"Greater Israel" (Hebrew:ארץ ישראל השלמה,romanized: Eretz Yisrael HaShlema) is anexpression with several different biblical and political meanings over time. It is often used, in anirredentist fashion, to refer to the historic or desired borders of theState of Israel.
Territorial claims of Israeli Nationalist orZionist movements have varied, depending on the time period and different groups of proponents such asLabor Zionist,Revisionist Zionist, orReligious Zionist groups.[1] There are two different primary uses of the termGreater Israel – one referring more narrowly to the area internationally recognized as part of the State of Israel along with theGolan Heights,West Bank, andGaza Strip; and a second definition referring to the much larger region stretching from the riverNile to theEuphrates.[2]
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Theodore Herzl, one of the founders ofZionism, was influenced by theTanakh in his thinking on the borders for aJewish State inPalestine. In the words of professor of history H.S. Haddad: "Herzl's idea of the geographical extent of the Jewish state was derived from the biblical romance of theDavidic Kingdom."[3]
William Hechler, an EnglishChristian Zionist, also influenced Herzl's thinking on the matter,[4] and Theodore Herzl recorded in his diary that:
Hechler unfolded his Palestine map in our [train] compartment and instructed me by the hour. The northern frontier is to be the mountains facingCappadocia, the southern, theSuez Canal. Our slogan shall be: "The Palestine ofDavid andSolomon."[5]
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TheLand of Israel (Hebrew:אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל,Modern: ʾEreṣ Yīsraʾel,Tiberian: ʾEreṣ Yīsrāʾēl) is the traditional Jewish name for an area of theSouthern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include theLand of Canaan, thePromised Land, theHoly Land, andPalestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in theHebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).
The Bible contains three geographical definitions of theLand of Israel:
These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of establishedhistorical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including theUnited Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms ofIsrael (Samaria) andJudah, theHasmonean Kingdom, and theHerodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.
Judaism defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and excludes territory where it was not applied.[6] It holds that the area is a God-given inheritance of theJewish people based on theTorah, particularly the books ofGenesis,Exodus,Numbers andDeuteronomy, as well asJoshua and the laterProphets.[7] According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised byGod to Abram's descendants; the text is explicit that this is acovenant between God and Abram for his descendants.[8] Abram's name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his sonIsaac and to theIsraelites, descendants ofJacob, Abraham's grandson.
Professor of history H.S. Haddad writes that "Although there are different delineations of the boundaries of thePromised Land in theBible, the locus ofEretz Israel is clear and constant. Whether it is defined as "from Dan to Beersheba" and "from the desert to the sea" or, more often, from theNile to theEuphrates,Jerusalem is the centre around which these circles of varying size are drawn."[9]
Return to Zion (Hebrew:שִׁיבָת צִיּוֹן or שבי ציון,Shivat Tzionor Shavei Tzion,lit. 'Zion returnees') is an event recorded inEzra–Nehemiah of theHebrew Bible, in which theJews of theKingdom of Judah—subjugated by theNeo-Babylonian Empire—were freed from theBabylonian captivity following thePersian conquest of Babylon. In 539 BCE, the Persian kingCyrus the Great issued theEdict of Cyrus allowing the Jews to return toJerusalem and theLand of Judah, which was made into a self-governing Jewish province known asYehud under the new PersianAchaemenid Empire.
TheSecond Temple period or post-exilic period inJewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE–70 CE) during which theSecond Temple stood in the city ofJerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of theTemple in Jerusalem, and ended with theFirst Jewish–Roman War and theRoman siege of Jerusalem.
TheBalfour Declaration was a public statement issued by theBritish Government in 1917 during theFirst World War announcing that it "viewed with favour" the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" inPalestine, then anOttoman region with a small minorityJewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom'sForeign SecretaryArthur Balfour toLord Rothschild, a leader of theBritish Jewish community, for transmission to theZionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917.
On the military front in Palestine, theSinai and Palestine campaign was part of theMiddle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. It brought Palestine under British control that ended with theArmistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession ofOttoman Syria that included most of western Palestine.
