1950 Hebrew RARE BOARD GAME Israel KOSHER OIL BOTTLE Jewish OLIVE TREE Judaica

$95.00 Buy It Now or Best Offer, $25.00 Shipping, 30-Day Returns, eBay Money Back Guarantee
Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,805) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 276112750744 1950 Hebrew RARE BOARD GAME Israel KOSHER OIL BOTTLE Jewish OLIVE TREE Judaica.

DESCRIPTION : Here for sale is a VERY RARE ORIGINAL vintage HEBREW-ISRAELI - JEWISH board game named " ETZ HAZAIT - The OLIVE TREE "  , Which was created and published ( LITHOGRAPHIC PRINT ) in the late  1950's up to the early mid 1960's in ERETZ ISRAEL.  It was innitiated and published by the manufacor of OILS - "ETZ HAZAIT - The OLIVE TREE" to be given as a gist for PURIM. The BOARD is a BEAUTIFULY DESIGNED , Richly illustrated and follow all the stages of OIL MANUFACTORING  which end in the GLASS OIL BOTTLE. No pawns , Dice or box as issued. Printed by " DAFNA LITHO".  No box , Dice or pawns as issued by the publishers. Around 13" x 9.5". Very good used condition. Slightly creased. ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images ) . Will be sent inside a rigid protective packaging .

AUTHENTICITY : This board GAME is fully guaranteed ORIGINAL from  the 1950's up to the early 1960's , NOT a reproduction or a recent reprint , It comes with life long GUARANTEE for its AUTHENTICITY and ORIGINALITY.

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal & All credit cards . SHIPPMENT : SHIPP worldwide via registered airmail is $ 25 . Will be sent inside a rigid protective packagingWill be sent  around 5-10 days after payment .  

  Israel (/ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ Yisrā'el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل‎‎ Isrāʼīl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎  Medīnat Yisrā'el [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel]; Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎‎ Dawlat Isrāʼīl [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip[8] to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.[2][9] Israel's economy and technology center is Tel Aviv,[10] while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, although the state's sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized.[note 1][11][12] In 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem.[13] The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and rejected by Arab leaders.[14][15] Next year, the Jewish Agency declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel."[16] Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states,[17] in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip (still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement).[note 2] It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank.[18][19][20][21] Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is the world's longest military occupation in modern times.[note 2][23] Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been implemented. The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,689,760 people.[3] It is the world's only Jewish-majority state, with 74.8% being designated as Jewish. The country's second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20.8% (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs).[1] The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia,[24] including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and other Sub-Saharan Africans. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state.[25] Israel is a representative democracy[26] with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage.[27][28] The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member,[29] with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[30] The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia,[7] and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.[31] Contents  [hide]  1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Prehistory 2.2 Antiquity 2.3 Classical period 2.4 Middle Ages and modern history 2.5 Zionism and British mandate 2.6 After World War II 2.7 Early years of the State of Israel 2.8 Further conflict and peace process 3 Geography and environment 3.1 Tectonics and seismicity 3.2 Climate 4 Demographics 4.1 Major urban areas 4.2 Language 4.3 Religion 4.4 Education 5 Politics 5.1 Legal system 5.2 Administrative divisions 5.3 Israeli-occupied territories 5.4 Foreign relations 5.5 International humanitarian efforts 5.6 Military 6 Economy 6.1 Science and technology 6.2 Transportation 6.3 Tourism 6.4 Energy 7 Culture 7.1 Literature 7.2 Music and dance 7.3 Cinema and theatre 7.4 Media 7.5 Museums 7.6 Cuisine 7.7 Sports 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Bibliography 12 External links Etymology The Merneptah Stele (13th century BC). The majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel," the first instance of the name in the record. Upon independence in 1948, the country formally adopted the name "State of Israel" (Medinat Yisrael) after other proposed historical and religious names including Eretz Israel ("the Land of Israel"), Zion, and Judea, were considered and rejected.[32] In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term "Israeli" to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.[33] The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish people respectively.[34] The name "Israel" (Standard Yisraʾel, Isrāʾīl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ Israēl; 'El(God) persists/rules' though, after Hosea 12:4 often interpreted as "struggle with God"[35][36][37][38]) in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord.[39] Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations, lasting 430 years,[40] until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob,[41] led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus". The earliest known archaeological artifact to mention the word "Israel" as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE).[42] The area is also known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith. From 1920, the whole region was known as Palestine (under British Mandate)[note 3] until the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948.[43] Through the centuries, the territory was known by a variety of other names, including Canaan, Djahy, Samaria, Judea, Yehud, Iudaea, Coele-Syria, Syria Palaestina and Southern Syria. History Main article: History of Israel Prehistory Further information: Prehistory of the Levant The oldest evidence of early humans in the territory of modern Israel, dating to 1.5 million years ago, was found in Ubeidiya near the Sea of Galilee.[44] Other notable Paleolithic sites include caves Tabun, Qesem and Manot. The oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans found outside Africa are the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids, who lived in northern Israel 120,000 years ago.[45] Around 10th millennium BCE, the Natufian culture existed in the area.[46] Antiquity Main article: History of ancient Israel and Judah Further information: Israelites, Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), and Kingdom of Judah Map of the Kingdom of Israel, 1020 BCE–930 BCE as imagined from the Bible narrative[citation needed] The notion of the "Land of Israel", known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the land to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people.[47][48] On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE.[49] The first record of the name Israel (as ysrỉꜣr) occurs in the Merneptah Stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BCE, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."[50] This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state.[51] The Merneptah Stele is one of four known contemporary inscriptions from antiquity containing the name of Israel, the others being the Tel Dan Stele, the Mesha Stele, and the Kurkh Monolith.[52] The name appears much earlier, as a personal name, in material from Ebla.[53][54][55] Modern scholars see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan.[56] McNutt says, "It is probably safe to assume that sometime during Iron Age I a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'", differentiating itself from the Canaanites through such markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.[57]Ancestors of the Israelites may have included Semites native to Canaan and the Sea Peoples.[58] The archaeological evidence indicates a society of village-like centres, but with more limited resources and a small population.[59] Villages had populations of up to 300 or 400,[60][61] which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient;[62] economic interchange was prevalent.[63]Writing was known and available for recording, even in small sites.[64] The first Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Subsequent Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently over the next four hundred years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.[65][66][67][68] The Large Stone Structure, archaeological site of ancient Jerusalem Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split into a southern Kingdom of Judah and a northern Kingdom of Israel. From the middle of the 8th century BCE Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding Neo-Assyrian Empire. Under Tiglath-Pileser III it first split Israel's territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria (722 BCE). An Israelite revolt (724–722 BCE) was crushed after the siege and capture of Samaria by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sargon's son, Sennacherib, tried and failed to conquer Judah. Assyrian records say he leveled 46 walled cities and besieged Jerusalem, leaving after receiving extensive tribute.[69] In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The defeat was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.[70][71] In 538 BCE, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and took over its empire. Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations, including the people of Judah, religious freedom (for the original text, which corroborates the biblical narrative only in very broad terms, see the Cyrus Cylinder). According to the Hebrew Bible, 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubbabel, returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple. A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judah in 456 BCE although non-Jews wrote to Cyrus to try to prevent their return. Classical period Main article: Second Temple period Further information: Hasmonean dynasty, Herodian dynasty, and Jewish–Roman wars Portion of the Temple Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls written during the Second Temple period With successive Persian rule, the autonomous province Yehud Medinata was gradually developing back into urban society, largely dominated by Judeans. The Greek conquests largely skipped the region without any resistance or interest. Incorporated into Ptolemaic and finally Seleucid empires, the southern Levant was heavily hellenized, building the tensions between Judeans and Greeks. The conflict erupted in 167 BCE with the Maccabean Revolt, which succeeded in establishing an independent Hasmonean Kingdom in Judah, which later expanded over much of modern Israel, as the Seleucids gradually lost control in the region. Masada fortress, location of the final battle in the First Jewish–Roman War The Roman Empire invaded the region in 63 BCE, first taking control of Syria, and then intervening in the Hasmonean Civil War. The struggle between pro-Roman and pro-Parthian factions in Judea eventually led to the installation of Herod the Great and consolidation of the Herodian kingdom as a vassal Judean state of Rome. With the decline of the Herodian dynasty, Judea, transformed into a Roman province, became the site of a violent struggle of Jews against Greco-Romans, culminating in the Jewish–Roman wars, ending in wide-scale destruction, expulsions, and genocide. Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE.[72] Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and Galilee became its religious center.[73][74] The Mishnah and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem.[75] The region came to be populated predominantly by Greco-Romans on the coast and Samaritans in the hill-country. Christianity was gradually evolving over Roman paganism, when the area stood under Byzantine rule. Through the 5th and 6th centuries, the dramatic events of the repeated Samaritan revolts reshaped the land, with massive destruction to Byzantine Christian and Samaritan societies and a resulting decrease of the population. After the Persian conquest and the installation of a short-lived Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE, the Byzantine Empire reconquered the country in 628. Middle Ages and modern history Further information: History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages, Muslim history in Palestine, and Old Yishuv Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village, abandoned some time between the 7th–13th centuries AD.[76] In 634–641 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the Arabs who had just recently adopted Islam. Control of the region transferred between the Rashidun Caliphs, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Seljuks, Crusaders, and Ayyubids throughout the next three centuries.[77] During the siege of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099, the Jewish inhabitants of the city fought side by side with the Fatimid garrison and the Muslim population who tried in vain to defend the city against the Crusaders. When the city fell, about 60,000 people were massacred, including 6,000 Jews seeking refuge in a synagogue.[78] At this time, a full thousand years after the fall of the Jewish state, there were Jewish communities all over the country. Fifty of them are known and include Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Gaza.[79] According to Albert of Aachen, the Jewish residents of Haifa were the main fighting force of the city, and "mixed with Saracen [Fatimid] troops", they fought bravely for close to a month until forced into retreat by the Crusader fleet and land army.[80][81] However, Joshua Prawer expressed doubt over the story, noting that Albert did not attend the Crusades and that such a prominent role for the Jews is not mentioned by any other source.[82][undue weight? – discuss] The 15th-century Abuhav synagogue, established by Sephardic Jews in Safed, Northern Israel.[83] In 1165, Maimonides visited Jerusalem and prayed on the Temple Mount, in the "great, holy house."[84] In 1141 the Spanish-Jewish poet Yehuda Halevi issued a call for Jews to migrate to the Land of Israel, a journey he undertook himself. In 1187 Sultan Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and subsequently captured Jerusalem and almost all of Palestine. In time, Saladin issued a proclamation inviting Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem,[85]and according to Judah al-Harizi, they did: "From the day the Arabs took Jerusalem, the Israelites inhabited it."[86] Al-Harizi compared Saladin's decree allowing Jews to re-establish themselves in Jerusalem to the one issued by the Persian king Cyrus the Great over 1,600 years earlier.[87] In 1211, the Jewish community in the country was strengthened by the arrival of a group headed by over 300 rabbis from France and England,[88] among them Rabbi Samson ben Abraham of Sens.[89] Nachmanides, the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and recognised leader of Jewry greatly praised the land of Israel and viewed its settlement as a positive commandment incumbent on all Jews. He wrote "If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms; but as for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of any nation, not in any generation."[90] In 1260, control passed to the Mamluk sultans of Egypt.[91] The country was located between the two centres of Mamluk power, Cairo and Damascus, and only saw some development along the postal road connecting the two cities. Jerusalem, although left without the protection of any city walls since 1219, also saw a flurry of new construction projects centred around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount. In 1266 the Mamluk Sultan Baybars converted the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron into an exclusive Islamic sanctuary and banned Christians and Jews from entering, which previously would be able to enter it for a fee. The ban remained in place until Israel took control of the building in 1967.[92][93] Jews at the Western Wall, 1870s In 1470, Isaac b. Meir Latif arrived from Italy and counted 150 Jewish families in Jerusalem.