Israel is a small country in southwestern Asia known as the Middle East. It has the density of 528 per square mile, and the elavation of 3,963 above sea level on the highest point, mount Meron. On the eastern shore is the Mediterranean Sea. Israel was founded in 1948. It’s pupose was to be a homland for Jews from all around the world, and more than 5 out of 4 of its people are Jews. Almost all non-jews in Israel are Arabs. The national anthem is Hatevka, which means hope in English. Around 83% of Israel are Jews. Arabs make up nearly all of the remaining 17%. Most are Palestinians who have their own farm villages.
There are two official languages; Hebrew, the language spoken by most of the Jewish population, and Arabic. Many Israelis also speak English, and Many Jews speak Yiddish, a Germanic language developed in Europe. About one-fifth of the Jewish population are very strict to observe their religion. These are called Orthodox Jews. The rest are secular or non-religious. Orthodox believe that religious values should help build the government. Sucular and non-religious want to limit the role of religion. 77% of non-jews are Arab Muslims. 13% of non-jews are Arab Cristians, mostly Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox.
Most of the remaining 10% are Druses, an Arabic speaking group who follow a religion that formed out of Islam. A few are Baha’is of other small religious groups. The natonal Israeli government is democratic rebublic with a parliament-cabinet form of government. There is no written constitution. Instead there are “basic laws” passed by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The national government devides the country into 6 districs, and 14 subdistrics. One of the cabinet members appoints officials to head them. The local government has elected councils. Regional councils serve rural areas.
Councils are reasponsible for providing education, health and sanitation srevices, water, road mantenance, fire protection, and recreation facilities. They also set local taxes and fees. Councils are lead by cabinet members. All Israeli citizens 18 and over can vote. Instead of casting ballots, they vote for a party list, and that includes all candidates from a political party. The number of names on each list can range from one to one-hundred twenty. There are many political parties, with a wide range of views. The two main parties are the Labor Party and the Likud Bloc.
The Labor Party supports the government controling the economy, but the Likud Bloc has conections with smaller political parties, and supports a limited government. The prime minister is the head of the government, and to stay in office, must maintain support from the majority of the Knesset. The Knesset elects presidents for each state. The presidental duties mostly have to do with cerimonies. One ceremony is the national holiday on the 5th day of the year. European jews began to settle in Palestine in the mid-1800’s because they wanted to live in the holy land.
By 1880, 24,000 jews lived in Palestine, and by 1914, 85,000. In1917, during World War 1, Britian was fighting to win control of Palestine, and in doing so would give the Jews a national homeland. When the British won, the League of Nations made Palestine a mandated territory of the British. Britian was supposed to help the jews build a national home, but in fear of the arabs fighting back promised to limit jewish immigration to Palestine, but were never enforced. Lots of European jews immigrated to Israel in the 1930’s to escape the Nazis.
Palestinian arabs didn’t like this and the British began to limit jewish immigration. Durring World War ll, the nazis killed more than 6 million jews in eastern Europe. There was a big demand for a jewish state, but Britian continued to limit immigration. Finally, in 1947 the British submitted the problem to the United Nations. In the early 1950’s, the holocaust began. This was when 6 million jews were killed in concentration camps, such as Auchwitz. Jews were rounded up by German soldiers, and were told they would be relocated. Instead, they were either sent to work camps, for hard labor, or to killed.
Jews were killed by gas showers, and many terrible ways. Sometimes, they dug their own graves, and just stood in front of it to be shot. The Nazis also created places to creamate the Jews. Now there is a place in Poland where a camp used to be. You can actually walk through and see rooms full of Jews’ hair and teeth that were taken by the Nazis. This was when many fled to either the United States, or Israel. When the Jews fled to Israel it contributed very much to the Jewish population there. The UN agreed to devide Palestine into a Jewish state and arab state on November 29, 1947.
Jews exepted this but the Arabs were against it. Fighting broke out immediatly. Israel officialy was declared a state on May 14, 1948, with the leader, David Ben-Gurion, with Jeruselum as the capital. On May 15th, Arab armies, mostly from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraqu and Jordon attacked Israel, trying to destroy the new nation. By early 1949, Israel defeated the Arabs and gained control about half of the land planned for the new Arab state. Egypt and Jordon owned the rest of Palestine. By mid 1949, Israel signed agreements for peace with Egypt, Syria, Jordon, and Lebanon.
Former treaties weren’t signed because the Arab nations refused to admit Isreael had a right to exist. Because Israel is surrounded by Arab enemies, a strong army is vital to Israel to survive. Israel puts so much money into the army, there is a strain on the national economy. Israel cannot always aford other priorities because of the need for such a strong army. The army, navy, and air force have about 141,000 members. The country’s requires almost all Jewish men and most unmarried Jewish women to enter the millitary at age 18. Men must serve for three years, and women for two.
Even though the army takes so much money to support, Israel is still known for its excellent health care, which is almost as good as the United States health care. First, Israel was a poor country with little agriculture nor industries, but the economy has grown since 1948. Even though there is limited water supply and few natural resources, the nation has a high standard of living, with the population of 4,882,000 in 1994. There was a lot of immigration soon after independence. A lot of the immigrants were good workers and professionals who contributed to the economic development.
Israel now has a high literacy rate. Help with money came from Western nations especialy the United States. Now, there form of money is Shekel. Econonic services make up 72% of the net domestic product. The NDP is the value of all the goods and services produced yearly. Service industries employ about 69% of Israel’s workers. Tourism is also a major service industry in Israel. Manufacturing is about 19% of the NPD and employs about 21% of its workers. They produce goods like chemical products, electronic equipment, fertilizer, plastics, processed foods, and clothing.
Agriculture accounts for around 3% of the NPD and employs 5%. Agriculture products include cotton, fruits, eggs, grain, poultry, and vegetables. About 90% of the people live in the city. The country’s three biggest cities-Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Haifa-make up 25% of the country’s population. Many cities are built on ancient sites, and have historic buildings, but there are many modern sections, built in the early 1990’s. Most urban Israelis live in appartments. Traffic polution and congestion have become problems in the cities. Jerusalem is the holy city of the Christians and Muslims.
The city is devided into two sections, east and west. West Jerusalem has mostly Jews, and is newer. East has mostly arabs. It also has many ancient, holy, places. Tel-Aviv is the second largest city, and is the countries comercial, finacial, and indrustrial center. Haifa is Israel’s major sea port city, and the industrial center of northern Israel. Beersheba is the most important city in the Negev Desert region. Only about 10% of the people live in rural areas. More than half of the rural population lives in collective or cooperative communities. A collective community is called a Kibbtz.
Members receive food, housing, child and health care, and education in exchange for work and labor. All property is shared. In a cooperative community, called a moshav, each family works its own land and has their own home. The villiage administration provides tools, and supplies, and markets the produce. With these different situations for making money, there is no per capita income. In both areas, the weather is very simular. Hot, dry summers, and cool, mild winters. Israelis dress according to the weather, usualy in shorts, and other warm-weather clothes.
The life expectancy is about 83 for a man, and 86 for women. With all the warm weather, Israel is a big fan of track and feild. Right now the prime minister was recently elected, due to the death of prime minister, Yitzak Rabin. He was shot by a man from agoup who wanted to keep lands that Rabin was willing to give for peace. There are many extremists groups in Israel because of so much disagreement and war. Many groups are not willing to give up something to have peace with a neighboring country. This is why prime minister Rabin was shot.
