The nation of Israel is located in the Middle East. This parliamentary republic is situated in alongside the Mediterranean Sea’s eastern shores. Israel is bordered in the north by Lebanon, in the north east by Syria, in the east by West bank & Jordan, and in the south west by Gaza strip and Egypt. Geographically it possesses varied aspects inside its moderately tiny region.

According to fundamental laws, Israel is described as democratic and Jewish state and it is the only nation, which has predominant Jewish population. Subsequent to the UN’s 1947 arrangement to divide Palestine, the executive leader of World Zionist organization David Ben Gurion and the Jewish agency for Palestine’s president affirmed Israel as an autonomous state from the British authorization for Palestine. The very next day the adjacent Arab nations came with their army to offer support for the Palestine Arabs. So far Israel has fought a number of wars.

During these years, Israel managed to capture Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, Golan Heights ,east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, however the border along the adjoining west bank is not distinct permanently.

Capital: Jerusalem

Independence: from the British Mandate for Palestine, declaration on,14 May 1948

Language: Hebrew, Arabic

Religion: Jews (75.5%), Arabs (20.4%), minority groups (4.1%)

Currency: Shekel

Time zone: IST (UTC+2)

History

Ever since the Biblical period, the concept of Israel, called as Eretz Yisroel or Eretz Yisrael in Hebrew, is vital and holy to the Jewish natives. As per the ‘Five books of Moses’ (Torah), the Almighty assured the terrain to three Patriarchs belonging to the Jewish population. In the 11th century, the initial kingdom of Israel was created. Several Israeli states and Kingdoms from time to time ruled the next 4 centuries.

In the 16th century, the Jewish communities had its roots in the four sacred cities of Tiberias, Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron. In 1881, the primary wave of migrating of Jews to the Ottoman administered Palestine, called as the First Aliyah started in 1881,as the Jews escaped pogroms in the Eastern part of Europe.

Even though the practice of Zionist movement prevailed, the credit of finding the political Zionism goes to Theodor Harzi, an Austro-Hungarian Journalist. Zionism is a movement which wanted to create a Jewish state in the soil of Israel, by stirring the Jewish Question to the global plane.

In 1917, a group of intial Zionist volunteers, known as the Jewish Legion helped the British to capture Palestine. Subsequent to the Second World War, Britain was aggressively quarreled with the community of Jews. The Hagannah, the Jewish militia united Lehi and Irgun paramilitary groups, in their fight against British. Simultaneously, the survivors of the Jewish Holocaust and refugees, who came to Palestine for a new life were captured by the British and kept in detention camps.

The British Government stated that it is pulling out from the Mandate of Palestine, as it was unable of find a resolution acceptable to both the Jews and the Arabs. On 29th November1947, the newly formed United Nations acknowledged the Partition of Palestine (Resolution 181 of the UN), which decided to split the nation into 2 parts, one portion for the Arabs and one for the Jews.

In 1948, on May14, a day prior to the British Mandate expiration, Independence was proclaimed by the Israeli agency, naming the nation as Israel. The next day, the armies of Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon launched a combined attack on Israel. Howwever, Israel managed to put a stiff resistance. The UN projected more than 7, 00,000 Palestine to be expelled from areas, which would later become Israel.

On May11 1949, the United Nations accepted Israel as a member by majority vote.