Israel

State of Israel
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (Hebrew)
دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل (Arabic)
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 / 31.783; 35.217
Official languageHebrew[8]
Recognized languageArabic[fn 3]
Ethnic groups
(2023)[12]
Demonym(s)Israeli
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary republic
• President
Isaac Herzog
Benjamin Netanyahu
Amir Ohana
Uzi Vogelman (acting)
LegislatureKnesset
Establishment
14 May 1948
11 May 1949
1958–2018
Area
• Total
22,072 or 20,770[13][14] km2 (8,522 or 8,019 sq mi)[a] (149th)
• Water (%)
2.71[15]
Population
• 2024 estimate
9,869,120[16][fn 4] (93rd)
• 2008 census
7,412,200[17][fn 4]
• Density
447/km2 (1,157.7/sq mi) (29th)
GDP (PPP)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $537.140 billion[18] (47th)
• Per capita
Increase $54,771[18] (29th)
GDP (nominal)2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $521.688 billion[18] (29th)
• Per capita
Increase $53,195[18] (18th)
Gini (2018)34.8[fn 4][19]
medium
HDI (2022)Increase 0.915[20]
very high (25th)
CurrencyNew shekel () (ILS)
Time zoneUTC+2:00 (IST)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3:00 (IDT)
Date format
  • יי-חח-שששש (AM)
  • dd-mm-yyyy (CE)
Driving sideright
Calling code+972
ISO 3166 codeIL
Internet TLD.il
  1. ^ 20,770 km2 is Israel within the Green Line. 22,072 km2 includes the occupied Golan Heights (c. 1,200 km2 (460 sq mi)) and East Jerusalem (c. 64 km2 (25 sq mi)).

Israel, officially the State of Israel,[fn 5] is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, the Red Sea to the south, Egypt to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest.[21] Tel Aviv is the financial, economic, and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally.[22][fn 6]

Israel is located in a region known historically as Canaan, Palestine and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to several Canaanite, and later, Israelite and Jewish states, and is referred to as the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. The region was then ruled by the Assyrian, Babylonian, Achaemenid, Hellenistic Roman Byzantine, Arab rule, Islamic Caliphates Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Crusader, and Ottoman empires.The late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism in Europe, a movement seeking a Jewish homeland, which garnered British support. After World War I, the Ottomans were defeated and the Mandate for Palestine was set up in 1920. Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine increased considerably, leading to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs.[24] The 1947 UN Partition Plan triggered a civil war between the two groups, which saw the expulsion and flight of most of Palestine's predominantly Arab population.

Israel declared its establishment on 14 May 1948, the day the British terminated the Mandate. On 15 May 1948, the armies of five neighboring Arab states invaded the area of the former Mandatory Palestine, starting the First Arab–Israeli War. The 1949 Armistice Agreements saw Israel's borders established over most of the former Mandate territory, while the rest, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were ruled by Jordan and Egypt respectively.[25][26][27] The 1967 Six-Day War saw Israel occupying the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights. It has since established and continues to expand settlements across the occupied territories, actions which are deemed illegal under international law, and annexed both East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which are largely unrecognized internationally. Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt, returning the Sinai Peninsula, and with Jordan, and more recently normalized relations with several Arab countries. However, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not succeeded. Israel's practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international criticism along with accusations that it has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people from human rights organizations and United Nations officials.

The country has a parliamentary system elected by proportional representation. The prime minister serves as head of government, and is elected by the Knesset, Israel's unicameral legislature.[28] Israel ranks very high on the Human Development index, [29] and is one of the richest countries in the Middle East and Asia,[30][31][32] and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member since 2010.[33] It has one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East, and has been ranked as one of the most advanced and technological countries,[34][35][36] with a population of nearly 10 million people, as of 2023.[37] It has the world's 29th-largest economy by nominal GDP and 18th by nominal GDP per capita.[18]

