Israel

The land has been continuously inhabited for millennia and is the historic and religious heartland of the Jewish people, as well as holding sites central to Christianity and, in Jerusalem, to Islam. Ancient Israelite kingdoms gave way to Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman rule; Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE and later dispersed much of the Jewish population. Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, and Ottoman rule followed, and the area became part of Ottoman, then British-administered, "Palestine."

Modern political Zionism emerged in late-nineteenth-century Europe as a response to persistent antisemitism, seeking a Jewish homeland in the historic land of Israel. Jewish immigration grew, accelerating as Nazi persecution and then the Holocaust — the murder of six million Jews — unfolded. A 1947 United Nations plan proposed separate Jewish and Arab states; Israel declared independence in 1948, the surrounding Arab states attacked, and in the ensuing war Israel expanded beyond the plan's lines while around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled, an event Palestinians call the Nakba ("catastrophe"). Over the following years a comparable number of Jews left or were forced from Arab and Muslim countries, most settling in Israel.

Further wars came in 1956, 1967 (when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Sinai), and 1973, followed by peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and, in 2020, the Abraham Accords with several other states. The conflict with the Palestinians is unresolved: Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with a large settler population widely regarded as illegal under international law (a view Israel disputes); the Oslo Accords of the 1990s created a limited Palestinian Authority but the peace process stalled. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005; Hamas took control there in 2007, and recurring wars followed. A Hamas-led attack from Gaza on 7 October 2023 killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took roughly 250 hostages; Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused a humanitarian catastrophe, amid continuing regional escalation.

Israeli society is diverse and often internally divided. About three-quarters of citizens are Jewish — secular, traditional, religious-Zionist, and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox, a fast-growing, largely separate community) — and roughly a fifth are Arab citizens of Israel, mostly Muslim, with Christian and Druze communities. The Jewish religious calendar shapes public life: Shabbat closes much of the country each week, and the High Holy Days, Passover, and other festivals are national occasions.

Near-universal military service for Jewish (and Druze) men and women is a social leveller and a shared rite of passage. The style of public life is informal, direct, and argumentative — often summed up as chutzpah — and Israelis are quick to debate politics with strangers. A large technology sector has earned the country the "Start-Up Nation" tag.

The contrast between secular, liberal Tel Aviv and religious, contested Jerusalem is a recurring theme, and a 2023 plan to weaken the courts brought some of the largest protests in the country's history.

Most of Israel's roughly 9.8 million people live along the coastal plain, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Haifa, and the cities between them; Jerusalem, inland, is the largest single city and the seat of government, and Beersheba is the gateway to the Negev desert that fills the south.

The economy is advanced and services-heavy, led by technology, defence, diamonds, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture (Israel pioneered drip irrigation), with a high cost of living, expensive housing, and sharp inequalities between communities. Water is intensively managed, much of it desalinated.

Daily life is punctuated by the weekly Shabbat shutdown, by the security situation in tense periods (sirens, shelters, reserve call-ups), and by a strong culture of family gatherings, the beach, hiking, and the market.

Israeli food draws on Levantine cooking and the cuisines the Jewish diaspora brought from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Ethiopia. Hummus, falafel, sabich (a pita of fried aubergine, egg, and salad), shakshuka, and the chopped "Israeli salad" are everyday staples, alongside grilled meats, borekas, and schnitzel.

Regional Jewish traditions add Ashkenazi dishes (gefilte fish, chicken soup, challah), North African and Yemenite specialities (couscous, jachnun, malawach, skhug chilli paste), and Iraqi and Persian rice dishes; Palestinian and Israeli-Arab cooking contributes maqluba, musakhan, and knafeh. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have a celebrated, inventive restaurant scene.

Kosher rules — separating meat and dairy, no pork or shellfish — shape many kitchens and hotels, though plenty of restaurants are not kosher. Coffee culture is strong, and Israeli wines, craft beers, and arak are the local drinks.

Jerusalem's Old City is the centrepiece: the Western Wall, the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif with the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Via Dolorosa, the four quarters, and the ramparts, with Yad Vashem, the Israel Museum and its Dead Sea Scrolls, and the view from the Mount of Olives nearby. Tel Aviv–Jaffa offers Mediterranean beaches, the Bauhaus "White City" (a UNESCO listing), nightlife, and the old port of Jaffa.

The Dead Sea, the lowest point on land, lets you float in its hypersaline water, with Herod's cliff-top fortress of Masada — the site of a Roman siege — and the oasis of Ein Gedi close by. In the north, the Sea of Galilee is ringed by Christian sites (Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes) and Nazareth, and the Golan and Galilee hills are green and good for hiking and wine.

Other draws include Haifa's terraced Bahá'í Gardens on Mount Carmel, the walled Crusader and Ottoman port of Akko (Acre), the Roman ruins of Caesarea, the Negev's Ramon Crater and the ancient Nabataean towns, and the coral reefs of Eilat on the Red Sea.