State of Israel | |
---|---|
Anthem: הַתִּקְוָה (Hatīkvāh; "The Hope") | |
Israel within internationally recognized borders shown in dark green; Israeli-occupied territories shown in light green | |
Capital and largest city | Jerusalem (limited recognition)[fn 1][fn 2] 31°47′N 35°13′E / 31.783°N 35.217°E |
Official language | Hebrew[8] |
Special status | Arabic[fn 3] |
Ethnic groups (2023)[12] | |
Religion (2016)[13] | |
Demonym(s) | Israeli |
Government | Unitary parliamentary republic |
Isaac Herzog | |
Benjamin Netanyahu | |
Amir Ohana | |
Uzi Vogelman (acting) | |
Legislature | Knesset |
Establishment | |
14 May 1948 | |
11 May 1949 | |
19 July 2018 | |
Area | |
• Total | 22,072 or 20,770[14][15] km2 (8,522 or 8,019 sq mi)[a] (149th) |
• Water (%) | 2.71[16] |
Population | |
• 2024 estimate | 9,900,000[17] (93rd) |
• 2022 census | 9,601,720[18][fn 4] |
• Density | 451/km2 (1,168.1/sq mi) (29th) |
GDP (PPP) | 2024 estimate |
• Total | ![]() |
• Per capita | ![]() |
GDP (nominal) | 2024 estimate |
• Total | ![]() |
• Per capita | ![]() |
Gini (2018) | 34.8[fn 4][20] medium inequality |
HDI (2022) | ![]() very high (25th) |
Currency | New shekel (₪) (ILS) |
Time zone | UTC+2:00 (IST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+3:00 (IDT) |
Date format | |
Driving side | right |
Calling code | +972 |
ISO 3166 code | IL |
Internet TLD | .il |
|
Israel,[a] officially the State of Israel,[b] is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon and Syria to the north, the West Bank and Jordan to the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.[22] The country also has a small coastline on the Red Sea at its southernmost point, and part of the Dead Sea lies along its eastern border. Israel's proclaimed capital is in Jerusalem[23] Tel Aviv is the core of its largest urban area and economic center.
Israel is located in a region known to Jews as the Land of Israel, synonymous with the Palestine region, the Holy Land, and ancient Canaan. In antiquity, it was home to Canaanite city-states followed by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region experienced demographic changes under the rule of various empires from the Romans to the Ottomans.[24] European antisemitism in the late 19th century galvanized Zionism, which sought a Jewish homeland in Palestine and gained British support. After World War I, Britain occupied the region and established Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration in the leadup to the Holocaust and British colonial policy led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs,[25][26] which escalated into a civil war in 1947 after the UN proposed partitioning the land between them.
The State of Israel declared its establishment on 14 May 1948. The armies of neighboring Arab states invaded the area of the former Mandate the next day, beginning the First Arab–Israeli War. Subsequent armistice agreements established Israeli control over 77 percent of the former Mandate territory.[27][28][29] The majority of Palestinian Arabs were expelled by Zionist and Israeli forces or fled in what is known as the Nakba, with those able to remain becoming the new state's main minority.[30][31][32] Over the following decades, Israel received an influx of Jews who emigrated, fled or were expelled from the Muslim world.[33][34] Following the 1967 Six-Day War Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights, declaring Jerusalem as its capital. Israel established and continues to expand settlements across the illegally occupied territories, contrary to international law, and has effectively annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in moves largely unrecognized internationally. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt—returning the Sinai in 1982—and Jordan. In the 2020s it normalized relations with more Arab countries. However, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict after the interim Oslo Accords have not succeeded, and the country has engaged in several wars and clashes with Palestinian militant groups. Israel's practices in the occupied territories have drawn sustained international criticism, including accusations of war crimes against Palestinians from human rights advocates and United Nations officials.
The country's Basic Laws establish a unicameral parliament elected by proportional representation, the Knesset, which determines the makeup of the government headed by the prime minister and elects the figurehead president.[35] Israel is the only country to have a revived official language, Hebrew. Its culture comprises Jewish and Jewish diaspora elements alongside Arab influences, involving cuisine, music, and art. Israel has one of the biggest economies in the Middle East and among the highest GDP per capita and standards of living in Asia. One of the most technologically advanced and developed countries in the world, it spends proportionally more on research and development than any other and is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons.[36][37][38][39][40][41] The country joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2010 and has the only above-replacement fertility rate among its members.[42][43][44]
The Czech Republic currently, before the peace between Israel and Palestine is signed, recognizes Jerusalem to be in fact the capital of Israel in the borders of the demarcation line from 1967." The Ministry also said that it would only consider relocating its embassy based on "results of negotiations.
population_stat2022
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
The fear of territorial displacement and dispossession was to be the chief motor of Arab antagonism to Zionism down to 1948 (and indeed after 1967 as well).Also quoted, among many, by Mark M. Ayyash (2019). Hermeneutics of Violence: A Four-Dimensional Conception. University of Toronto Press, p. 195 Archived 22 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine, ISBN 1487505868. Accessed 22 March 2024.
The mass immigration from Arab countries began in mid-1949 and included three communities that relocated to Israel almost in their entirety: 31,000 Jews from Libya, 50,000 from Yemen, and 125,000 from Iraq. Additional immigrants arrived from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, India, and elsewhere. Within three years, the Jewish population of Israel doubled. The ethnic composition of the population shifted as well, as immigrants from Muslim counties and their offspring now comprised one third of the Jewish population—an unprecedented phenomenon in global immigration history. From 1952–60, Israel regulated and restricted immigration from Muslim countries with a selective immigration policy based on economic criteria, and sent these immigrants, most of whom were North African, to peripheral Israeli settlements. The selective immigration policy ended in 1961 when, following an agreement between Israel and Morocco, about 100,000 Jews immigrated to the State. From 1952–68 about 600,000 Jews arrived in Israel, three quarters of whom were from Arab countries and the remaining immigrants were largely from Eastern Europe. Today fewer than 30,000 remain in Muslim countries, mostly concentrated in Iran and Turkey.
Around 750,000–900,000 Palestinians were systematically expelled from their homes and lands and about 531 villages were deliberately destroyed.
Not only was there no Palestinian Arab state, but the vast majority of the Arab population in the territory that became Israel-over 700,000 people-had become refugees. The Arab flight from Palestine began during he intercommunal war and was at first the normal reaction of a civilian population to nearby fighting-a temporary evacuation from the zone of combat with plans to return once hostilities ceased. However, during spring and early summer 1948, the flight of the Palestinian Arabs was transformed itno a permanent mass exodus ... Once the Arab flight had started, it was encouraged by the Haganah ... Haganah field officers interpreted Plan D as giving them authority to undertake the systematic expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs living within the area allocated to the Jewish state as well as those whose villages were situated just inside the territory awarded to the Arab state ... Throughout the remainder of 1948 and into 1949, there were incidents of forced expulsion of Arabs. As a result, by the time the last armistice agreement was concluded in 1949, there remained only 160,000 Arabs within the borders of Israel.
cnn
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=fn>
tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=fn}}
template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search