My visit through Israel,Ashedod,Bethelehem,Gologota,Betesaida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
State of Israel | |
|---|---|
| Anthem: הַתִּקְוָה (Hatīkvāh; "The Hope") | |
.svg) _-_ISR_-_UNOCHA.svg) Israel within internationally recognised borders | |
| Capital and largest city | Jerusalem (limited recognition)[fn 1][fn 2] 31°47′N 35°13′E |
| Official language | Hebrew[9] |
| Special status | Arabic[fn 3] |
| Ethnic groups (2025 est.)[13] | |
| Religion (2023 est.)[14] |
|
| Demonym | Israeli |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic |
| Isaac Herzog | |
| Benjamin Netanyahu | |
| Amir Ohana | |
| Yitzhak Amit | |
| Legislature | Knesset |
| Establishment | |
| 14 May 1948 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 22,072 or 20,770[15][16] km2 (8,522 or 8,019 sq mi)[a] (148th) |
• Water (%) | 2.71[17] |
| Population | |
• 2025 estimate | 10,147,200[18] (93rd) |
• 2022 census | 9,601,720[19][fn 4] |
• Density | 461/km2 (1,194.0/sq mi) (30th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2025 estimate |
• Total |  $567.55 billion[20] (48th) |
• Per capita | $55,770[20] (35th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 estimate |
• Total | $610.75 billion[20] (26th) |
• Per capita | $60,010[20] (14th) |
| Gini (2021) |  37.9[21]medium inequality |
| HDI (2023) | 0.919[22] very high (27th) |
| Currency | New shekel (₪) (ILS) |
| Time zone | UTC+2:00 (IST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+3:00 (IDT) |
| 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 borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. Israel occupies the Palestinian territories of the West Bank in the east and the Gaza Strip in the southwest, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel's western coast lies on the Mediterranean Sea, its southern tip reaching the Red Sea, and the east includes the Earth's lowest point near the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the government seat and proclaimed capital,[23] while Tel Aviv is Israel's largest urban area and economic centre.
The Land of Israel is synonymous with Palestine or the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to the Canaanites, and later the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Its location at a continental crossroads brought demographic shifts under various empires. Nineteenth-century European antisemitism fuelled the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland. Britain endorsed this goal in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1920. Jewish immigration and British policies intensified Arab-Jewish tensions,[24][25] and the 1947 United Nations (UN) Partition Plan led to a civil war.
Israel declared independence at the end of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948, and neighbouring Arab states invaded the next day. A 1949 armistice left Israel with territory beyond the UN plan;[26] no Arab state was created, as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank came under Egyptian and Jordanian control.[26][27][28] Most Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled during the Nakba, leaving a minority in Israel,[29][30][31] while the country's population grew in later decades as Jews fled or were expelled from the Muslim world.[32][33] After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Sinai, and the Syrian Golan Heights, later annexing East Jerusalem and the Golan—actions that, along with settlement expansion, are considered violations of international law. Peace was signed with Egypt in 1979 (Sinai returned in 1982) and with Jordan in 1994. The 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians established mutual recognition and limited self-rule, and the 2020 Abraham Accords normalised ties with more Arab states. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, with wars and clashes with Palestinian militant groups. Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has drawn sustained international criticism. Experts, human-rights organisations and UN officials have described Israel's actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, Israel began committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Basic Laws of Israel establish the Knesset, a parliament elected by proportional representation. It shapes the government, led by the prime minister, and elects the largely ceremonial president.[34] Israel has one of the Middle East's largest economies,[35] one of Asia's highest living standards, and globally ranks 26th in nominal GDP and 14th in nominal GDP per capita.[20][36] One of the world's most technologically advanced countries,[37][38] Israel allocates a larger share of its economy to research and development than any other state[39][40] and is believed to possess nuclear weapons. The culture of Israel combines Jewish traditions, including those of the diaspora, with Arab influences.
