Israel (/ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל Yisrā'el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل Isrāʼīl), officially known as the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל Medīnat Yisrā'el [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel]; Arabic: دولة إِسْرَائِيل Dawlat Isrāʼīl [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel’s financial and technology center is Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital, although Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized.
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This specified borders for new Arab and Jewish states and an area of Jerusalem which was to be administered by the UN under an international regime. The end of the British Mandate for Palestine was set for midnight on 14 May 1948. That day, David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared “the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel,” which would start to function from the termination of the mandate. The borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration. Neighboring Arab armies invaded the former British mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement) and the Golan Heights. It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world’s longest military occupation in modern times.
The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2016 to be 8,541,000 people. It is the world’s only Jewish-majority state, with 6,388,800 citizens, or 74.8%, being designated as Jewish. The country’s second largest group of citizens are Arabs, numbering 1,775,400 people (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs). The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other minorities include Arameans, Assyrians, Samaritans, Armenians, Circassians, Dom people, Maronites and Vietnamese. The Black Hebrew Israelites are subject to a slow process of deeper integration, but are still in their majority permanent residents rather than citizens. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and other Sub-Saharan Africans.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Jewish homeland, History of the Jews, Jewish history, History of Israel, Israelite history, ethnic cleansing, Diaspora, Jewish diaspora, racial extermination, extermination, Oscar Schindler, Oskar Schindler, Schindler, Wallenberg, Raoul Wallenberg, Raul Wallenberg, Hitler, Adolf Hitler, Adolph Hitler, German Nazis, Schindler's List, Holocaust, Shoah, Nazi concentration camps, Nuremberg Laws, Extermination camp, Final Solution, Jewish question, Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz, Nazi Germany, Jews destroyed, Genocide, Concentration camps, Jewish genocide, Jews genocide, 1917, 1948, Birth of Israel, State of Israel, Israeli state, Jewish state, Jewish statehood, Atchalta De'Geulah, Geulah, Gathering of Israel, Ingathering, Ingathering of Jews, Restoration of the Israeli state, Restoration of the Jewish state
Bible reference(s): Deuteronomy 30:3, 1 Kings 14:15, Nehemiah 1:8, Psalm 53:6, Psalm 83:4, Psalm 106:27, Jeremiah 9:16, Jeremiah 13:24, Jeremiah 16:14-15, Jeremiah 23:3, Jeremiah 29:14, Jeremiah 30:3, Jeremiah 31:8, Jeremiah 31:36-37, Jeremiah 32:37, Jeremiah 33:7, Jeremiah 46:27-28, Jeremiah 50:19-20, Ezekiel 5:10, Ezekiel 6:8, Ezekiel 11:16-17, Ezekiel 20:23, Ezekiel 20:34, Ezekiel 20:41, Ezekiel 22:15, Ezekiel 28:25, Ezekiel 36:19, Ezek 37, Ezekiel 39:26-27, Hosea 6:11, Joel 3:1-2, Amos 9:14-15, Oba 1:19-20, Zephaniah 3:19-20, Zechariah 10:10, Luke 21:24, Romans 11:25-26
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Israel,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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