[94] Thanks to Joseph Saragossi who had arrived in the closing years of the 15th century, Safed and its environs had developed into the largest concentration of Jews in Palestine. With the help of the Sephardic immigration from Spain, the Jewish population had increased to 10,000 by the early 16th century.[95] In 1516, the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire; it remained under Turkish rule until the end of the First World War, when Britain defeated the Ottoman forces and set up a military administration across the former Ottoman Syria. In 1920 the territory was divided between Britain and France under the mandate system, and the British-administered area which included modern day Israel was named Mandatory Palestine.[91][96][97] Zionism and British mandate Further information: Zionism, Yishuv, Mandatory Palestine, and Balfour Declaration Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish state Since the existence of the earliest Jewish diaspora, many Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel",[98] though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute.[99][100] The hopes and yearnings of Jews living in exile are an important theme of the Jewish belief system.[99] After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.[101] During the 16th century, Jewish communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem.[102] In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.[103][104][105] "Therefore I believe that a wonderous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabaeans will rise again. Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews wish to have a State, and they shall have one. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own home. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare will react with beneficent force for the good of humanity." Theodor Herzl (1896).  A Jewish State. Wikisource.  [scan] The first wave of modern Jewish migration to Ottoman-ruled Palestine, known as the First Aliyah, began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe.[106] Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice, Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,[107] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, thus offering a solution to the so-called Jewish question of the European states, in conformity with the goals and achievements of other national projects of the time.[108] In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), offering his vision of a future Jewish state; the following year he presided over the First Zionist Congress.[109] The Second Aliyah (1904–14), began after the Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them left eventually.[106] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,[110] although the Second Aliyah included socialist groups who established the kibbutz movement.[111] During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, that stated that Britain intended for the creation of a Jewish "national home" within the Palestinian Mandate.[112][113] In 1918, the Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine.[114] Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the Haganah (meaning "The Defense" in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi, or the Stern Gang, paramilitary groups later split off.[115] In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews, and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians.[116] The population of the area at this time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11%,[117] and Arab Christians at about 9.5% of the population.[118] The Third (1919–23) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–29) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine.[106] The rise of Nazism and the increasing persecution of Jews in 1930s Europe led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This was a major cause of the Arab revolt of 1936–39 during which the British Mandate authorities alongside the Zionist militias of Haganah and Irgun killed 5,032 Arabs and wounded 14,760,[119][120] resulting in over ten percent of the adult male Palestinian Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.[121] The British introduced restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine.[106] By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.[122] After World War II Further information: Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine, United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and Israeli Declaration of Independence After World War II, Britain found itself in intense conflict with the Jewish community over Jewish immigration limits, as well as continued conflict with the Arab community over limit levels. The Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule.[123] At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees sought a new life far from their destroyed communities in Europe. The Yishuv attempted to bring these refugees to Palestine but many were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps in Atlit and Cyprus by the British. UN Map, "Palestine plan of partition with economic union" On 22 July 1946, Irgun attacked the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing[124] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.[125][126][127] A total of 91 people of various nationalities were killed and 46 were injured.[128] The hotel was the site of the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.[128][129] The attack initially had the approval of the Haganah. It was conceived as a response to Operation Agatha (a series of widespread raids, including one on the Jewish Agency, conducted by the British authorities) and was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era.[128][129] It was characterized as one of the "most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century."[130] In 1947, the British government announced it would withdraw from Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews. On 15 May 1947, the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations resolved that the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine be created "to prepare for consideration at the next regular session of the Assembly a report on the question of Palestine."[131] In the Report of the Committee dated 3 September 1947 to the General Assembly,[132] the majority of the Committee in Chapter VI proposed a plan to replace the British Mandate with "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem ... the last to be under an International Trusteeship System."[133] On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (II) recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union.[13] The plan attached to the resolution was essentially that proposed by the majority of the Committee in the report of 3 September. The Jewish Agency, which was the recognized representative of the Jewish community, accepted the plan.[14] The Arab League and Arab Higher Committee of Palestine rejected it, and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition.[15][134] On the following day, 1 December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab gangs began attacking Jewish targets.[135] The Jews were initially on the defensive as civil war broke out, but in early April 1948 moved onto the offensive.[136][137] The Arab Palestinian economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled.[138] David Ben-Gurion proclaiming the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel."[16][139] The only reference in the text of the Declaration to the borders of the new state is the use of the term Eretz-Israel ("Land of Israel").[140] The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq—entered what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War;[141][142] contingents from Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan joined the war.[143][144] The apparent purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state at inception, and some Arab leaders talked about driving the Jews into the sea.[145][146][147] According to Benny Morris, Jews felt that the invading Arab armies aimed to slaughter the Jews.[148] The Arab league stated that the invasion was to restore law and order and to prevent further bloodshed.[149] Raising of the Ink Flag, marking the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established.[150] Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. The United Nations estimated that more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by or fled from advancing Israeli forces during the conflict—what would become known in Arabic as the Nakba ("catastrophe").[151] Early years of the State of Israel Further information: Arab–Israeli conflict Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations by majority vote on 11 May 1949.[152] Both Israel and Jordan were genuinely interested in a peace agreement but the British acted as a brake on the Jordanian effort in order to avoid damaging British interests in Egypt.[153] In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics.[154][155] The Kibbutzim, or collective farming communities, played a pivotal role in establishing the new state.[156] Immigration to Israel during the late 1940s and early 1950s was aided by the Israeli Immigration Department and the non-government sponsored Mossad LeAliyah Bet ("Institution for Illegal Immigration"[157]). Both groups facilitated regular immigration logistics like arranging transportation, but the latter also engaged in clandestine operations in countries, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where the lives of Jews were believed to be in danger and exit from those places was difficult. Mossad LeAliyah Bet was disbanded in 1953.[158] The immigration was in accordance with the One Million Plan. The immigrants came for differing reasons. Some believed in a Zionist ideology or did it for the promise of a better life in Israel, while others moved to escape persecution or were expelled.[159][160] An influx of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab and Muslim countries to Israel during the first three years increased the number of Jews from 700,000 to 1,400,000.[161] By 1958, the population of Israel rose to two million.[161] Between 1948 and 1970, approximately 1,150,000 Jewish refugees relocated to Israel.[162]Some new immigrants arrived as refugees with no possessions and were housed in temporary camps known as ma'abarot; by 1952, over 200,000 people were living in these tent cities.[163] Jews of European background were often treated more favorably than Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries—housing units reserved for the latter were often re-designated for the former, with the result that Jews newly arrived from Arab lands generally ended up staying in transit camps for longer.[164] Tensions that developed between the two groups over such discrimination persist to the present day.[165] During this period, food, clothes and furniture had to be rationed in what became known as the austerity period. The need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered mass protests by Jews angered at the idea that Israel could accept monetary compensation for the Holocaust.[166] U.S. newsreel on the trial of Adolf Eichmann During the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen, nearly always against civilians,[167] mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip,[168] leading to several Israeli counter-raids. In 1956, Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized. The continued blockade of the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, together with the growing amount of Fedayeen attacks against Israel's southern population, and recent Arab grave and threatening statements, prompted Israel to attack Egypt.[169][170][171][172] Israel joined a secret alliance with Great Britain and France and overran the Sinai Peninsula but was pressured to withdraw by the United Nations in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights in the Red Sea via the Straits of Tiran and the Canal[citation needed].[173][174] The war, known as the Suez Crisis, resulted in significant reduction of Israeli border infiltration.[175][176][177][178] In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial.[179] The trial had a major impact on public awareness of the Holocaust.[180] Eichmann remains the only person executed in Israel by conviction in an Israeli civilian court.[181] Territory held by Israel:   before the Six-Day War   after the war The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982. Since 1964, Arab countries, concerned over Israeli plans to divert waters of the Jordan River into the coastal plain,[182] had been trying to divert the headwaters to deprive Israel of water resources, provoking tensions between Israel on the one hand, and Syria and Lebanon on the other. Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel, and called for its destruction.[17][183][184] By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces.[185] In May 1967, Egypt massed its army near the border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea.[186][187][188] Other Arab states mobilized their forces.[189] Israel reiterated that these actions were a casus belli and, on 5 June, launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt. Jordan, Syria and Iraq responded and attacked Israel. In a Six-Day War, Israel defeated Jordan and captured the West Bank, defeated Egypt and captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, and defeated Syria and captured the Golan Heights.[190] Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem, and the 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories. Following the 1967 war and the "three nos" resolution of the Arab League, during the 1967–1970 War of Attrition Israel faced attacks from the Egyptians in the Sinai, and from Palestinian groups targeting Israelis in the occupied territories, in Israel proper, and around the world. Most important among the various Palestinian and Arab groups was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, which initially committed itself to "armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland".[191][192] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of attacks[193][194] against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,[195]including a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers of the massacre, a bombing and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon. On 6 October 1973, as Jews were observing Yom Kippur, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, that opened the Yom Kippur War. The war ended on 25 October with Israel successfully repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but having suffered over 2,500 soldiers killed in a war which collectively took 10–35,000 lives in about 20 days.[196] An internal inquiry exonerated the government of responsibility for failures before and during the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.[197] In July 1976 an airliner was hijacked during its flight from Israel to France by Palestinian guerrillas and landed at Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos carried out an operation in which 102 out of 106 Israeli hostages were successfully rescued. Further conflict and peace process Further information: Israeli–Palestinian peace process See also: One-state solution, Two-state solution, Three-state solution, and Lieberman Plan The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin's Likud party took control from the Labor Party.[198] Later that year, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before the Knesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state.[199] In the two years that followed, Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords (1978) and the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty (1979).[200] In return, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[201] On 11 March 1978, a PLO guerilla raid from Lebanon led to the Coastal Road massacre. Israel responded by launching an invasion of southern Lebanon to destroy the PLO bases south of the Litani River. Most PLO fighters withdrew, but Israel was able to secure southern Lebanon until a UN force and the Lebanese army could take over. The PLO soon resumed its policy of attacks against Israel. In the next few years, the PLO infiltrated the south and kept up a sporadic shelling across the border. Israel carried out numerous retaliatory attacks by air and on the ground. Israel's 1980 law declared that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."[12] Meanwhile, Begin's government provided incentives for Israelis to settle in the occupied West Bank, increasing friction with the Palestinians in that area.