israel, ..."
  9. "Global Survey 2006: Middle East Progress Amid Global Gains in Freedom". Freedom House. 2005-12-19. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  10. "Total GDP 2006" (pdf). The World Bank. 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  11. "Human Development Report 2006". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  12. "Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007". Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved2008-02-29.
  13. "Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007". World Economic Forum. 2007-02-14. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  14. See Economic Freedom of the World article
  15. Source: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics [1]. Note: Includes over 200,000 people in East Jerusalem, about 270,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and about 20,000 in the Golan Heights (July 2007 estimate)
External links
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