Territories controlled by Israel and recognized by the UN are indark green Territories controlled by Israel but not recognized by the UN are inlight green
Israel's population is around 9.8 million people. This includes around 7 million Jews. Most of Israel's other citizens (1.2 million) areArabs and includeMuslims,Christians, andDruze.[20][21][22] Israel is approximately 470 kilometers (290 miles) long and 135 kilometers (85 miles) wide at its widest point, making it a relatively small country in terms of land area.[23]
Israel'shistory begins thousands of years ago, inancient times. Two major world religions,Judaism andChristianity, began here. The Jewishnation and religion first grew in this region.
Canaanites and otherSemitic peoples first populated the area around four thousand years ago. According to theBible, the first Jewishpatriarch,Abraham, lived at this time.
Around 1400BCE, another Semitic people called theHebrews settled inCanaan under the leadership ofMoses andJoshua. They were named the “Children of Israel” or “Israelites”, and were divided into 12tribes.
Solomon died around 928 BCE, and his kingdom broke into two countries. The northern country kept the nameIsrael. The southern country, calledJudah, kept Jerusalem as its capital.
TheAssyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 732 BCE. Then, in 586 BCE, theBabylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah and destroyedSolomon's Temple. In response, many Jews returned from Babylonia to rebuild their country and their temple.
Early in the first century, Roman soldiers defeated the Jews in modern-day Israel. In 70CE, they destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Jewish Temple there. Again in 135 CE, the Romans defeated the Jews and killed or took many of them to other places.
The number of Jews living in Israel became much smaller. Many were forced to live in other countries. Thisspreading of Jewishcommunities outside of Israel is called theDiaspora.
Since the Diaspora, there have been many attempts to make a new homeland for the Jewish people. Starting in 1860, the Zionist movement advocated for the creation of a Jewish nation in Israel.
Jews from all over the world began to come to the area and settled indesert zones. These zones were first governed by the Ottoman Empire, and later by the British Empire.
Graphic of Israel's occupation and annexation of northern Palestine.Graphic of Israel's occupation and annexation of southern Palestine.
After a year of fighting, aceasefire was declared. Temporary borders called theGreen Line were established. TheUN estimated that more than 700,000Palestinians had been forcibly expelled by Jewish terrorist groups during thewar. This became known as theNakba ("catastrophe").[29][30]
Since the 1980s, Israel has committed terrorist attacks against civilians in Lebanon. The most notable incident of this was theSabra and Shatila massacre, which was a result of Jewish terrorism.[31]
Jerusalem is the biggest city in Israel. It is also Israel's officialcapital city. However, most countries do not recognize this, because they believe Jerusalem should be split up or be under international control.Tel Aviv,Haifa,Beersheba andRishon LeZion are also large cities.
To the north, Israel has amountainous region called theGalilee. On the eastern side of the Galilee, there is a low area called a depression that includes theHula Valley and theSea of Galilee.
To the south, there is the NegevDesert: a barren area of flatplains, mountains, andcraters. Israel's southern-most city isEilat, which is located on theGulf of Aqaba (a part of theRed Sea).
In the center of the country, there is arange of mountains that runs from north to south. TheJordan River also runs north to south, starting in the Sea of Galilee in the north and emptying into theDead Sea in the south. The land next to the Dead Sea -426meters belowsea level: the lowest in the world.[32]
Climate
Theclimate is hot and rainless in the summers, with highhumidity inlower places like thecoastal plain. It is cool and rainy in the winters, rarely going below freezing temperatures. Rain falls mostly in the north, and mostly in the winter (between the months ofNovember andApril).Snow falls at higherelevations. While much of Israel has a Mediterranean climate, certain regions, such as the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, experience snowfall during the winter months.[33]
To make it possible for crops to grow in the south, Israel built a very bigirrigation system to bring water to the area from the north.[32]
The Knesset has 120members. Each member iselected for no more than four years at a time. The Knesset makeslaws, helps decide nationalpolicy, and approvesbudgets andtaxes. The current Knesset is the country's 25th, sworn in on November 15, 2022.
Voters do not vote for individualcandidates in Knessetelections. Instead, they vote for aparty. Before the election, each party prepares a list of its candidates. The list might include a single candidate or over a hundred. Voters can see each party's list and decide which party they want to vote for.
In an election, each party wins a certainpercentage of the votes. This percentage decides how manyrepresentatives, or seats, the party gets in the Knesset. For example, if a party list gets 33 percent of the vote, it gets 40 Knesset seats.
The head of Israel's government is thePrime Minister. They are usually theleader of the party that has the most seats in the Knesset. The prime minister must keep the support of amajority of Knesset members in order to stay in office.
The prime ministerappointsministers to thecabinet, which The Knesset approves. The ministers areresponsible for subjects such aseducation,defense, andsocial welfare. The Prime Minister is the head of the cabinet; they decide what will be discussed at meetings, and they make the final decisions.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been the Israeli Prime Minister since December 29, 2022. The current government is called the Sixth Netanyahu Government because it was the sixth time Netanyahu has been elected.