[202] The Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, passed in 1980, was believed by some to reaffirm Israel's 1967 annexation of Jerusalem by government decree, and reignited international controversy over the status of the city. No Israeli legislation has defined the territory of Israel and no act specifically included East Jerusalem therein.[203] The position of the majority of UN member states is reflected in numerous resolutions declaring that actions taken by Israel to settle its citizens in the West Bank, and impose its laws and administration on East Jerusalem, are illegal and have no validity.[204] In 1981 Israel annexed the Golan Heights, although annexation was not recognized internationally.[205] Israel's population diversity expanded in the 1980s and 1990s. Several waves of Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel since the 1980s, while between 1990 and 1994, immigration from the post-Soviet states increased Israel's population by twelve percent.[206] On 7 June 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's sole nuclear reactor under construction just outside Baghdad, in order to impede Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Following a series of PLO attacks in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon that year to destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and missiles into northern Israel.[207] In the first six days of fighting, the Israelis destroyed the military forces of the PLO in Lebanon and decisively defeated the Syrians. An Israeli government inquiry—the Kahan Commission—would later hold Begin, Sharon and several Israeli generals as indirectly responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In 1985, Israel responded to a Palestinian terrorist attack in Cyprus by bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunisia. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but maintained a borderland buffer zone in southern Lebanon until 2000, from where Israeli forces engaged in conflict with Hezbollah. The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,[208] broke out in 1987, with waves of uncoordinated demonstrations and violence occurring in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Over the following six years, the Intifada became more organised and included economic and cultural measures aimed at disrupting the Israeli occupation. More than a thousand people were killed in the violence.[209] During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Scud missile attacks against Israel. Despite public outrage, Israel heeded American calls to refrain from hitting back and did not participate in that war.[210][211] Shimon Peres (left) with Yitzhak Rabin (center) and King Hussein of Jordan (right), prior to signing the Israel–Jordan peace treaty 1994. In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following an election in which his party called for compromise with Israel's neighbors.[212][213] The following year, Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO, signed the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National Authority the right to govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[214] The PLO also recognized Israel's right to exist and pledged an end to terrorism.[215] In 1994, the Israel–Jordan peace treaty was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel.[216] Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the continuation of Israeli settlements[217] and checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions.[218]Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by Palestinian suicide attacks.[219] In November 1995, while leaving a peace rally, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords.[220] The site of the 2001 Tel Aviv Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, in which 21 Israelis were killed. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of the 1990s, Israel withdrew from Hebron,[221] and signed the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority.[222] Ehud Barak, elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the 2000 Camp David Summit. During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The proposed state included the entirety of the Gaza Strip and over 90% of the West Bank with Jerusalem as a shared capital.[223] Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks. After a controversial visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, the Second Intifada began. Some commentators contend that the uprising was pre-planned by Arafat due to the collapse of peace talks.[224][225][226][227]Sharon became prime minister in a 2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and also spearheaded the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier,[228] ending the Intifada.[229][230] By this time 1,100 Israelis had been killed, mostly in suicide bombings.[231] The Palestinian fatalities, from 2000 to 2008, reached 4,791 killed by Israeli security forces, 44 killed by Israeli civilians, and 609 killed by Palestinians.[232] In July 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel's northern border communities and a cross-border abduction of two Israeli soldiers precipitated the month-long Second Lebanon War.[233][234] On 6 September 2007, the Israeli Air Force destroyed a nuclear reactor in Syria. At the end of 2008, Israel entered another conflict as a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed. The 2008–09 Gaza War lasted three weeks and ended after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire.[235][236] Hamas announced its own ceasefire, with its own conditions of complete withdrawal and opening of border crossings. Despite neither the rocket launchings nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped, the fragile ceasefire remained in order.[237] In what Israel described as a response to more than a hundred Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities,[238] Israel began an operation in Gaza on 14 November 2012, lasting eight days.[239] Israel started another operation in Gaza following an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas in July 2014.[240] Geography and environment Main articles: Geography of Israel and Wildlife of Israel Geography of IsraelvteGolan HeightsGalileeCoastal plainJudaean MountainsJordan ValleyNegevLevantine Sea (Mediterranean)KinneretDead SeaGulf of EilatWest BankGaza StripLebanonSyriaJordanEgypt Satellite images of Israel and neighboring territories during the day (left) and night (right) Israel is located in the Levant area of the Fertile Crescent region. The country is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, bounded by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank to the east, and Egypt and the Gaza Strip to the southwest. It lies between latitudes 29° and 34° N, and longitudes 34° and 36° E. The sovereign territory of Israel (according to the demarcation lines of the 1949 Armistice Agreements and excluding all territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War) is approximately 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 sq mi) in area, of which two percent is water.[2] However Israel is so narrow that the exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is double the land area of the country.[241] The total area under Israeli law, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is 22,072 square kilometers (8,522 sq mi),[242] and the total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank, is 27,799 square kilometers (10,733 sq mi).[243] Despite its small size, Israel is home to a variety of geographic features, from the Negev desert in the south to the inland fertile Jezreel Valley, mountain ranges of the Galilee, Carmel and toward the Golan in the north. The Israeli coastal plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to most of the nation's population.[244] East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which forms a small part of the 6,500-kilometer (4,039 mi) Great Rift Valley. The Jordan River runs along the Jordan Rift Valley, from Mount Hermon through the Hulah Valley and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.[245] Further south is the Arabah, ending with the Gulf of Eilat, part of the Red Sea. Unique to Israel and the Sinai Peninsula are makhteshim, or erosion cirques.[246] The largest makhtesh in the world is Ramon Crater in the Negev,[247] which measures 40 by 8 kilometers (25 by 5 mi).[248] A report on the environmental status of the Mediterranean Basin states that Israel has the largest number of plant species per square meter of all the countries in the basin.[249] Tectonics and seismicity Further information: List of earthquakes in the Levant The Jordan Rift Valley is the result of tectonic movements within the Dead Sea Transform (DSF) fault system. The DSF forms the transform boundary between the African Plate to the west and the Arabian Plate to the east. The Golan Heights and all of Jordan are part of the Arabian Plate, while the Galilee, West Bank, Coastal Plain, and Negev along with the Sinai Peninsula are on the African Plate. This tectonic disposition leads to a relatively high seismic activity in the region. The entire Jordan Valley segment is thought to have ruptured repeatedly, for instance during the last two major earthquakes along this structure in 749 and 1033. The deficit in slip that has built up since the 1033 event is sufficient to cause an earthquake of Mw~7.4.[250] The most catastrophic earthquakes we know of occurred in 31 BCE, 363, 749, and 1033 CE, that is every ca. 400 years on average.[251] Destructive earthquakes leading to serious loss of life strike about every 80 years.[252] While stringent construction regulations are currently in place and recently built structures are earthquake-safe, as of 2007 the majority of the buildings in Israel were older than these regulations and many public buildings as well as 50,000 residential buildings did not meet the new standards and were "expected to collapse" if exposed to a strong quake.[252] Given the fragile political situation of the Middle East region and the presence there of major holy sites, a quake reaching magnitude 7 on the Richter scale could have dire consequences for world peace.[251] Climate Köppen climate classification map of Israel Temperatures in Israel vary widely, especially during the winter. Coastal areas, such as those of Tel Aviv and Haifa, have a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers. The area of Beersheba and the Northern Negev has a semi-arid climate with hot summers, cool winters and fewer rainy days than the Mediterranean climate. The Southern Negev and the Arava areas have desert climate with very hot and dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain. The highest temperature in the continent of Asia (54.0 °C or 129.2 °F) was recorded in 1942 at Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan river valley.[253][254] At the other extreme mountainous regions can be windy, cold, and areas at elevation of 750 meters or more (same elevation as Jerusalem) will usually receive at least one snowfall each year.[255] From May to September, rain in Israel is rare.[256][257] With scarce water resources, Israel has developed various water-saving technologies, including drip irrigation.[258] Israelis also take advantage of the considerable sunlight available for solar energy, making Israel the leading nation in solar energy use per capita (practically every house uses solar panels for water heating).[259] Four different phytogeographic regions exist in Israel, due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east. For this reason the flora and fauna of Israel is extremely diverse. There are 2,867 known species of plants found in Israel. Of these, at least 253 species are introduced and non-native.[260] There are 380 Israeli nature reserves.[261] Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee   Field of Anemone coronaria, national flower of Israel   Makhtesh Ramon, a type of crater unique to Israel and the Sinai Peninsula   Snow in Galilee   Flowers of Israel Demographics Main articles: Demographics of Israel and Israelis Religion in Israelvte  Note: Until 1995, figures for Christians also included Others.[262] In 2017, Israel's population was an estimated 8,643,600 people, of whom 6,459,700 (74.8%) were recorded by the civil government as Jews. 1,799,400 Arabs comprised 20.8% of the population, while non-Arab Christians and people who have no religion listed in the civil registry made up 4.4%.[263][1] Over the last decade, large numbers of migrant workers from Romania, Thailand, China, Africa, and South America have settled in Israel. Exact figures are unknown, as many of them are living in the country illegally,[264] but estimates run in the region of 203,000.[24] By June 2012, approximately 60,000 African migrants had entered Israel.[265] About 92% of Israelis live in urban areas.[266] Immigration to Israel in the years 1948–2015. The two peaks were in 1949 and 1990. Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and is often referred to as a Jewish state. The country's Law of Return grants all Jews and those of Jewish ancestry the right to Israeli citizenship.[267] Retention of Israel's population since 1948 is about even or greater, when compared to other countries with mass immigration.[268] Jewish emigration from Israel (called yerida in Hebrew), primarily to the United States and Canada, is described by demographers as modest,[269] but is often cited by Israeli government ministries as a major threat to Israel's future.[270][271] Three quarters, or 74.8%, of the population are Jews from a diversity of Jewish backgrounds. Approximately 76% of Israeli Jews are born in Israel, 16% are immigrants from Europe and the Americas, and 8% are immigrants from Asia and Africa (including the Arab world).[272] Jews from Europe and the former Soviet Union and their descendants born in Israel, including Ashkenazi Jews, constitute approximately 50% of Jewish Israelis. Jews who left or fled Arab and Muslim countries and their descendants, including both Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews,[273] form most of the rest of the Jewish population.[274][275][276] Jewish intermarriage rates run at over 35% and recent studies suggest that the percentage of Israelis descended from both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews increases by 0.5 percent every year, with over 25% of school children now originating from both communities.[277] Around 4% of Israelis (300,000), ethnically defined as "others", are Russian descendants of Jewish origin or family who are not Jewish according to rabbinical law, but were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.[278][279][280] In 2015, 385,900 Israelis lived in West Bank settlements,[281] including those that predated the establishment of the State of Israel and which were re-established after the Six-Day War, in cities such as Hebron and Gush Etzion bloc. In addition, there were more than 200,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem,[282] and 20,000 in the Golan Heights.[281] The total number of Israeli settlers is over 600,000 (≈10% of the Jewish Israeli population). Approximately 7,800 Israelis lived in settlements in the Gaza Strip, known as Gush Katif, until they were evacuated by the government as part of its 2005 disengagement plan.[283] Major urban areas Park Tzameret residential neighborhood under construction in Tel Aviv. For a more comprehensive list, see List of cities in Israel. There are four major metropolitan areas: Gush Dan (Tel Aviv metropolitan area; population 3,785,000), Jerusalem metropolitan area (population 1,223,800), Haifa metropolitan area (population 913,700), and Beersheba metropolitan area (population 369,200).[284] Israel's largest municipality, in population and area, is Jerusalem with 865,721 residents in an area of 125 square kilometres (48 sq mi).[285] Israeli government statistics on Jerusalem include the population and area of East Jerusalem, which is widely recognized as part of the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation.[286] Tel Aviv and Haifa rank as Israel's next most populous cities, with populations of 432,892 and 278,903, respectively. Israel has 14 cities with populations over 100,000.