I
officially State of Israel
Country, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
Area: 7,886 sq mi (20,425 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 6,394,000 (includes population of Golan Heights and east Jerusalem; excludes population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip ). Capital: Jerusalem . Jews constitute some four-fifths of the population, and Arabs about one-fifth. Languages: Hebrew, Arabic (both official). Religions: Judaism, Islam (mainly Sunnite), Christianity. Currency: new Israeli sheqel (NIS). Israel can be divided into four major regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain in the west; a hill region extending from the northern border into central Israel; the Great Rift Valley , containing the Jordan River , in the east; and the arid Negev , occupying nearly the entire southern half of the country. Its major drainage system is the interior basin formed by the Jordan River; Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) provides water to almost half of the country's agricultural land. Israel has a mixed economy based largely on services and manufacturing; exports include machinery and electronics, diamonds, chemicals, citrus fruits, vegetables, and textiles. Its population is nine-tenths urban and is concentrated largely in the Mediterranean coastal plain and around Jerusalem. It is a republic with one legislative house, the Knesset ; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. The record of human habitation in Israel (see Palestine ) is at least 100,000 years old. Efforts by Jews to establish a national state there began in the late 19th century. Britain supported Zionism and in 1923 assumed political responsibility for what was then Palestine. Migration of Jews there, which increased during the period of Arab-Israeli wars ) as well as the 1967 Six-Day War , in which it occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and east Jerusalem. (Subsequent claims of Jerusalem as Israel's capital have not received wide international recognition.) Another war with its Arab neighbours followed in 1973, but the Camp David Accords led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from that country, and in late 1987 an uprising broke out among Palestinians of the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (see intifādah ). Peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states and Palestinians began in 1992. Israel and the PLO agreed in 1993 to a five-year plan to extend self-government to the Palestinians of the occupied territories. Israel signed a full peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Israeli soldiers and a Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, clashed repeatedly throughout the 1990s. Israeli troops abruptly withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. Later that year further negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down amid violence that claimed hundreds of lives.
II
[c mediumvioletred] (as used in expressions)
State of Israel
Melvin Allen Israel
Israel ben Eliezer
Bene Israel
Israel Baline
Edward Israel Iskowitz
Israel Gershvin
Israel Labour Party
Israel tribes of
Manasseh ben Israel
{{link=Putnam Israel">Putnam Israel
Israel Beer Josaphat
Israel Strassberg
Zangwill Israel