Most of the president's duties areceremonial: they can sign laws andtreaties approved by the Knesset, appointjudges, and choose members of some public organizations. They also accept the documents fromambassadors and foreigndiplomats bring when they areappointed.
Isaac Herzog has been the President of Israel since July 2021.
Usually, a single political party does not win enough seats in the Knesset by itself to have amajority. If this happens, one of the bigger parties asks for support from the other parties (including the religious ones) to form acoalition government. This gives these small parties a lot of power despite their size.
Likud vs. Labor
The Likud supportsfree marketpolicies and does not think government should be involved much with theeconomy. It also believes strongly in protecting Israel'ssecurity. It wants Israel to make fewer concessions (to give less away) whilenegotiating with thePalestinians and the Arab states.
The Labor Party supports governmentcontrol of the economy, but also believes in a limited amount offree enterprise. It is willing to make more concessions (to give more away) in order to reach an agreement in thepeace process.
Economy
When it gained its independence in 1948, Israel was apoor country that produced very littleagriculture orindustry. But Israel'seconomy has grown tremendously since 1948. The nation now enjoys a very high standard of living, despite having fewnatural resources and a limitedfresh water supply.
Manyimmigrants came to Israel in the years immediately after independence. Many of these immigrants were skilled laborers andprofessionals who greatly aided the nation's economic development.
Service industries
Many of Israel'sservice industry workers are employed by the government or by businesses owned by the government. Government workers provide many of theservices needed by Israel's large immigrant population, such as housing,education, and job training.
Tourists support many of Israel's service industries, especiallytrade,restaurants, andhotels. Approximately 4 million tourists visited Israel in 2018.[36]
Israel produces most of the food it needs to feed its people, except forgrain. Exporting agricultural products provides enough income to import needed foods. Israel's agricultural products includecitrus and otherfruits;eggs;grain;poultry; andvegetables.
The government develops, helps finance, and controls agricultural activity, includingfishing andforestry.
Most Israeli farmers use modern agricultural methods. Machines now do much of the work that people used to do. Water drawn from the Sea of Galilee irrigates much of the land in Israel.
Most Israelifarms are organized as moshavim orkibbutzim. Israel also has some private farms.
Solar energy – energy from thesun – is used widely to heat water for houses. Israel is developing other ways to use solar energy to power houses and factories.
In 2008, Israel began investing in buildingelectric cars and stations to charge them. There may also be largenatural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea that Israel could develop.
International trade
In 2006, Israeli exports grew by 11% to just over $29 billion. The hi-tech sector accounted for $14 billion of this: a 20% increase from the previous year.
Because it has few natural resources, Israel imports more goods than it exports. The country's main imports include chemicals,computer equipment, grain,iron andsteel, military equipment,petroleum products, rough diamonds, and textiles.
Israel has a well-developedtransportation system. Mostmiddle-class Israeli families either own a car or have one that an employer provides. Paved roads reach almost all parts of the country.Public transportation, both in cities and between them, is provided primarily bybus.
Ben-Gurion Airport is Israel's maininternational airport. It is near Tel Aviv. Smaller airports are located at Haifa and at Eilat. El Al, Israel's internationalairline, flies regularly to the United States,Europe, and parts ofAsia.
Israel has three major deepwaterports: Haifa, Ashdod, and Eilat.
Communications
Israel'scommunication system is one of the best in the Middle East. Israel has about 30 dailynewspapers, about half of which are inHebrew. The rest are inArabic,Russian,Yiddish, or one of several foreignlanguages. The Israel Broadcasting Authority, a public corporation set up by the government, runs thetelevision and nonmilitaryradio stations.
↑Arabic previously had been an official language of the State of Israel.[10] In 2018its classification was changed to a 'special status in the state' with its use by state institutions to be set in law.[11][12][13]
↑"Czech Republic announces it recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel's capital".Jerusalem Post. 6 December 2017. Retrieved6 December 2017.The Czech Republic currently, before the peace between Israel and Palestine is signed, recognizes Tel Aviv to be 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.
↑"Press Releases from the Knesset".Knesset website. 19 July 2018.The Arabic language has a special status in the state; Regulating the use of Arabic in state institutions or by them will be set in law.
↑"Home page". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved20 February 2017.
↑Population Census 2008(PDF) (Report). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008. Retrieved27 December 2016.
↑"הודעות לתקשורת".www1.cbs.gov.il (in Hebrew). 2014. Archived fromthe original on December 30, 2013. RetrievedJanuary 31, 2014.
↑An additional 4.7 million people live under Israel's occupation ofPalestine (2.9 million in West Bank and 1.8 million in Gaza Strip), but are neither citizens of Israel, nor citizens of any country that Israelrecognizes
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