[287] In all, there are 76 Israeli municipalities granted "city" status by the Ministry of the Interior. Two more cities are planned: Kasif, a planned city to be built in the Negev, and Harish, originally a small town currently being built into a large city. [285]  vte Largest cities in Israel Israel Central Bureau of Statistics[285] Rank Name District Pop. Rank Name District Pop. Jerusalem Tel Aviv 1 Jerusalem Jerusalem 865,721a 11 Ramat Gan Tel Aviv 152,596 Haifa Rishon LeZion 2 Tel Aviv Tel Aviv 432,892 12 Rehovot Central 132,671 3 Haifa Haifa 278,903 13 Ashkelon Southern 130,660 4 Rishon LeZion Central 243,973 14 Bat Yam Tel Aviv 128,892 5 Petah Tikva Central 230,984 15 Beit Shemesh Jerusalem 103,922 6 Ashdod Southern 220,174 16 Kfar Saba Central 96,922 7 Netanya Central 207,946 17 Herzliya Tel Aviv 91,926 8 Beersheba Southern 203,604 18 Hadera Haifa 88,783 9 Holon Tel Aviv 188,834 19 Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut Central 88,749 10 Bnei Brak Tel Aviv 182,799 20 Nazareth Northern 75,726 ^a This number includes East Jerusalem and West Bank areas. Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized. Language Main article: Languages of Israel Road sign in Hebrew, Arabic, and English Israel has two official languages, Hebrew and Arabic.[2] Hebrew is the primary language of the state and is spoken every day by the majority of the population. Arabic is spoken by the Arab minority, with Hebrew taught in Arab schools. As a country of immigrants, many languages can be heard on the streets. Due to mass immigration from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia (some 130,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel),[288][289] Russian and Amharic are widely spoken.[290] More than one million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Israel from the post-Soviet states between 1990 and 2004.[291] French is spoken by around 700,000 Israelis,[292] mostly originating from France and North Africa (see Maghrebi Jews). English was an official language during the Mandate period; it lost this status after the establishment of Israel, but retains a role comparable to that of an official language,[293][294][295] as may be seen in road signs and official documents. Many Israelis communicate reasonably well in English, as many television programs are broadcast in English with subtitles and the language is taught from the early grades in elementary school. In addition, Israeli universities offer courses in the English language on various subjects.[296] Religion Main articles: Religion in Israel and Abrahamic religions The Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, Jerusalem. Israel comprises a major part of the Holy Land, a region of significant importance to all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druze and Bahá'í Faith. The religious affiliation of Israeli Jews varies widely: a social survey indicates that 49% self-identify as Hiloni (secular), 29% as Masorti (traditional), 13% as Dati (Orthodox) and 9% as Haredi (ultra-Orthodox).[297] Haredi Jews are expected to represent more than 20% of Israel's Jewish population by 2028.[298] 9th Station of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa street in Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the background is venerated by Christians as the site of the Burial of Jesus.[299] Making up 17.6% of the population, Muslims constitute Israel's largest religious minority. About 2% of the population is Christian and 1.6% is Druze.[2] The Christian population primarily comprises Arab Christians, but also includes post-Soviet immigrants, the foreign laborers of multinational origins, and followers of Messianic Judaism, considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity.[300] Members of many other religious groups, including Buddhists and Hindus, maintain a presence in Israel, albeit in small numbers.[301] Out of more than one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, about 300,000 are considered not Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.[302] The city of Jerusalem is of special importance to Jews, Muslims and Christians as it is the home of sites that are pivotal to their religious beliefs, such as the Old City that incorporates the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[303] Other locations of religious importance in Israel are Nazareth (holy in Christianity as the site of the Annunciation of Mary), Tiberias and Safed (two of the Four Holy Cities in Judaism), the White Mosque in Ramla (holy in Islam as the shrine of the prophet Saleh), and the Church of Saint George in Lod (holy in Christianity and Islam as the tomb of Saint George or Al Khidr). A number of other religious landmarks are located in the West Bank, among them Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the birthplace of Jesus and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The administrative center of the Bahá'í Faith and the Shrine of the Báb are located at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa; the leader of the faith is buried in Acre. Apart from maintenance staff, there is no Bahá'í community in Israel, although it is a destination for pilgrimages. Bahá'í staff in Israel do not teach their faith to Israelis following strict policy.[304][305][306] A few miles south of the Bahá'í World Centre is Mahmood Mosque affiliated with the reformist Ahmadiyya movement. Kababir, Haifa's mixed neighbourhood of Jews and Ahmadi Arabs is the only one of its kind in the country.[307][308] Education Main article: Education in Israel Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University Education is highly valued in the Israeli culture and was viewed as a fundamental block of ancient Israelites.[309] Jewish communities in the Levant were the first to introduce compulsory education for which the organized community, not less than the parents, was responsible.[310] Many international business leaders and organizations such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates have praised Israel for its high quality of education in helping spur Israel's economic development and technological boom.[311][312][313] In 2015, the country ranked third among OECD members (after Canada and Japan) for the percentage of 25–64 year-olds that have attained tertiary education with 49% compared with the OECD average of 35%.[30] In 2012, the country ranked third in the world in the number of academic degrees per capita (20 percent of the population).[314][315] Israel has a school life expectancy of 16 years and a literacy rate of 97.8%.[2] The State Education Law, passed in 1953, established five types of schools: state secular, state religious, ultra orthodox, communal settlement schools, and Arab schools. The public secular is the largest school group, and is attended by the majority of Jewish and non-Arab pupils in Israel. Most Arabs send their children to schools where Arabic is the language of instruction.[316] Education is compulsory in Israel for children between the ages of three and eighteen.[317][318] Schooling is divided into three tiers – primary school (grades 1–6), middle school (grades 7–9), and high school (grades 10–12) – culminating with Bagrut matriculation exams. Proficiency in core subjects such as mathematics, the Hebrew language, Hebrew and general literature, the English language, history, Biblical scripture and civics is necessary to receive a Bagrut certificate.[319] In Arab, Christian and Druze schools, the exam on Biblical studies is replaced by an exam on Muslim, Christian or Druze heritage.[320] Maariv described the Christian Arabs sectors as "the most successful in education system",[321] since Christians fared the best in terms of education in comparison to any other religion in Israel.[322] Israeli children from Russian-speaking families have a higher bagrut pass rate at high-school level.[323] Although amongst immigrant children born in the Former Soviet Union, the bagrut pass rate is highest amongst those families from European FSU states at 62.6%, and lower amongst those from Central Asian and Caucasian FSU states.[324] In 2014, 61.5% of all Israeli twelfth graders earned a matriculation certificate.[325] Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel has nine public universities that are subsidized by the state and 49 private colleges.[319][326][327] The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel's second-oldest university after the Technion,[328][329] houses the National Library of Israel, the world's largest repository of Judaica and Hebraica.[330] The Technion and the Hebrew University consistently ranked among world's 100 top universities by the prestigious ARWU academic ranking.[331] Other major universities in the country include the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa and the Open University of Israel. Ariel University, in the West Bank, is the newest university institution, upgraded from college status, and the first in over thirty years. Politics Main articles: Politics of Israel and Israeli system of government See also: Criticism of the Israeli government The Knesset chamber, home to the Israeli parliament Israel operates under a parliamentary system as a democratic republic with universal suffrage.[2] A member of parliament supported by a parliamentary majority becomes the prime minister—usually this is the chair of the largest party. The prime minister is the head of government and head of the cabinet.[332][333] Israel is governed by a 120-member parliament, known as the Knesset. Membership of the Knesset is based on proportional representation of political parties,[334] with a 3.25% electoral threshold, which in practice has resulted in coalition governments. Parliamentary elections are scheduled every four years, but unstable coalitions or a no-confidence vote by the Knesset can dissolve a government earlier. The Basic Laws of Israel function as an uncodified constitution. In 2003, the Knesset began to draft an official constitution based on these laws.[2][335]The president of Israel is head of state, with limited and largely ceremonial duties.[332] Israel has no official religion,[336][337][338] but the definition of the state as "Jewish and democratic" creates a strong connection with Judaism, as well as a conflict between state law and religious law. Interaction between the political parties keeps the balance between state and religion largely as it existed during the British Mandate.[339] Legal system Main articles: Judiciary of Israel and Israeli law Supreme Court of Israel, Givat Ram, Jerusalem Israel has a three-tier court system. At the lowest level are magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country. Above them are district courts, serving as both appellate courts and courts of first instance; they are situated in five of Israel's six districts. The third and highest tier is the Supreme Court, located in Jerusalem; it serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the High Court of Justice. In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first instance, allowing individuals, both citizens and non-citizens, to petition against the decisions of state authorities.[340][341] Although Israel supports the goals of the International Criminal Court, it has not ratified the Rome Statute, citing concerns about the ability of the court to remain free from political impartiality.[342] Israel's legal system combines three legal traditions: English common law, civil law, and Jewish law.[2] It is based on the principle of stare decisis (precedent) and is an adversarial system, where the parties in the suit bring evidence before the court. Court cases are decided by professional judges rather than juries.[340] Marriage and divorce are under the jurisdiction of the religious courts: Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian. The election of judges is carried out by a committee of two Knesset members, three Supreme Court justices, two Israeli Bar members and two ministers (one of which, Israel's justice minister, is the committee's chairman). The committee's members of the Knesset are secretly elected by the Knesset, and one of them is traditionally a member of the opposition, the committee's Supreme Court justices are chosen by tradition from all Supreme Court justices by seniority, the Israeli Bar members are elected by the bar, and the second minister is appointed by the Israeli cabinet. The current j ustice minister and committee's chairwoman is Ayelet Shaked.[343][344][345] Administration of Israel's courts (both the "General" courts and the Labor Courts) is carried by the Administration of Courts, situated in Jerusalem. Both General and Labor courts are paperless courts: the storage of court files, as well as court decisions, are conducted electronically. Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty seeks to defend human rights and liberties in Israel. Administrative divisions Main article: Districts of Israel Districts of IsraelNorthHaifaCenterTel AvivJudea and SamariaJerusalemSouthvte The State of Israel is divided into six main administrative districts, known as mehozot (מחוזות; singular: mahoz) – Center, Haifa, Jerusalem, North, South, and Tel Aviv districts, as well as the Judea and Samaria Area in the West Bank. All of the Judea and Samaria Area and parts of the Jerusalem and Northern districts are not recognized internationally as part of Israel. Districts are further divided into fifteen sub-districts known as nafot (נפות; singular: nafa), which are themselves partitioned into fifty natural regions.[346] District Capital Largest city Population[281] Jews Arabs Total note Jerusalem Jerusalem 67% 32% 1,058,000 a North Nazareth Illit Nazareth 43% 54% 1,380,400 Haifa Haifa 68% 26% 981,300 Center Ramla Rishon LeZion 88% 8% 2,071,500 Tel Aviv Tel Aviv 93% 1% 1,368,800 South Beersheba Ashdod 73% 20% 1,217,500 Judea and Samaria Ariel Modi'in Illit 98% 0% 385,900 b ^a Including 201,170 Jews and 313,350 Arabs in East Jerusalem, as of 2014.[282] ^b Israeli citizens only. Israeli-occupied territories Main article: Israeli-occupied territories Map of Israel showing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights In 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Israel also captured the Sinai Peninsula, but returned it to Egypt as part of the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty.[347] Between 1982 and 2000, Israel occupied part of southern Lebanon, in what was known as the Security Belt. Since Israel's capture of these territories, Israeli settlements and military installations have been built within each of them, except Lebanon. Israel has applied civilian law to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem and granted their inhabitants permanent residency status and the ability to apply for citizenship. The West Bank, outside of the Israeli settlements within the territory, has remained under direct military rule, and Palestinians in this area cannot become Israeli citizens. Israel withdrew its military forces and dismantled the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip as part of its disengagement from Gaza though it continues to maintain control of its airspace and waters. The UN Security Council has declared the annexation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem to be "null and void" and continues to view the territories as occupied.[348][349] The International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the United Nations, asserted, in its 2004 advisory opinion on the legality of the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier, that the lands captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem, are occupied territory.[350] The status of East Jerusalem in any future peace settlement has at times been a difficult issue in negotiations between Israeli governments and representatives of the Palestinians, as Israel views it as its sovereign territory, as well as part of its capital. Most negotiations relating to the territories have been on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which emphasises "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war", and calls on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories in return for normalization of relations with Arab states, a principle known as "Land for peace".[351][352][353] According to some observers,[weasel words] Israel has engaged in systematic and widespread violations of human rights in the occupied territories, including the occupation itself[354] and war crimes against civilians.[355][356][357][358] The allegations include violations of international humanitarian law[359] by the United Nations Human Rights Council,[360] with local residents having "limited ability to hold governing authorities accountable for such abuses" by the U.S. State Department,[361] mass arbitrary arrests, torture, unlawful killings, systemic abuses and impunity by Amnesty International and others[362][363][364][365][366][367] and a denial of the right to Palestinian self-determination.[368][369][370][371][372][excessive detail?] In response to such allegations, Prime Minister Netanyahu has defended the country's security forces for protecting the innocent from terrorists[373] and expressed contempt for what he describes as a lack of concern about the human rights violations committed by "criminal killers".