EarlyRevisionist Zionist groups such asBetar andIrgun Zvai-Leumi regarded the territory of theMandate for Palestine, includingTransjordan, as Greater Israel.[10]
In 1937, thePeel Commission recommended partition ofMandatory Palestine. Ina letter to his son later that year,David Ben-Gurion stated that partition would be acceptable but as a first step. Ben-Gurion wrote that
This is because this increase in possession is of consequence not only in itself, but because through it we increase our strength, and every increase in strength helps in the possession of the land as a whole. The establishment of a state, even if only on a portion of the land, is the maximal reinforcement of our strength at the present time and a powerful boost to our historical endeavors to liberate the entire country.[11][12][13]
The same sentiment was recorded by Ben-Gurion on other occasions, such as at a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938,[14] as well as byChaim Weizmann.[13][15] Ben Gurion said:
We shall smash these frontiers which are being forced upon us, and not necessarily by war. I believe an agreement between us and the Arab State could be reached in a not too distant future."[16]
Of the Peel Commission's partition plan Zionist leaderChaim Weizmann stated "I know that God promised Palestine to the children of Israel, but I do not know what boundaries He set. I believe they were wider than the ones now proposed and may have included Transjordan."[17][18]
Joel Greenberg writing inThe New York Times notes: "At Israel's founding in 1948, theLabor Zionist leadership, which went on to govern Israel in its first three decades of independence, accepted a pragmatic partition of what had been British Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states. The oppositionRevisionist Zionists, who evolved into today'sLikud party, soughtEretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema—Greater Israel, or literally, the Whole Land of Israel (shalem, meaning complete)."[19] The capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt during theSix-Day War in 1967 led to the growth of the non-parliamentaryMovement for Greater Israel and the construction ofIsraeli settlements. The1977 elections, which broughtLikud to power also had considerable impact on acceptance and rejection of the term. Greenberg notes:
THE seed was sown in 1977, whenMenachem Begin of Likud brought his party to power for the first time in a stunning election victory over Labor. A decade before, in the 1967 war, Israeli troops had in effect undone the partition accepted in 1948 by overrunning theWest Bank andGaza Strip. Ever since, Mr. Begin had preached undying loyalty to what he called Judea and Samaria (theWest Bank lands) and promoted Jewish settlement there. But he did not annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel after he took office, reflecting a recognition that absorbing the Palestinians could turn Israel into a bi-national state instead of a Jewish one.[19]
Yitzhak Shamir was a dedicated proponent of Greater Israel and as Israeli Prime Minister gave thesettler movement funding and Israeli governmental legitimisation.[20]
The Movement for Greater Israel (Hebrew:התנועה למען ארץ ישראל השלמה,HaTenu'a Lema'an Eretz Yisrael HaSheleima), also known as the Land of Israel Movement, was a political organisation inIsrael during the 1960s and 1970s which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel. The organization was formed in July 1967, a month after Israel captured theGaza Strip, theSinai Peninsula, theWest Bank, and theGolan Heights in theSix-Day War. It called on the Israeli government to keep the captured areas and to settle them withJewish populations.[citation needed] Despite the decrease in support of a Jewish homeland stretching from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" among theReligious Zionists,Gush Emunim persisted in that belief in the 1970s and 1980s.[21]
Today the term "Greater Israel" is generally used among Israelis to refer to the territory of theState of Israel and the area internationally recognized as thePalestinian territories, which together form the combined territory of the formerMandatory Palestine minusTrans-Jordan (modern-dayJordan), which was already separated from Palestine by the British in the early 1920s. However, because of ambiguity and controversy surrounding the term, those areas are instead often referred to as theLand of Israel.[citation needed] Some Israelis still interpret "Greater Israel" to include theGolan Heights andSinai Peninsula, or even as a promise of dominion over the entire area from theNile River (in modernEgypt) to theEuphrates River (which flows through today'sTurkey,Syria, andIraq).[2][22] In the present day, theHardal section of theReligious Zionist movement has brought back claims of a Jewish homeland extending from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates".[23]
In the 2000s, theannexation of the West Bank andGaza Strip was part of the platform of the mainstream IsraeliLikud party, and of some other, often more extreme Israeli political parties.[24] On September 14, 2008, Israeli Prime MinisterEhud Olmert, formerly of Likud, remarked that "Greater Israel is over. There is no such thing. Anyone who talks that way is deluding themselves",[25] making this statement just two days before privately reaching out to the Palestinian President witha comprehensive plan that ultimately never was implemented.[26]
Meir Kahane, anultra-nationalistKnesset member, who founded the AmericanJewish Defense League and the banned IsraeliKach party, worked towards Greater Israel and otherReligious Zionist goals. Kach,[27][28]Tehiya,[29][30] and theNational Religious Party[31][32] are parties which supported the idea of a Greater Israel.