Etymology
The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish people respectively. The name Israel (Hebrew: Yīsrāʾēl; Septuagint Ancient Greek: Ἰσραήλ, Israēl, "El (God) persists/rules") refers to the patriarch Jacob who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the Angel of the Lord.[41] The earliest known archaeological artefact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late-13th century BCE).[42][43][44][fn 5][46]
Under the British Mandate (1920–1948), the entire region was known as Palestine.[47][48][49] Upon establishment in 1948, the country formally adopted the name State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, ⓘ [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel]; Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]) after other proposed names including Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), Ever (from ancestor Eber), Zion, and Judea, were considered but rejected.[50][51] The name Israel was suggested by David Ben-Gurion and passed by a vote of 6–3.[52][53] In the early weeks after establishment, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of the state.[54]
History
Prehistory
The Ubeidiya prehistoric site in northern Israel shows the presence of archaic humans around 1.5 million years ago.[55] The second-oldest evidence of anatomically modern humans outside Africa is a 200,000-year-old fossil from Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel.[56] The Natufian culture (c. 10,000 BCE) may be linked to the Proto-Afroasiatic language[57][58] and is notable for adopting sedentism before the advent of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution.[59]
Bronze and Iron Ages
.jpg)
Early references to "Canaan" and "Canaanites" appear in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian texts (c. 2000 BCE); these populations were structured as politically independent city-states.[60][61] During the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE), large parts of Canaan formed vassal states of the New Kingdom of Egypt.[62] As a result of the Late Bronze Age collapse, Canaan fell into chaos, and Egyptian control over the region collapsed.[63][64] Ancestors of the Israelites are thought to have included ancient Semitic-speaking peoples native to this area.[65]: 78–79 Modern archaeological accounts suggest that the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centered on Yahweh.[66][67] They spoke an archaic form of Hebrew, known as Biblical Hebrew.[68] Around the same time, the Philistines settled on the southern coastal plain.[69][70]
Most modern scholars agree that the Exodus narrative in the Torah and Old Testament did not take place as depicted; however, some elements of these traditions do have historical roots.[71][72][73] There is debate about the earliest existence of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their extent and power. While it is unclear if there was a United Kingdom of Israel,[74][75] historians and archaeologists agree that the northern Kingdom of Israel existed by ca. 900 BCE[76]: 169–195 and the Kingdom of Judah by ca. 850 BCE.[77][78] The Kingdom of Israel was the more prosperous of the two and soon developed into a regional power, with a capital at Samaria;[79][80][81] during the Omride dynasty, it controlled Samaria, Galilee, the upper Jordan Valley, the plain of Sharon and large parts of Transjordan.[80] The Kingdom of Israel was conquered around 720 BCE by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[82] The Kingdom of Judah, under Davidic rule with its capital in Jerusalem, later became a client state of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It is estimated that the region's population was around 400,000 in the Iron Age II.[83] In 587/6 BCE, following a revolt in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar II besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple,[84][85] dissolved the kingdom and exiled much of the Judean elite to Babylon.[86]
Classical antiquity
.jpg)
After capturing Babylon in 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, issued a proclamation allowing the exiled Judean population to return.[87][88] The construction of the Second Temple was completed c. 520 BCE.[87] The Achaemenids ruled the region as the province of Yehud Medinata.[89] In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region as part of his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire. After his death, the area was controlled by the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires as a part of Coele-Syria. Under the Hellenistic kingdoms, ongoing Hellenisation generated cultural tensions among the Jewish population that culminated under Antiochus IV, whose decrees outlawed Jewish practices and triggered the Maccabean Revolt in 167 BCE. The revolt weakened Seleucid control over Judea; by 142/141 BCE the Hasmoneans had secured autonomy and soon established an independent Jewish kingdom that, in the late 2nd–early 1st century BCE, expanded into neighboring territories.[90][91][92] The Hasmonean civil war ended with the Roman siege of
No comments:
Post a Comment