[374] Some observers, such as Israeli officials, scholars,[375] United States Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley[376][377] and UN secretary-generals Ban Ki-moon[378] and Kofi Annan,[379] also assert that the UN is disproportionately concerned with Israeli misconduct.[excessive detail?] Israeli West Bank barrier separating Israel and the West Bank The West Bank was occupied and annexed by Jordan in 1950, following the Arab rejection of the UN decision to create two states in Palestine. Only Britain recognized this annexation and Jordan has since ceded its claim to the territory to the PLO. The population are mainly Palestinians, including refugees of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[380] From their occupation in 1967 until 1993, the Palestinians living in these territories were under Israeli military administration. Since the Israel–PLO letters of recognition, most of the Palestinian population and cities have been under the internal jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and only partial Israeli military control, although Israel has on several occasions redeployed its troops and reinstated full military administration during periods of unrest. In response to increasing attacks during the Second Intifada, the Israeli government started to construct the Israeli West Bank barrier.[381] When completed, approximately 13% of the barrier will be constructed on the Green Line or in Israel with 87% inside the West Bank.[382][383] The Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967 and then by Israel after 1967. In 2005, as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Israel removed all of its settlers and forces from the territory. Israel does not consider the Gaza Strip to be occupied territory and declared it a "foreign territory". That view has been disputed by numerous international humanitarian organizations and various bodies of the United Nations.[384][385][386][387][388]Following the 2007 Battle of Gaza, when Hamas assumed power in the Gaza Strip,[389] Israel tightened its control of the Gaza crossings along its border, as well as by sea and air, and prevented persons from entering and exiting the area except for isolated cases it deemed humanitarian.[389] Gaza has a border with Egypt and an agreement between Israel, the European Union and the PA governed how border crossing would take place (it was monitored by European observers).[390] Foreign relations Main articles: Foreign relations of Israel and International recognition of Israel   Diplomatic relations   Diplomatic relations suspended   Former diplomatic relations   No diplomatic relations, but former trade relations   No diplomatic relations Israel maintains diplomatic relations with 158 countries and has 107 diplomatic missions around the world;[391]countries with whom they have no diplomatic relations include most Muslim countries.[392] Only three members of the Arab League have normalized relations with Israel: Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties in 1979 and 1994, respectively, and Mauritania opted for full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999. Despite the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, Israel is still widely considered an enemy country among Egyptians.[393] Under Israeli law, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen are enemy countries,[394] and Israeli citizens may not visit them without permission from the Ministry of the Interior.[395] Iran had diplomatic relations with Israel under the Pahlavi dynasty[396] but withdrew its recognition of Israel during the Islamic Revolution.[397] As a result of the 2008–09 Gaza War, Mauritania, Qatar, Bolivia, and Venezuela suspended political and economic ties with Israel.[398][399] The United States and the Soviet Union were the first two countries to recognize the State of Israel, having declared recognition roughly simultaneously.[400] The United States regards Israel as its "most reliable partner in the Middle East,"[401] based on "common democratic values, religious affinities, and security interests".[402] The United States has provided $68 billion in military assistance and $32 billion in grants to Israel since 1967, under the Foreign Assistance Act (period beginning 1962),[403] more than any other country for that period until 2003.[403][404][405] The United Kingdom is seen as having a "natural" relationship with Israel on account of the British Mandate for Palestine.[406] Relations between the two countries were also made stronger by former prime minister Tony Blair's efforts for a two state resolution. By 2007, Germany had paid 25 billion euros in reparations to the Israeli state and individual Israeli Holocaust survivors.[407] Israel is included in the European Union's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims at bringing the EU and its neighbours closer.[408] Although Turkey and Israel did not establish full diplomatic relations until 1991,[409] Turkey has cooperated with the Jewish state since its recognition of Israel in 1949. Turkey's ties to the other Muslim-majority nations in the region have at times resulted in pressure from Arab and Muslim states to temper its relationship with Israel.[410]Relations between Turkey and Israel took a downturn after the 2008–09 Gaza War and Israel's raid of the Gaza flotilla.[411] Relations between Greece and Israel have improved since 1995 due to the decline of Israeli-Turkish relations.[412] The two countries have a defense cooperation agreement and in 2010, the Israeli Air Force hosted Greece's Hellenic Air Force in a joint exercise at the Uvda base. The joint Cyprus-Israel oil and gas explorations centered on the Leviathan gas field are an important factor for Greece, given its strong links with Cyprus.[413] Cooperation in the world's longest sub-sea electric power cable, the EuroAsia Interconnector, has strengthened relations between Cyprus and Israel.[414] Azerbaijan is one of the few majority Muslim countries to develop bilateral strategic and economic relations with Israel. Azerbaijan supplies Israel with a substantial amount of its oil needs, and Israel has helped modernize the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. India established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992 and has fostered a strong military, technological and cultural partnership with the country since then.[415] According to an international opinion survey conducted in 2009 on behalf of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, India is the most pro-Israel country in the world.[416][417] India is the largest customer of the Israeli military equipment and Israel is the second-largest military partner of India after Russia.[418] Ethiopia is Israel's main ally in Africa due to common political, religious and security interests.[419] Israel provides expertise to Ethiopia on irrigation projects and thousands of Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. International humanitarian efforts Israeli foreign aid ranks low among OECD nations, spending less than 0.1% of its GNI on development assistance, as opposed to the recommended 0.7%. The country also ranked 43rd in the 2016 World Giving Index.[420] However, Israel has a history of providing emergency aid and humanitarian response teams to disasters across the world.[421] Israel's humanitarian efforts officially began in 1957, with the establishment of Mashav, the Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation.[422] There are additional Israeli humanitarian and emergency response groups that work with the Israel government, including IsraAid, a joint programme run by 14 Israeli organizations and North American Jewish groups,[423] ZAKA,[424] The Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team (FIRST),[425] Israeli Flying Aid (IFA),[426]Save a Child's Heart (SACH)[427] and Latet.[428] Between 1985 and 2015, Israel sent 24 delegations of IDF search and rescue unit, the Home Front Command, to 22 countries.[429] In Haiti, immediately following the 2010 earthquake, Israel was the first country to set up a field hospital capable of performing surgical operations.[430] Israel sent over 200 medical doctors and personnel to start treating injured Haitians at the scene.[431] At the conclusion of its humanitarian mission 11 days later,[432] the Israeli delegation had treated more than 1,110 patients, conducted 319 successful surgeries, delivered 16 births and rescued or assisted in the rescue of four individuals.[433][434] Despite radiation concerns, Israel was one of the first countries to send a medical delegation to Japan following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.[435] Israel dispatched a medical team to the tsunami-stricken city of Kurihara in 2011. A medical clinic run by an IDF team of some 50 members featured pediatric, surgical, maternity and gynecological, and otolaryngology wards, together with an optometry department, a laboratory, a pharmacy and an intensive care unit. After treating 200 patients in two weeks, the departing emergency team donated its equipment to the Japanese.[436] Military Main articles: Israel Defense Forces and Israeli security forces Further information: List of wars involving Israel, List of the Israel Defense Forces operations, and Israel and weapons of mass destruction The Israel Defense Forces is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and is headed by its Chief of General Staff, the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Cabinet. The IDF consist of the army, air force and navy. It was founded during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War by consolidating paramilitary organizations—chiefly the Haganah—that preceded the establishment of the state.[437] The IDF also draws upon the resources of the Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman), which works with Mossad and Shabak.[438] The Israel Defense Forces have been involved in several major wars and border conflicts in its short history, making it one of the most battle-trained armed forces in the world.[439][440] IDF soldiers cleaning the beaches at Tel Aviv, which have scored highly in environmental tests.[441] Most Israelis are drafted into the military at the age of 18. Men serve two years and eight months and women two years.[442]Following mandatory service, Israeli men join the reserve forces and usually do up to several weeks of reserve duty every year until their forties. Most women are exempt from reserve duty. Arab citizens of Israel (except the Druze) and those engaged in full-time religious studies are exempt from military service, although the exemption of yeshiva students has been a source of contention in Israeli society for many years.[443][444] An alternative for those who receive exemptions on various grounds is Sherut Leumi, or national service, which involves a program of service in hospitals, schools and other social welfare frameworks.[445] As a result of its conscription program, the IDF maintains approximately 176,500 active troops and an additional 445,000 reservists.[446] Iron Dome is the world's first operational anti-artillery rocket defense system. The nation's military relies heavily on high-tech weapons systems designed and manufactured in Israel as well as some foreign imports. The Arrow missile is one of the world's few operational anti-ballistic missile systems.[447] The Python air-to-air missile series is often considered one of the most crucial weapons in its military history.[448]Israel's Spike missile is one of the most widely exported ATGMs in the world.[449] Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile air defense system gained worldwide acclaim after intercepting hundreds of Qassam, 122 mm Grad and Fajr-5 artillery rockets fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip.[450][451] Since the Yom Kippur War, Israel has developed a network of reconnaissance satellites.[452] The success of the Ofeq program has made Israel one of seven countries capable of launching such satellites.[453] Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons[454] as well as chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.[455]Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons[456] and maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity toward its nuclear capabilities.[457] The Israeli Navy's Dolphin submarines are believed to be armed with nuclear Popeye Turbo missiles, offering second-strike capability.[458] Since the Gulf War in 1991, when Israel was attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles, all homes in Israel are required to have a reinforced security room, Merkhav Mugan, impermeable to chemical and biological substances.[459] Since its establishment, Israel has spent a significant portion of its gross domestic product on defense. However, military expenditure as a proportion of GDP has steadily fallen in recent decades. In 1984, for example, the country spent 24%[460] of its GDP on defense. By 2006, that figure had dropped to 7.3%.[2] As of 2015, Israel has the 15th largest military expenditure in the world[461] and the 7th highest as a percentage of GDP, with 5.4%.[462] The country also ranked 8th globally for arms exports.[463] The majority of Israel's arms exports are unreported for security reasons.[464] Since 1974, the United States has been a particularly notable contributor of military aid to Israel.[465][466] Under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, the U.S. is expected to provide the country with $3.8 billion per year, or around 20% of Israel's defense budget, from 2018 to 2028.[467] Israel is consistently rated low in the Global Peace Index, ranking 144th out of 163 nations for peacefulness in 2016.[468] Economy Main article: Economy of Israel The Diamond Exchange District in Ramat Gan Israel is considered the most advanced country in Southwest Asia and the Middle East in economic and industrial development.[469] Israel's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development.[311] In 2010, it joined the OECD.[29][470] The country is ranked 24th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report[471] and 52nd on the World Bank's Doing Business index.[472] It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States,[473] and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China.[474] In 2016, Israel ranked 21st among the world's most competitive nations, according to the IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook.[475] Israel was also ranked 4th in the world by share of people in high-skilled employment.[476] Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Its building is optimized for computer trading, with systems located in an underground bunker to keep the exchange active during emergencies.[477] Despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the agricultural and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely self-sufficient in food production, apart from grains and beef. Imports to Israel, totaling $57.9 billion in 2016, include raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, and consumer goods.[2] Leading exports include machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, and textiles and apparel; in 2016, Israeli exports reached $51.61 billion.[2] The Bank of Israel holds $97.22 billion of foreign-exchange reserves.[2] Since the 1970s, Israel has received military aid from the United States, as well as economic assistance in the form of loan guarantees, which now account for roughly half of Israel's external debt. Israel has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and is a lender in terms of net external debt (assets vs. liabilities abroad), which in 2015 stood at a surplus of $69 billion.[478] Israel has an impressive record for creating profit driven technologies making the country a top choice for many business leaders and high technology industry giants. Intel[479] and Microsoft[480] built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Apple, HP, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centres in the country. In 2007, American investor Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway bought an Israeli company, Iscar, its first acquisition outside the United States, for $4 billion.[481] Days of working time in Israel are Sunday through Thursday (for a five-day workweek), or Friday (for a six-day workweek). In observance of Shabbat, in places where Friday is a work day and the majority of population is Jewish, Friday is a "short day", usually lasting till 14:00 in the winter, or 16:00 in the summer. Several proposals have been raised to adjust the work week with the majority of the world, and make Sunday a non-working day, while extending working time of other days or replacing Friday with Sunday as a work day.