In March 2023, the Israeli Finance MinisterBezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-rightNational Religious Party–Religious Zionism, spoke at a Paris memorial behind a podium featuring a 'Greater Israel' map includingTrans-Jordan. This speech has led to tensions with Jordan, while his spokesperson attributed the symbol's presence to the organizers of the event, which was dedicated to a man connected to the Irgun (see above for Irgun emblem). In response to the diplomatic controversy, Israel's Foreign Ministry stated that Israel adheres to the1994 peace treaty and respects Jordan's sovereignty.[33][34][35]
In August 2025, Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu said in an interview withi24NEWS that he was on a "historic and spiritual mission" and that he is "very" attached to the vision of Greater Israel, which includes Palestinian areas and possibly also places that are part of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.[36][37] He stated that the generation of his parents was responsible for establishing the state, and it is now his duty, as well as that of his generation, to guarantee the survival of this state (Greater Israel).[38] In response to Netanyahu's statements, the foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim nations denounced his assertion regarding "Greater Israel" as a blatant infringement of international law. The nations that expressed this condemnation included Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.[39]
Israeli Finance MinisterBezalel Smotrich has suggested that Israel is destined to expand to include Jordan, and even beyond, to parts ofSyria,Lebanon,Jordan,Egypt and evenIraq. In a documentary film byArte in 2024, Smotrich said “it is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand toDamascus.”[40][41] This view has support in some parts of Israeli society. Israel’s incursions into Jordan and Syria has intensified international concerns that some actors in Israel are pursuing expansion into other countries.[42]
In 2024Daniella Weiss said "We know from the Bible that the real borders of Greater Israel are the Euphrates and the Nile".[43]
Hillel Weiss, a professor atBar-Ilan University, has promoted the "necessity" of rebuilding the Temple and of Jewish rule over Greater Israel.[44][45][46]Francesca Albanese andAmos Goldberg have said that an aim towards a Greater Israel is a factor during theGaza genocide.[47][48] According to Yoav Di-Capua, one of the beliefs of the Hardal movement is "the obligation to retrieve the biblical land of Israel in its entirety as a pre-requisite for collective redemption which heralds the arrival of the Messiah".[49]
It has been suggested that the blue strips of theIsraeli flag represent theNile andEuphrates as the boundaries ofEretz Isra'el aspromised to theJews byGod according to religious scripture.[50] This claim was at a time made byYasser Arafat,[51]Iran andHamas.[52] However,Danny Rubinstein points out that "Arafat ... added, in interviews that he gave in the past, that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and the Euphrates. ... No Israeli, even those who demonstrate understanding for Palestinian distress, will accept the ... nonsense about the blue stripes on the flag, which was designed according to the colours of the traditional tallit (prayer shawl) ..."[53]
The10 agorot controversy was aconspiracy theory[54][55] put forth byPalestine Liberation Organization chairmanYasser Arafat at a specially convened session of the UN Security Council in Geneva on 25 May 1990. At the session, Arafat claimed that theobverse design of an Israeli tenagorot coin contained a map of Greater Israel.[54][56]
According to Nadav Shelef, a minority ofReligious Zionist groups supported a Jewish homeland extending from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" in 1925, whereas modern-day such groups changed the claims to present-day Israel, theGolan Heights,Gaza Strip, andWest Bank by 2005.[57] However, theHardal section of theReligious Zionist groups still supports "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" claims.[23]
