Israel
Israel is a country in the Middle East, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, established as a modern state on 14 May 1948 and recognised as the nation-state of the Jewish people. It borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest, with a population of approximately nine million people as of the mid-2020s.
Israel (Hebrew: Yisra'el; Arabic: Isra'il) is a sovereign state in the Middle East, situated at the junction of the Mediterranean basin and the Arabian Peninsula, formally declared independent on 14 May 1948 following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine. The country defines itself constitutionally as a Jewish and democratic state and serves as the world's only Jewish-majority nation. Its capital, as proclaimed by Israeli law, is Jerusalem, though this designation is disputed internationally; most foreign embassies historically operated from Tel Aviv, though a number of countries relocated their embassies to Jerusalem after the United States did so in 2018.
History
Ancient and Biblical Period
The region now constituting Israel has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times. Ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah flourished in the Iron Age, leaving an extensive archaeological and textual record. The area was successively ruled by the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman empires. Roman suppression of Jewish revolts, including the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135 CE, resulted in widespread Jewish dispersal, a process historically termed the Jewish Diaspora.
Medieval and Ottoman Period
Following Roman and then Byzantine rule, the region was conquered by Arab Muslim forces in the seventh century CE and later came under the control of the Crusaders, the Mamluks, and ultimately the Ottoman Empire, which administered the area from 1517 until 1917. The late nineteenth century saw the emergence of Zionism, a political movement advocating the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the historical Land of Israel. Waves of Jewish immigration, known as aliyot, brought growing numbers of Jewish settlers to Ottoman and later British-controlled Palestine.
British Mandate and Independence
Following World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine in 1920. The 1917 Balfour Declaration had previously expressed British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, creating lasting tension with the Arab population. Intercommunal violence intensified during the 1930s and 1940s. The United Nations adopted a partition plan in November 1947 (Resolution 181), proposing separate Jewish and Arab states. Jewish leadership accepted the plan; Arab leadership rejected it. Upon the expiry of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israeli independence on 14 May 1948. The following day, neighbouring Arab states launched a military intervention, beginning the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The war ended with armistice agreements in 1949, leaving Israel in control of more territory than the UN partition plan had allocated, while approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees — an event Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe).
Post-Independence Conflicts
Israel fought several major wars with neighbouring states, including the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of June 1967 — in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights — and the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. The Camp David Accords of 1978 led to a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, and a peace treaty with Jordan followed in 1994. Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, most notably the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, produced the Palestinian Authority but did not result in a final status agreement. The status of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem remains among the most contested issues in international affairs. Ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip escalated dramatically in October 2023, leading to a large-scale military campaign whose full consequences were still unfolding as of this article's knowledge cutoff.
Government and Politics
Israel is a parliamentary democracy. Legislative authority rests with the Knesset, a unicameral parliament of 120 members elected by proportional representation. The President of Israel serves as head of state in a largely ceremonial role, while executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Israel has no formal written constitution; instead, a series of Basic Laws perform a quasi-constitutional function. The country's political landscape is characterised by a multiparty system that frequently produces coalition governments. Judicial authority is exercised by an independent judiciary, with the Supreme Court of Israel as the highest court.
The legal and political status of the territories captured in 1967 is a matter of deep international dispute. Israeli law has been applied to East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights through annexation measures not broadly recognised internationally. The West Bank is subject to a complex division of administrative control between Israeli military authorities and the Palestinian Authority.
Economy
Israel maintains a highly developed, technology-driven economy, often characterised as a leading centre of innovation and start-up activity, earning it informal descriptions such as the Start-Up Nation. Key sectors include information technology, defence industries, agriculture, diamonds, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. Israel is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), having acceded in 2010. The country has significant income inequality, and the cost of living, particularly housing, has been a persistent source of domestic political tension.
Society and Culture
Israel's population is ethnically and culturally diverse. Jewish Israelis constitute approximately 73–75% of the population (figures vary by source and year), and include communities of diverse geographic origin — Ashkenazi Jews (historically from Central and Eastern Europe), Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews (from the Middle East and North Africa), Ethiopian Jews, and others. Arab citizens of Israel, comprising roughly 20% of the population, include Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities. Additional minority groups include Circassians and non-Arab Christians.
Hebrew and Arabic are both official languages. Israel's cultural output encompasses literature, music, cinema, and the visual arts, drawing on Jewish, Middle Eastern, and broader Mediterranean influences. The country observes the Jewish calendar for official and religious purposes, with the Sabbath (Shabbat) observed from Friday evening to Saturday night.