[482] Science and technology Main articles: Science and technology in Israel and List of Israeli inventions and discoveries Materials science professor Dan Shechtman is one of six Israelis to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in under a decade.[483] Israel's development of cutting-edge technologies in software, communications and the life sciences have evoked comparisons with Silicon Valley.[484][485] Israel ranks 10th in the Bloomberg Innovation Index,[486] and is 2nd in the world in expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP.[487] Israel boasts 140 scientists, technicians, and engineers per 10,000 employees, the highest number in the world (in comparison, the same is 85 for the U.S.).[488][489][490] Israel has produced six Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2004[483] and has been frequently ranked as one of the countries with the highest ratios of scientific papers per capita in the world.[491][492][493] Israel has led the world in stem-cell research papers per capita since 2000.[494] Israeli universities are ranked among the top 50 world universities in computer science (Technion and Tel Aviv University), mathematics (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and chemistry (Weizmann Institute of Science).[331] IAI Lavi, technology demonstrator. In 2012 Israel was ranked ninth in the world by the Futron's Space Competitiveness Index.[495]The Israel Space Agency coordinates all Israeli space research programs with scientific and commercial goals, and have indigenously designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites.[496] Some of Israel's satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems.[497] Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit.[498] It was first launched in 1988, making Israel the eighth nation to have a space launch capability. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became Israel's first astronaut, serving as payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.[499] The ongoing shortage of water in the country has spurred innovation in water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernization, drip irrigation, was invented in Israel. Israel is also at the technological forefront of desalination and water recycling. The Sorek desalination plant is the largest seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination facility in the world.[500] By 2014, Israel's desalination programs provided roughly 35% of Israel's drinking water and it is expected to supply 40% by 2015 and 70% by 2050.[501] As of 2015, more than 50 percent of the water for Israeli households, agriculture and industry is artificially produced.[502] The country hosts an annual Water Technology and Environmental Control Exhibition & Conference (WATEC) that attracts thousands of people from across the world.[503][504] In 2011, Israel's water technology industry was worth around $2 billion a year with annual exports of products and services in the tens of millions of dollars. As a result of innovations in reverse osmosis technology, Israel is set to become a net exporter of water in the coming years.[505] The world's largest solar parabolic dish at the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center.[506] Israel has embraced solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology[507] and its solar companies work on projects around the world.[508][509] Over 90% of Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest per capita in the world.[259][510] According to government figures, the country saves 8% of its electricity consumption per year because of its solar energy use in heating.[511] The high annual incident solar irradiance at its geographic latitude creates ideal conditions for what is an internationally renowned solar research and development industry in the Negev Desert.[507][508][509] Israel had a modern electric car infrastructure involving a countrywide network of charging stations to facilitate the charging and exchange of car batteries. It was thought that this would have lowered Israel's oil dependency and lowered the fuel costs of hundreds of Israel's motorists that use cars powered only by electric batteries.[512][513][514] The Israeli model was being studied by several countries and being implemented in Denmark and Australia.[515] However, Israel's trailblazing electric car company Better Place shut down in 2013.[516] Transportation Main article: Transport in Israel Reception hall at Ben Gurion Airport Israel has 19,224 kilometres (11,945 mi) of paved roads,[517] and 3 million motor vehicles.[518] The number of motor vehicles per 1,000 persons is 365, relatively low with respect to developed countries.[518] Israel has 5,715 buses on scheduled routes,[519] operated by several carriers, the largest of which is Egged, serving most of the country. Railways stretch across 1,277 kilometres (793 mi) and are operated solely by government-owned Israel Railways.[520] Following major investments beginning in the early to mid-1990s, the number of train passengers per year has grown from 2.5 million in 1990, to 53 million in 2015; railways are also transporting 7.5 million tons of cargo, per year.[520] Israel is served by two international airports, Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main hub for international air travel near Tel Aviv, and Ovda Airport, which serves the southernmost port city of Eilat. There are several small domestic airports as well.[521] Ben Gurion, Israel's largest airport, handled over 15 million passengers in 2015.[522] On the Mediterranean coast, the Port of Haifa is the country's oldest and largest port, while Ashdod Port is one of the few deep water ports in the world built on the open sea.[521] In addition to these, the smaller Port of Eilat is situated on the Red Sea, and is used mainly for trading with Far East countries.*****The olive, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "European olive", is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. The species is cultivated in all the countries of the Mediterranean, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and South Africa.[2][3] Olea europaea is the type species for the genus Olea. The olive's fruit, also called an "olive", is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil; it is one of the core ingredients in Mediterranean cuisine. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia, and the true ash trees (Fraxinus). Contents 1 Etymology 2 Description 3 Taxonomy 3.1 Cultivars 4 History 4.1 Prehistory 4.2 Outside the Mediterranean 5 Symbolic connotations 5.1 Judaeo-Christianity 5.2 Ancient Greece 5.3 Ancient Rome 5.4 Islam 5.5 United States 6 Oldest known trees 7 Uses 7.1 Table olives 7.2 Traditional fermentation and curing 7.3 Olive wood 7.4 Ornamental uses 8 Cultivation 8.1 Growth and propagation 8.2 Pests, diseases, and weather 8.3 As an invasive species 8.4 Harvest and processing 9 Global production 10 Nutrition 11 Allergenic potential 12 Gallery 13 See also 14 References 15 External links Etymology[edit] The word olive derives from Latin ŏlīva ("olive fruit", "olive tree"),[4] possibly through Etruscan 𐌀𐌅𐌉𐌄𐌋𐌄 (eleiva) from the archaic Proto-Greek form *ἐλαίϝα (*elaíwa) (Classic Greek ἐλαία elaía, "olive fruit", "olive tree").[5][6] The word oil originally meant "olive oil", from ŏlĕum,[7] ἔλαιον (élaion, "olive oil").[8][9] Also in multiple other languages the word for "oil" ultimately derives from the name of this tree and its fruit. The oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean 𐀁𐀨𐀷, e-ra-wa, and 𐀁𐀨𐀺, e-ra-wo or 𐀁𐁉𐀺, e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script.[10] Description[edit] 19th-century illustrations The olive tree, Olea europaea, is an evergreen tree or shrub native to Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is short and squat, and rarely exceeds 8–15 m (26–49 ft) in height. 'Pisciottana', a unique variety comprising 40,000 trees found only in the area around Pisciotta in the Campania region of southern Italy, often exceeds this, with correspondingly large trunk diameters. The silvery green leaves are oblong, measuring 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long and 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) wide. The trunk is typically gnarled and twisted.[11] The small, white, feathery flowers, with ten-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens, and bifid stigma, are borne generally on the previous year's wood, in racemes springing from the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a small drupe 1–2.5 cm (0.39–0.98 in) long when ripe, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars. Olives are harvested in the green to purple stage.[12] Canned black olives have often been artificially blackened[13] (see below on processing) and may contain the chemical ferrous gluconate to improve the appearance.[14] Olea europaea contains a seed commonly referred to in American English as a "pit", and in British English as a "stone".[15] Taxonomy[edit] The six natural subspecies of Olea europaea are distributed over a wide range:[16][17][18] Olea europaea subsp. europaea (Mediterranean Basin) Olea europaea var. sylvestris, considered the "wild" olive of the Mediterranean, is a variety characterized by a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruit. O. e. subsp. cuspidata (from South Africa throughout East Africa, Arabia to Southwest China) O. e. subsp. cerasiformis (Madeira); also known as Olea maderensis O. e. subsp. guanchica (Canary Islands) O. e. subsp. laperrinei (Algeria, Sudan, Niger) O. e. subsp. maroccana (Morocco) The subspecies O. e. cerasiformis is tetraploid, and O. e. maroccana is hexaploid.[19] Wild-growing forms of the olive are sometimes treated as the species Olea oleaster. The trees referred to as "white" and "black" olives in Southeast Asia are not actually olives, but species of Canarium.[20] Cultivars[edit] Main article: List of olive cultivars Hundreds of cultivars of the olive tree are known.[21][22] An olive's cultivar has a significant impact on its color, size, shape, and growth characteristics, as well as the qualities of olive oil.[21] Olive cultivars may be used primarily for oil, eating, or both. Olives cultivated for consumption are generally referred to as "table olives".[23] Since many olive cultivars are self-sterile or nearly so, they are generally planted in pairs with a single primary cultivar and a secondary cultivar selected for its ability to fertilize the primary one. In recent times, efforts have been directed at producing hybrid cultivars with qualities useful to farmers, such as resistance to disease, quick growth, and larger or more consistent crops. History[edit] Prehistory[edit] Fossil evidence indicates the olive tree had its origins 20–40 million years ago in the Oligocene, in what is now corresponding to Italy and the eastern Mediterranean Basin.[24][25] Wild oleasters were present and collected in the East Mediterranean since ~19,000 BP.[26] The genome of cultivated olives reflects their origin from oleaster populations in the East Mediterranean.[27][28][29][30][31] The olive plant was first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean regions.[24][32] The edible olive seems to have coexisted with humans for about 5,000 to 6,000 years, going back to the early Bronze Age (3150 to 1200 BC). Its origin can be traced to the Levant based on written tablets, olive pits, and wood fragments found in ancient tombs.[33][34] The immediate ancestry of the cultivated olive is unknown. Fossil Olea pollen has been found in Macedonia and other places around the Mediterranean, indicating that this genus is an original element of the Mediterranean flora. Fossilized leaves of Olea were found in the palaeosols of the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera) and were dated about 37,000 BP. Imprints of larvae of olive whitefly Aleurolobus (Aleurodes) olivinus were found on the leaves. The same insect is commonly found today on olive leaves, showing that the plant-animal co-evolutionary relations have not changed since that time.[35] Other leaves found on the same island are dated back to 60,000 BP, making them the oldest known olives from the Mediterranean.[36] As far back as 3000 BC, olives were grown commercially in Crete; they may have been the source of the wealth of the Minoan civilization.[37] Outside the Mediterranean[edit] Olives are not native to the Americas. Spanish colonists brought the olive to the New World, where its cultivation prospered in present-day Peru, Chile, and Argentina. The first seedlings from Spain were planted in Lima by Antonio de Rivera in 1560. Olive tree cultivation quickly spread along the valleys of South America's dry Pacific coast where the climate was similar to the Mediterranean.[38] Spanish missionaries established the tree in the 18th century in California. It was first cultivated at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769 or later around 1795. Orchards were started at other missions, but in 1838, an inspection found only two olive orchards in California. Cultivation for oil gradually became a highly successful commercial venture from the 1860s onward.[39] In Japan, the first successful planting of olive trees happened in 1908 on Shodo Island, which became the cradle of olive cultivation.[40] An estimated 865 million olive trees were in the world as of 2005, and the vast majority of these were found in Mediterranean countries, with traditionally marginal areas accounting for no more than 25% of olive-planted area and 10% of oil production.[41] Symbolic connotations[edit] See also: Peace symbols Olive oil has long been considered sacred and holy. The olive branch has often been a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace. The leafy branches of the olive tree were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures as emblems of benediction and purification, and they were used to crown the victors of friendly games and bloody wars. Today, olive oil is still used in many religious ceremonies. Over the years, the olive has also been used to symbolize wisdom, fertility, power, and purity. Judaeo-Christianity[edit] Olives were one of the main elements in ancient Israelite cuisine. Olive oil was used for not only food and cooking, but also lighting, sacrificial offerings, ointment, and anointment for priestly or royal office.[42] The olive tree is one of the first plants mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), and one of the most significant. An olive branch (or leaf, depending on translation) was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis, 8:11). The olive is listed in Deuteronomy 8:8 as one of the seven species that are noteworthy products of the Land of Israel.[43] According to the Halakha, the Jewish law mandatory for all Jews, the olive is one of the seven species that require the recitation of me'eyn shalosh after they are consumed. Olive oil is also the most recommended and best possible oil for the lighting of the Shabbes candles.[44] The Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, is mentioned several times in the New Testament. The Allegory of the Olive Tree in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans refers to the scattering and gathering of Israel. It compares the Israelites to a tame olive tree and the Gentiles to a wild olive branch. The olive tree itself, as well as olive oil and olives, play an important role in the Bible.[45] Ancient Greece[edit] Olives are thought to have been domesticated in the third millennium BC at the latest, at which point they, along with grain and grapes, became part of Colin Renfrew’s triad of Greek staple crops that fueled the emergence of more complex societies.[46] Olives, and especially (perfumed) olive oil, became a major export product during the Minoan and Mycenaean periods. Dutch archaeologist Jorrit Kelder proposed that the Mycenaeans sent shipments of olive oil, probably alongside live olive branches, to the court of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten as a diplomatic gift.[47] In Egypt, these imported olive branches may have acquired ritual meanings, as they are depicted as offerings on the wall of the Aten temple and were used in wreaths for the burial of Tutankhamen. It is likely that, as well as being used for culinary purposes, olive oil was also used to various other ends, including as a perfume. The ancient Greeks smeared olive oil on their bodies and hair as a matter of grooming and good health. Olive oil was used to anoint kings and athletes in ancient Greece. It was burnt in the sacred lamps of temples and was the "eternal flame" of the original Olympic games. Victors in these games were crowned with its leaves. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus crawls beneath two shoots of olive that grow from a single stock,[48] and in the Iliad, (XVII.53ff) there is a metaphoric description of a lone olive tree in the mountains, by a spring; the Greeks observed that the olive rarely thrives at a distance from the sea, which in Greece invariably means up mountain slopes. Greek myth attributed to the primordial culture-hero Aristaeus the understanding of olive husbandry, along with cheese-making and bee-keeping.[49] Olive was one of the woods used to fashion the most primitive Greek cult figures, called xoana, referring to their wooden material; they were reverently preserved for centuries.[50] It was purely a matter of local pride that the Athenians claimed that the olive grew first in Athens.[51] In an archaic Athenian foundation myth, Athena won the patronage of Attica from Poseidon with the gift of the olive. According to the fourth-century BC father of botany, Theophrastus, olive trees ordinarily attained an age around 200 years,[52] he mentions that the very olive tree of Athena still grew on the Acropolis; it was still to be seen there in the second century AD;[53] and when Pausanias was shown it, c. 170 AD, he reported "Legend also says that when the Persians fired Athens the olive was burnt down, but on the very day it was burnt it grew again to the height of two cubits."[54] Indeed, olive suckers sprout readily from the stump, and the great age of some existing olive trees shows that it was perfectly possible that the olive tree of the Acropolis dated to the Bronze Age. The olive was sacred to Athena and appeared on the Athenian coinage. Theophrastus, in On the Causes of Plants, does not give as systematic and detailed an account of olive husbandry as he does of the vine, but he makes clear (in 1.16.10) that the cultivated olive must be vegetatively propagated; indeed, the pits give rise to thorny, wild-type olives, spread far and wide by birds. Theophrastus reports how the bearing olive can be grafted on the wild olive, for which the Greeks had a separate name, kotinos.[55] In his Enquiry into Plants (2.1.2–4) he states that the olive can be propagated from a piece of the trunk, the root, a twig, or a stake.[56] Ancient Rome[edit] Roman fresco of a woman with red hair wearing a garland of olives, from Herculaneum, made sometime before the city's destruction in 79 AD by Mount Vesuvius (which also destroyed Pompeii). According to Pliny the Elder, a vine, a fig tree, and an olive tree grew in the middle of the Roman Forum; the olive was planted to provide shade (the garden plot was recreated in the 20th century).[57] The Roman poet Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "As for me, olives, endives, and smooth mallows provide sustenance."[58] Lord Monboddo comments on the olive in 1779 as one of the foods preferred by the ancients and as one of the most perfect foods.[59] Storing olives on Dere Street; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century Vitruvius describes of the use of charred olive wood in tying together walls and foundations in his De Architectura: The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference. In the thickness there should be set a very close succession of ties made of charred olive wood, binding the two faces of the wall together like pins, to give it lasting endurance. For that is a material which neither decay, nor the weather, nor time can harm, but even though buried in the earth or set in the water it keeps sound and useful forever. And so not only city walls but substructures in general and all walls that require a thickness like that of a city wall, will be long in falling to decay if tied in this manner.[60] Islam[edit] The olive tree and olive oil are mentioned seven times in the Quran,[61] and the olive is praised as a precious fruit. Olive tree and olive oil health benefits have been propounded in Prophetic medicine. Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "Take oil of olive and massage with it – it is a blessed tree" (Sunan al-Darimi, 69:103). Olives are substitutes for dates (if not available) during Ramadan fasting, and olive tree leaves are used as incense in some Muslim Mediterranean countries.[62] United States[edit] Since the Great Seal of the United States was finalized and approved on 20 June 1782, the eagle in the seal is depicted clutching an olive branch in one of its talons, indicating the power of peace.[63] See also: Olive branch Oldest known trees[edit] See also: List of oldest trees Olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean Sea are centuries old, with some dated up to 3500 years. The olive tree of Mouriscas, Abrantes, Portugal, (Oliveira do Mouchão) is one of the oldest known olive trees still alive to this day, with an estimated age of 3,350 years,[64][65] planted approximately at the beginning of the Atlantic Bronze Age. An olive tree on the island of Brijuni (Brioni), Istria in Croatia, has a radiocarbon dating age of about 1,600 years. It still gives fruit (about 30 kg or 66 lb per year), which is made into olive oil.[66] An olive tree in west Athens, named "Plato's Olive Tree", is thought to be a remnant of the grove where Plato's Academy was situated, making it an estimated 2,400 years old.[67] The tree comprised a cavernous trunk from which a few branches were still sprouting in 1975, when a traffic accident caused a bus to uproot it.[67] Following that, the trunk was preserved and displayed in the nearby Agricultural University of Athens. In 2013, it was reported that the remaining part of the trunk was uprooted and stolen, allegedly to serve as firewood. A supposedly older tree, the "Peisistratos Tree", is located by the banks of the Cephisus River, in the municipality of Agioi Anargyroi, and is said to be a remnant of an olive grove that was planted by Athenian tyrant Peisistratos in the sixth century BC.[citation needed] Numerous ancient olive trees also exist near Pelion in Greece.[citation needed] The age of an olive tree in Crete, the Finix Olive, is claimed to be over 2,000 years old; this estimate is based on archaeological evidence around the tree.[68] The olive tree of Vouves, also in Crete, has an age estimated between 2000 and 4000 years.[69] An olive tree called Farga d'Arió in Ulldecona, Catalonia, Spain, has been estimated (with laser-perimetry methods) to date back to 314 AD, which would mean that it was planted when Constantine the Great was Roman emperor.[70] Some Italian olive trees are believed to date back to Ancient Rome (8th century BC to 5th century AD), although identifying progenitor trees in ancient sources is difficult. Several other trees of about 1,000 years old are within the same garden. The 15th-century trees of Olivo della Linza, at Alliste in the Province of Lecce in Apulia on the Italian mainland, were noted by Bishop Ludovico de Pennis during his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Nardò-Gallipoli in 1452.[71] The town of Bshaale, Lebanon claims to have the oldest olive trees in the world (4000 BC for the oldest), but no scientific study supports these claims. Other trees in the towns of Amioun appear to be at least 1,500 years old.[72][73] Throughout Israel and Palestine, dozens of ancient olive trees are found with estimated ages of 1,600–2,000 years; however, these estimates could not be supported by current scientific practices.[74] Ancient trees include two giant olive trees in Arraba and five trees in Deir Hanna, both in the Galilee region, which have been determined to be over 3,000 years old,[74] although no available data support the credibility of the study that produced these age estimates, and as such, the 3000 years age estimate can not be considered valid. All seven trees continue to produce olives. Several trees in the Garden of Gethsemane (from the Hebrew words gat shemanim or olive press) in Jerusalem are claimed to date back to the time of Jesus.[75] A study conducted by the National Research Council of Italy in 2012 used carbon dating on older parts of the trunks of three trees from Gethsemane and came up with the dates of 1092, 1166, and 1198 AD, while DNA tests show that the trees were originally planted from the same parent plant.[76] According to molecular analysis, the tested trees showed the same allelic profile at all microsatellite loci analyzed which furthermore may indicate attempt to keep the lineage of an older species intact.[77] However, Bernabei writes, "All the tree trunks are hollow inside so that the central, older wood is missing . . . In the end, only three from a total of eight olive trees could be successfully dated. The dated ancient olive trees do, however, not allow any hypothesis to be made with regard to the age of the remaining five giant olive trees."[78] Babcox concludes, "The roots of the eight oldest trees are possibly much older. Visiting guides to the garden often state that they are two thousand years old."[79] The 2,000-year-old[80] Bidni olive trees on the island of Malta, which have been confirmed through carbon dating,[81] have been protected since 1933,[82] and are also listed in UNESCO's Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws.[83] In 2011, after recognising their historical and landscape value, and in recognition of the fact that "only 20 trees remain from 40 at the beginning of the 20th century",[84] Maltese authorities declared the ancient Bidni olive grove at Bidnija, limits of Mosta, as a Tree Protected Area, in accordance with the provisions of the Trees and Woodlands Protection Regulations, 2011, as per Government Notice number 473/11.[85] Kaštela, Croatia   Canneto Sabino, Italy   Karystos, Euboia, Greece Uses[edit] See also: Olive oil and Mediterranean cuisine The olive tree, Olea europaea, has been cultivated for olive oil, fine wood, olive leaf, ornamental reasons, and the olive fruit. About 90% of all harvested olives are turned into oil, while about 10% are used as table olives.[21] The olive is one of the "trinity" or "triad" of basic ingredients in Mediterranean cuisine, the other two being wheat for bread, pasta, and couscous, and the grape for wine.[86][87] Olives with herbs Green olives Black olives Table olives[edit] Table olives are classified by the IOC into three groups according to the degree of ripeness achieved before harvesting:[88] Green olives are picked when they have obtained full size, while unripe; they are usually shades of green to yellow, and contain the bitter phytochemical, oleuropein.[88] Semi-ripe or turning-colour olives are picked at the beginning of the ripening cycle, when the colour has begun to change from green to multicolour shades of red to brown. Only the skin is coloured, as the flesh of the fruit lacks pigmentation at this stage, unlike that of ripe olives. Black olives or ripe olives are picked at full maturity when fully ripe, displaying colours of purple, brown or black.[88] To leach the oleuropein from olives, commercial producers use lye, which neutralizes the bitterness of oleuropein, producing a mild flavour and soft texture characteristic of California black olives sold in cans.[88] Such olives are typically preserved in brine and sterilized under high heat during the canning process.[89] Traditional fermentation and curing[edit] An olive vat room used for curing at Graber Olive House. Raw or fresh olives are naturally very bitter; to make them palatable, olives must be cured and fermented, thereby removing oleuropein, a bitter phenolic compound that can reach levels of 14% of dry matter in young olives.[90] In addition to oleuropein, other phenolic compounds render freshly picked olives unpalatable and must also be removed or lowered in quantity through curing and fermentation. Generally speaking, phenolics reach their peak in young fruit and are converted as the fruit matures.[91] Once ripening occurs, the levels of phenolics sharply decline through their conversion to other organic products which render some cultivars edible immediately.[90] One example of an edible olive native to the island of Thasos is the throubes black olive, which when allowed to ripen in the sun, shrivel, and fall from the tree, is then edible.[92][93] The curing process may take from a few days, with lye, to a few months with brine or salt packing.[94] With the exception of California style and salt-cured olives, all methods of curing involve a major fermentation involving bacteria and yeast that is of equal importance to the final table olive product.[95] Traditional cures, using the natural microflora on the fruit to induce fermentation, lead to two important outcomes: the leaching out and breakdown of oleuropein and other unpalatable phenolic compounds, and the generation of favourable metabolites from bacteria and yeast, such as organic acids, probiotics, glycerol, and esters, which affect the sensory properties of the final table olives.[90] Mixed bacterial/yeast olive fermentations may have probiotic qualities.[96][97] Lactic acid is the most important metabolite, as it lowers the pH, acting as a natural preservative against the growth of unwanted pathogenic species. The result is table olives which can be stored without refrigeration. Fermentations dominated by lactic acid bacteria are, therefore, the most suitable method of curing olives. Yeast-dominated fermentations produce a different suite of metabolites which provide poorer preservation, so they are corrected with an acid such as citric acid in the final processing stage to provide microbial stability.[23] The many types of preparations for table olives depend on local tastes and traditions. The most important commercial examples are listed below. Lebanese or Phenician Type (olives with fermentation): Applied to green, semiripe, or ripe olives. Olives are soaked in salt water for 24-48 hours. Then, they are slightly crushed with a rock to hasten the fermentation process. The olives are stored for a period of up to a year in a container with salt water, fresh lemon juice, lemon peels, laurel and olive leaves, and rosemary. Some recipes may contain white vinegar or olive oil. Spanish or Sevillian type (olives with fermentation): Most commonly applied to green olive preparation, around 60% of all the world's table olives are produced with this method.[98] Olives are soaked in lye (dilute NaOH, 2–4%) for 8–10 hours to hydrolyse the oleuropein. They are usually considered "treated" when the lye has penetrated two-thirds of the way into the fruit. They are then washed once or several times in water to remove the caustic solution and transferred to fermenting vessels full of brine at typical concentrations of 8–12% NaCl.[99] The brine is changed on a regular basis to help remove the phenolic compounds. Fermentation is carried out by the natural microbiota present on the olives that survive the lye treatment process. Many organisms are involved, usually reflecting the local conditions or "Terroir" of the olives. During a typical fermentation gram-negative enterobacteria flourish in small numbers at first, but are rapidly outgrown by lactic acid bacteria species such as Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis and Pediococcus damnosus. These bacteria produce lactic acid to help lower the pH of the brine and therefore stabilize the product against unwanted pathogenic species. A diversity of yeasts then accumulate in sufficient numbers to help complete the fermentation alongside the lactic acid bacteria. Yeasts commonly mentioned include the teleomorphs Pichia anomala, Pichia membranifaciens, Debaryomyces hansenii and Kluyveromyces marxianus.[23] Once fermented, the olives are placed in fresh brine and acid corrected, to be ready for market. Sicilian or Greek type (olives with fermentation): Applied to green, semiripe and ripe olives, they are almost identical to the Spanish type fermentation process, but the lye treatment process is skipped and the olives are placed directly in fermentation vessels full of brine (8–12% NaCl). The brine is changed on a regular basis to help remove the phenolic compounds. As the caustic treatment is avoided, lactic acid bacteria are only present in similar numbers to yeast and appear to be outdone by the abundant yeasts found on untreated olives. As very little acid is produced by the yeast fermentation, lactic, acetic, or citric acid is often added to the fermentation stage to stabilize the process.[95] Picholine or directly-brined type (olives with fermentation): Applied to green, semi-ripe, or ripe olives, they are soaked in lye typically for longer periods than Spanish style (e.g. 10–72 hours) until the solution has penetrated three-quarters of the way into the fruit. They are then washed and immediately brined and acid corrected with citric acid to achieve microbial stability. Fermentation still occurs carried out by acidogenic yeast and bacteria, but is more subdued than other methods. The brine is changed on a regular basis to help remove the phenolic compounds and a series of progressively stronger concentrations of salt are added until the product is fully stabilized and ready to be eaten.