  1. ^ "Foreign Ministry statement regarding Palestinian-Israeli settlement". mid.ru. 6 April 2017. Archived from the original on 4 January 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Czech Republic announces it recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel's capital". The Jerusalem Post. 6 December 2017. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2017. 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.
  3. ^ "Honduras recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital". The Times of Israel. 29 August 2019. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  4. ^ "Guatemala se suma a EEUU y también trasladará su embajada en Israel a Jerusalén" [Guatemala joins US, will also move embassy to Jerusalem]. Infobae (in Spanish). 24 December 2017. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2017. Guatemala's embassy was located in Jerusalem until the 1980s, when it was moved to Tel Aviv.
  5. ^ "Nauru recognizes J'lem as capital of Israel". Israel National News. 29 August 2019. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move". The New York Times. 6 December 2017. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  7. ^ The Legal Status of East Jerusalem (PDF), Norwegian Refugee Council, December 2013, pp. 8, 29, archived (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2021, retrieved 26 October 2021
  8. ^ "Constitution for Israel". knesset.gov.il. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Arabic in Israel: an official language and a cultural bridge". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 18 December 2016. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  10. ^ "Israel Passes 'National Home' Law, Drawing Ire of Arabs". The New York Times. 19 July 2018. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  11. ^ Lubell, Maayan (19 July 2018). "Israel adopts divisive Jewish nation-state law". Reuters. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference population_stat2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "Israel". Central Intelligence Agency. 27 February 2023. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2023 – via CIA.gov.
  14. ^ "Israel country profile". BBC News. 24 February 2020. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  15. ^ "Surface water and surface water change". OECD.Stat. OECD. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Home page". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  17. ^ Population Census 2008 (PDF) (Report). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  18. ^ a b c d e "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2023 Edition. (Israel)". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. 10 October 2023. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  19. ^ "Income inequality". OECD Data. OECD. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  20. ^ Nations, United (13 March 2024). Human Development Report 2023-24 (Report). United Nations.
  21. ^ "When will be the right time for Israel to define its borders? - analysis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 12 June 2022.
  22. ^ Akram, Susan M., Michael Dumper, Michael Lynk, and Iain Scobbie, eds. 2010. International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Rights-Based Approach to Middle East Peace. Routledge. p. 119: "UN General Assembly Resolution 181 recommended the creation of an international zone, or corpus separatum, in Jerusalem to be administered by the UN for a 10-year period, after which there would be a referendum to determine its future. This approach applies equally to West and East Jerusalem and is not affected by the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. To a large extent it is this approach that still guides the diplomatic behaviour of states and thus has greater force in international law."
  23. ^ Kellerman 1993, p. 140.
  24. ^ Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001: Morris, Benny: 9780679744757: Amazon.com: Books. 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).[permanent dead link]
  25. ^ "Zionism | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica". britannica.com. 19 October 2023. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  26. ^ Fischbach 2008, p. 26–27.
  27. ^ Meir-Glitzenstein, Esther (Fall 2018). "Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel". Israel Studies. Indiana University Press. 23 (3): 114–122. doi:10.2979/israelstudies.23.3.15. JSTOR 10.2979/israelstudies.23.3.15. S2CID 150208821. 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.
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Nations, United (13 March 2024). Human Development Report 2023-24 (Report). United Nations.
  30. ^ "30 Countries with Highest GDP per Capita". Yahoo Finance. 23 March 2023. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  31. ^ "Global Wealth Report". Credit Suisse. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  32. ^ Team, FAIR (6 September 2023). "Top 10 Richest Countries in Asia [2023]". FAIR. Archived from the original on 20 November 2023. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  33. ^ "Israel to join prestigious OECD economic club". France 24. 27 May 2010. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  34. ^ "Israel's accession to the OECD". oecd.org. OECD. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  35. ^ "Top 15 Most Advanced Countries in the World". Yahoo Finance. 4 December 2022. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  36. ^ Getzoff, Marc (9 August 2023). "Most Technologically Advanced Countries In The World 2023". Global Finance Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  37. ^ "Israel reveals population to reach 10 million by end of 2024". i24news.tv. 14 September 2023. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 22 October 2023.


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).