Welcome to the Israel Portal
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

Location of Israel
The flag of Israel
Map of Israel
The emblem of Israel

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, the Red Sea to the south, Egypt to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest. Tel Aviv is the country's financial, economic, and technological center. Israel's governmental seat is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although recognition of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is limited internationally.

Israel is located in a region known historically as Canaan, Palestine, and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to several Canaanite, and later, Israelite and Judahite states, and is referred to as the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region subsequently came under the rule of many different empires. The late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism in Europe, a movement seeking a Jewish homeland, amid rising antisemitism in Europe, which garnered British support during World War I. During the war, British occupation led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration, combined with British colonial policy, led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs. The 1947 UN Partition Plan triggered a civil war between the two groups, which saw the expulsion and flight of most of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population, known as the Nakba. A minority remained and became Arab citizens of Israel. (Full article...)

Acre (/ˈɑːkər, ˈkər/ AH-kər, AY-kər), known locally as Akko (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ, ʻAkkō) and Akka (Arabic: عكّا, ʻAkkā), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.

The city occupies a strategic location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on the coast of the Mediterranean's Levantine Sea. Aside from coastal trading, it was an important waypoint on the region's coastal road and the road cutting inland along the Jezreel Valley. The first settlement during the Early Bronze Age was abandoned after a few centuries but a large town was established during the Middle Bronze Age. Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than a large village for centuries at a time. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

Featured picture - show another

This is a Featured picture that the Wikimedia Commons community has chosen as one of the highest quality on the site.

  • ... that in addition to founding Tmura, an anti-discrimination center that advocates for women's rights, Yifat Bitton was shortlisted for Israel's Supreme Court twice?
  • ... that hints of female discrimination in biblical times were discovered in an ancient Persian cemetery excavated from Tel Qiri in northern Israel?

Related portals

WikiProjects

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Hebrew Israelites, Black Hebrews, Black Israelites, and African Hebrew Israelites) are a new religious movement claiming that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some sub-groups believe that Native and Latin Americans are descendants of the Israelites as well. Black Hebrew Israelites combine elements to their teaching from a wide range of sources to varying degrees. Black Hebrew Israelites incorporate certain aspects of the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism, though they have created their own interpretation of the Bible, and other influences include Freemasonry and New Thought, for example. Many choose to identify as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.

Black Hebrew Israelites are not associated with the mainstream Jewish community, and they do not meet the criteria that are used to identify people as Jewish by the Jewish community. They are also outside the fold of mainstream Christianity. Black Hebrew Israelism is a non-homogenous movement with a number of groups that have varying beliefs and practices. Various sects of Black Hebrew Israelism have been criticized by academics for their promotion of historical revisionism and replacement theology due to the lack of evidence supporting their claims. (Full article...)

Selected fare or cuisine - show another

Cholent or Schalet (Yiddish: טשאָלנט, romanizedtsholnt or tshulnt or lang-he, lit.'צ'ולנט') is a traditional slow-simmering Sabbath stew in Jewish cuisine that was developed by Ashkenazi Jews first in France and later Germany, and is first mentioned in the 12th century. It is related to and is thought to have been derived from hamin, a similar Sabbath stew that emerged in Spain among Sephardic Jews and made its way to France by way of Provence. (Full article...)

General images - show another

The following are images from various Israel-related articles on Wikipedia.

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Topics

News

Read and edit Wikinews
Read and edit Wikinews
31 May 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict
A medic is killed and another is injured in an Israeli airstrike against an ambulance in Naqoura, Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
31 May 2024 –
France bans Israeli defense firms from exhibiting at the Eurosatory arms expo. (Times of Israel)
31 May 2024 – Israel–Hamas war
Israel–Hamas war protests
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupy parts of the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, New York, U.S. (Reuters)

Featured content

Featured articles

Featured lists

A-Class articles

Good articles

Things you can do


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

External media

Sources

  1. ^ Butcher, Tim. Sharon presses for fence across Sinai, Daily Telegraph, December 07, 2005.
  2. ^ cite web| title=11 Jan, 2010; from google (Israel–Egypt barrier construction began) result 8|url=https://www.rt.com/politics/israel-approves-democratic-barrier/}}
  3. ^ "November 22, 2010; from google (Israel–Egypt barrier construction began) result 10".
Discover Wikipedia using portals