Israel

Israel,; , ; , }} officially the State of Israel,, ; , }} 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, the southernmost point reaches the Red Sea, and the east includes part of the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the government seat and proclaimed capital, while Tel Aviv is the country's largest urban area and economic centre.

The Land of Israel is synonymous with Palestine, Judea, 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. 19th-century European antisemitism fueled 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, and the 1947 United Nations partition plan led to a civil war.

Israel declared independence at the end of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948, and neighboring Arab states invaded the next day. A 1949 armistice left Israel with territory beyond the UN plan; no Arab state was created, as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank came under Egyptian and Jordanian control. Most Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled by Zionist militias in an ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba, with those who stayed becoming Israel's main minority. The Jewish exodus from the Muslim world increased the country's population in subsequent decades. 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 has committed genocide in Gaza and its occupation of the Palestinian territories has drawn sustained international criticism, with experts, human rights organisations, and UN officials describing them as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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. Israel has one of the Middle East's largest economies, one of Asia's highest living standards, and globally ranks 26th in nominal GDP and 16th in nominal GDP per capita. Technologically advanced, Israel allocates a larger share of its economy to research and development than any other state and is believed to possess nuclear weapons. The culture of Israel combines Jewish traditions, including those of the diaspora, with Arab influences. Provided by Wikipedia