Portal:Israel

Welcome to the Israel Portal
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

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, and Egypt to the southwest. Israel's western coast lies on the Mediterranean Sea, its southern tip reaches the Red Sea, and to the east is Earth's lowest point near the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the government seat and proclaimed capital, while Tel Aviv is Israel's largest urban area and economic centre.

The Land of Israel, also called Palestine or the Holy Land, was home to the ancient Canaanites and later the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and Hasmonean Judea. Located near continental crossroads, its demographics shifted under various empires. The Zionist movement emerged in late-19th-century Europe from Jewish nationalism, cultural revival and the experience of European antisemitism and persecution, seeking to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In 1917, Britain expressed support for this objective through the 1917 Balfour Declaration. At the time, the region of Palestine was an Ottoman territory with an overwhelming Arab majority. After World War I, Britain occupied the region and established Mandatory Palestine. British rule and Jewish immigration in the leadup to the Holocaust intensified Arab-Jewish tensions with Arab opposition to Zionism driven largely by concerns of displacement and dispossession. The 1947 UN Partition Plan proposed separate Arab and Jewish states, with the proposed Jewish state receiving a majority share of the territory despite Jews constituting a minority of the population. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan while the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected it. Civil war followed, and Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, shortly before the end of the mandate. The conflict subsequently escalated with the intervention of neighbouring Arab states. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

Israeli commandos with a Mercedes-Benz 600 resembling the one owned by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, used by Sayeret Matkal to deceive Ugandan troops during the raid

The Entebbe raid, also known as Operation Entebbe and officially codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (subsequently Operation Yonatan), was a 3 July 1976 Israeli counter-terrorist mission in Uganda. It was launched in response to the hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris by members of the PFLP-EO and the German Revolutionary Cells, who diverted the aircraft to Entebbe International Airport with the backing of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Following the 27 June hijacking, the captors took the 248 passengers hostage with the objective of compelling the release of imprisoned Palestinian militants and international prisoners. Backed by over 100 Ugandan soldiers and welcomed by President Amin at Entebbe, the hijackers moved the hostages to a disused terminal. After releasing most non-Israeli hostages over the following days, the terrorists held the remaining 106 captives, predominantly Israelis and the flight crew, in a separate room. (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.

Image 1A view of Jaffa, from the beachfront of Tel Aviv
Image 2A more recent section of the Israel-Egypt barrier fence, north of Eilat, June 2012. It is a border barrier built by Israel along its border with Egypt. It was originally an attempt to curb illegal migrants from African countries.^[1] Construction was approved on 12 January 2010^[2] and began on 22 November 2010.^[3]
Image 3Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, an 1878 painting by Maurycy Gottlieb
Image 4"The Nile and the Sinai, to Israel and beyond. One sweeping glance of human history." Caption by astronaut Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.
Image 5Dead Tree in Sea of Life is an installation artwork from 2017 by Amiram Dora, a travel guide from the nearby city Arad. The work consists of a tree planted on a salt pile in the Dead Sea. The purpose of the work is to show that as opposed to its common name, the Dead Sea is actually a place of rich tourist activity, healing and relaxation.
Image 6Southern aerial view of the Temple Mount, a hill located in the Old City of Jerusalem that for thousands of years has been venerated as a holy site, in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Image 7David Ben-Gurion's room at Ben-Gurion's Hut, the retirement home of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula (Pola) from the years 1953 until Ben-Gurion's death in 1973.
Image 8The Jerusalem Railway Station c. 1900. The locomotive on the turntable is "Ramleh" (J&J No. 3), a Baldwin 2-6-0. The station was the terminus of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway until its closure in 1998. Today, the station is abandoned and suffering from neglect and vandalism, although it is one of 110 buildings selected for preservation in Jerusalem.
Image 9An aerial view of Masada in the Judaean Desert, with the Dead Sea and Jordan in the distance
Image 10Northeast exposure of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, in the Old City of Jerusalem. Considered to be the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.
Image 11Young Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) on a stone wall by the edge of Makhtesh Ramon in Mitzpe Ramon.
Image 12Ceramic tile on the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem
Image 13Reading Power Station, built in Tel Aviv in 1938, was named for Rufus Isaacs, the 1st Marquess of Reading. Reading Light is pictured on the left.
Image 14A view of Jerusalem from southeast, showing the Walls of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This image was taken sometime between 1900 and 1940.
Image 15An aerial view of Makhtesh Ramon, a geological feature of Israel's Negev desert. Located some 85 km south of the city of Beersheba, the landform is not an impact crater from a meteor nor a volcanic crater formed by a volcanic eruption, but rather is the world's largest "erosion cirque" (steephead valley or box canyon).
Image 16Paratroopers at the Western Wall, an iconic photograph taken on June 7, 1967 by David Rubinger.
Image 17Diving tourism site on the southern coast of Eilat, around a horseshoe-shaped reef. Many animal species are found in the area, including dolphins.