[23] Water-cured type (olives with fermentation): Applied to green, semi-ripe, or ripe olives, these are soaked in water or weak brine and this solution is changed on a daily basis for 10–14 days. The oleuropein is naturally dissolved and leached into the water and removed during a continual soak-wash cycle. Fermentation takes place during the water treatment stage and involves a mixed yeast/bacteria ecosystem. Sometimes, the olives are lightly cracked with a hammer or a stone to trigger fermentation and speed up the fermentation process. Once debittered, the olives are brined to concentrations of 8–12% NaCl and acid corrected, and are then ready to eat.[95] Salt-cured type (olives with minor fermentation): Applied only to ripe olives, they are usually produced in Morocco, Turkey, and other eastern Mediterranean countries. Once picked, the olives are vigorously washed and packed in alternating layers with salt. The high concentrations of salt draw the moisture out of olives, dehydrating and shriveling them until they look somewhat analogous to a raisin. Once packed in salt, fermentation is minimal and only initiated by the most halophilic yeast species such as Debaryomyces hansenii. Once cured, they are sold in their natural state without any additives.[23] So-called oil-cured olives are cured in salt, and then soaked in oil.[100] California or "artificial ripening" type (olives without fermentation): Applied to green and semi-ripe olives, they are placed in lye and soaked. Upon their removal, they are washed in water injected with compressed air. This process is repeated several times until both oxygen and lye have soaked through to the pit. The repeated, saturated exposure to air oxidises the skin and flesh of the fruit, turning it black in an artificial process that mimics natural ripening. Once fully oxidised or "blackened", they are brined and acid corrected and are then ready for eating.[88][89] Olive wood[edit] Olive wood is very hard and is prized for its durability, colour, high combustion temperature, and interesting grain patterns. Because of the commercial importance of the fruit, and the slow growth and relatively small size of the tree, olive wood and its products are relatively expensive. Common uses of the wood include: kitchen utensils, carved wooden bowls, cutting boards, fine furniture, and decorative items. The yellow or light greenish-brown wood is often finely veined with a darker tint; being very hard and close-grained, it is valued by woodworkers.[101] Ornamental uses[edit] In modern landscape design olive trees are frequently used as ornamental features for their distinctively gnarled trunks and "evergreen" silvery gray foliage.[102] Cultivation[edit] Distribution of olive trees over the Mediterranean Basin.[103] The earliest evidence for the domestication of olives comes from the Chalcolithic period archaeological site of Teleilat el Ghassul in what is today modern Jordan. Farmers in ancient times believed that olive trees would not grow well if planted more than a certain distance from the sea; Theophrastus gives 300 stadia (55.6 km or 34.5 mi) as the limit. Modern experience does not always confirm this, and, though showing a preference for the coast, they have long been grown further inland in some areas with suitable climates, particularly in the southwestern Mediterranean (Iberia, northwest Africa) where winters are mild. An article on Olive tree cultivation in Spain is brought down in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.[104] Olive plantation in Andalucía, Spain Olives are cultivated in many regions of the world with Mediterranean climates, such as South Africa, Chile, Peru, Australia, Oregon, and California, and in areas with temperate climates such as New Zealand.[citation needed] They are also grown in the Córdoba Province, Argentina, which has a temperate climate with rainy summers and dry winters.[105] Olives at a market in Toulon, France Growth and propagation[edit] Olive grove prunings in neat rows at Ostuni, Apulia Olive trees show a marked preference for calcareous soils, flourishing best on limestone slopes and crags, and coastal climate conditions. They grow in any light soil, even on clay if well drained, but in rich soils, they are predisposed to disease and produce poorer oil than in poorer soil. (This was noted by Pliny the Elder.) Olives like hot weather and sunny positions without any shade, while temperatures below −10 °C (14 °F) may injure even a mature tree. They tolerate drought well, due to their sturdy and extensive root systems. Olive trees can live for several centuries and can remain productive for as long if they are pruned correctly and regularly. Only a handful of olive varieties can be used to cross-pollinate. 'Pendolino' olive trees are partially self-fertile, but pollenizers are needed for a large fruit crop. Other compatible olive tree pollinators include 'Leccino' and 'Maurino'. 'Pendolino' olive trees are used extensively as pollinizers in large olive tree groves. Phenological development of olive flowering, following BBCH standard scale. a-50, b-51, c-54, d-57, (<15% open flowers); f-65, (>15% open flowers); g-67, (<15% open flowers); h-68.[106] Olives are propagated by various methods. The preferred ways are cuttings and layers; the tree roots easily in favourable soil and throws up suckers from the stump when cut down. However, yields from trees grown from suckers or seeds are poor; they must be budded or grafted onto other specimens to do well.[107] Branches of various thickness cut into lengths around 1 m (3.3 ft) planted deeply in manured ground soon vegetate. Shorter pieces are sometimes laid horizontally in shallow trenches and, when covered with a few centimetres of soil, rapidly throw up sucker-like shoots. In Greece, grafting the cultivated tree on the wild tree is a common practice. In Italy, embryonic buds, which form small swellings on the stems, are carefully excised and planted under the soil surface, where they soon form a vigorous shoot. The olive is also sometimes grown from seed. To facilitate germination, the oily pericarp is first softened by slight rotting, or soaked in hot water or in an alkaline solution. In situations where extreme cold has damaged or killed the olive tree, the rootstock can survive and produce new shoots which in turn become new trees. In this way, olive trees can regenerate themselves. In Tuscany in 1985, a very severe frost destroyed many productive, and aged, olive trees and ruined many farmers' livelihoods. However, new shoots appeared in the spring and, once the dead wood was removed, became the basis for new fruit-producing trees. In this way, an olive tree can live for centuries or even millennia. Olives grow very slowly, and over many years, the trunk can attain a considerable diameter. A. P. de Candolle recorded one exceeding 10 m (33 ft) in girth. The trees rarely exceed 15 m (49 ft) in height, and are generally confined to much more limited dimensions by frequent pruning. Olea europaea is very hardy: drought-, disease- and fire-resistant, it can live to a great age. Its root system is robust and capable of regenerating the tree even if the above-ground structure is destroyed. The older the olive tree, the broader and more gnarled the trunk becomes. Many olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean are said to be hundreds of years old, while an age of 2,000 years is claimed for a number of individual trees; in some cases, this has been scientifically verified.[108] See paragraph dealing with the topic. The crop from old trees is sometimes enormous, but they seldom bear well two years in succession, and in many cases, a large harvest occurs every sixth or seventh season. Where the olive is carefully cultivated, as in Languedoc and Provence, the trees are regularly pruned. The pruning preserves the flower-bearing shoots of the preceding year, while keeping the tree low enough to allow the easy gathering of the fruit. The spaces between the trees are regularly fertilized. Pests, diseases, and weather[edit] Various pathologies can affect olives. The most serious pest is the olive fruit fly (Dacus oleae or Bactrocera oleae) which lays its eggs in the olive most commonly just before it becomes ripe in the autumn. The region surrounding the puncture rots, becomes brown, and takes a bitter taste, making the olive unfit for eating or for oil. For controlling the pest, the practice has been to spray with insecticides (organophosphates, e.g. dimethoate). Classic organic methods have now been applied such as trapping, applying the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, and spraying with kaolin. Such methods are obligatory for organic olives. A fungus, Cycloconium oleaginum, can infect the trees for several successive seasons, causing great damage to plantations. A species of bacterium, Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. oleae,[109] induces tumour growth in the shoots. Certain lepidopterous caterpillars feed on the leaves and flowers. Xylella fastidiosa bacteria, which can also infect citrus fruit and vines, has attacked olive trees in Apulia (Puglia), southern Italy causing the olive quick decline syndrome (OQDS).[110][111][112] The main vector is Philaenus spumarius (meadow spittlebug).[113] A pest which spreads through olive trees is the black scale bug, a small black scale insect that resembles a small black spot. They attach themselves firmly to olive trees and reduce the quality of the fruit; their main predators are wasps. The curculio beetle eats the edges of leaves, leaving sawtooth damage.[114] Rabbits eat the bark of olive trees and can do considerable damage, especially to young trees. If the bark is removed around the entire circumference of a tree, it is likely to die. Voles and mice also do damage by eating the roots of olives. At the northern edge of their cultivation zone, for instance in southern France and north-central Italy, olive trees suffer occasionally from frost. Gales and long-continued rains during the gathering season also cause damage. As an invasive species[edit] Olives as invasive weeds, Adelaide Hills, Australia Since its first domestication, O. europaea has been spreading back to the wild from planted groves. Its original wild populations in southern Europe have been largely swamped by feral plants.[115] In some other parts of the world where it has been introduced, most notably South Australia, the olive has become a major woody weed that displaces native vegetation. In South Australia, its seeds are spread by the introduced red fox and by many bird species, including the European starling and the non-native emu, into woodlands, where they germinate and eventually form a dense canopy that prevents regeneration of native trees.[116] As the climate of South Australia is very dry and bushfire prone, the oil-rich feral olive tree substantially increases the fire hazard of native sclerophyll woodlands.[117] Harvest and processing[edit] Forecasting olive crop production based on aerobiological method[118] Olives are harvested in the autumn and winter. More specifically in the Northern Hemisphere, green olives are picked from the end of September to about the middle of November. Blond olives are picked from the middle of October to the end of November, and black olives are collected from the middle of November to the end of January or early February. In southern Europe, harvesting is done for several weeks in winter, but the time varies in each country, and with the season and the cultivar. Most olives today are harvested by shaking the boughs or the whole tree. Using olives found lying on the ground can result in poor quality oil, due to damage. Another method involves standing on a ladder and "milking" the olives into a sack tied around the harvester's waist. This method produces high quality oil.[119] A third method uses a device called an oli-net that wraps around the tree trunk and opens to form an umbrella-like catcher from which workers collect the fruit. Another method uses an electric tool, the oliviera, that has large tongs that spin around quickly, removing fruit from the tree. Olives harvested by this method are used for oil. Table olive varieties are more difficult to harvest, as workers must take care not to damage the fruit; baskets that hang around the worker's neck are used. In some places in Italy, Croatia, and Greece, olives are harvested by hand because the terrain is too mountainous for machines. As a result, the fruit is not bruised, which leads to a superior finished product. The method also involves sawing off branches, which is healthy for future production.[91] The amount of oil contained in the fruit differs greatly by cultivar; the pericarp is usually 60–70% oil. Typical yields are 1.5–2.2 kg (3.3–4.9 lb) of oil per tree per year.[68] Processing olives is done through curing and fermentation or drying in order for them to be edible. Lye and salt brine are used to cure olives from their bitter oleuropein compound. Olives are fermented by yeast and the brine allows bacteria to add flavor and act as a natural preservative by lowering the pH from other bacteria that would lead to spoilage. Global production[edit] Olives are one of the most extensively cultivated fruit crops in the world.[120] In 2011, about 9.6 million hectares (24 million acres) were planted with olive trees, which is more than twice the amount of land devoted to apples, bananas, or mangoes. Only coconut trees and oil palms command more space.[121] Cultivation area tripled from 2.6 to 7.95 million hectares (6.4 to 19.6 million acres) between 1960 and 1998 and reached a peak of 10 million hectares (25 million acres) in 2008. The 10 largest producing countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, are all located in the Mediterranean region and produce 95% of the world's olives. Olive production by country in the Mediterranean basin. Each circle symbolizes 100,000 tons of olive production. Main countries of production (Year 2016 per FAOSTAT)[122] Country/Region Production (tonnes) Cultivated area (hectares) Yield (tonnes/ha) World 19,267,000 10,650,000 1.8091  European Union 11,686,528 5,028,637 2.3240  Spain 6,560,000 2,573,000 2.5490  Greece 2,343,000 887,000 2.6414  Italy 2,092,000 1,165,000 1.7950  Turkey 1,730,000 846,000 2.0460  Morocco 1,416,000 1,008,000 1.4044  Syria 899,000 765,000 1.1748  Tunisia 700,000 1,646,000 0.4253  Algeria 697,000 424,000 1.6437  Egypt 694,000 67,000 6.7293  Portugal 617,000 355,000 1.7394 Nutrition[edit] Olives, green Marinated green olives Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) Energy 609 kJ (146 kcal) Carbohydrates 3.84 g Sugars 0.54 g Dietary fiber 3.3 g Fat 15.32 g Saturated 2.029 g Monounsaturated 11.314 g Polyunsaturated 1.307 g Protein 1.03 g Vitamins Quantity %DV† Vitamin A equiv. beta-Carotene lutein zeaxanthin 3% 20 μg 2% 231 μg 510 μg Thiamine (B1) 2% 0.021 mg Riboflavin (B2) 1% 0.007 mg Niacin (B3) 2% 0.237 mg Vitamin B6 2% 0.031 mg Folate (B9) 1% 3 μg Choline 3% 14.2 mg Vitamin E 25% 3.81 mg Vitamin K 1% 1.4 μg Minerals Quantity %DV† Calcium 5% 52 mg Iron 4% 0.49 mg Magnesium 3% 11 mg Phosphorus 1% 4 mg Potassium 1% 42 mg Sodium 104% 1556 mg Other constituents Quantity Water 75.3 g Full Link to USDA Database entry Units μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams IU = International units †Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA FoodData Central One hundred grams of cured green olives provide 146 calories, are a rich source of vitamin E (25% of the Daily Value, DV), and contain a large amount of sodium (104% DV); other nutrients are insignificant. Green olives are 75% water, 15% fat, 4% carbohydrates and 1% protein (table). The polyphenol composition of olive fruits varies during fruit ripening and during processing by fermentation when olives are immersed whole in brine or crushed to produce oil.[123] In raw fruit, total polyphenol contents, as measured by the Folin method, are 117 mg/100 g in black olives and 161 mg/100 g in green olives, compared to 55 and 21 mg/100 g for extra virgin and virgin olive oil, respectively.[123] Olive fruit contains several types of polyphenols, mainly tyrosols, phenolic acids, flavonols and flavones, and for black olives, anthocyanins. The main bitter flavor of olives before curing results from oleuropein and its aglycone which total in content, respectively, 72 and 82 mg/100 g in black olives, and 56 and 59 mg/100 g in green olives.[123] During the crushing, kneading and extraction of olive fruit to obtain olive oil, oleuropein, demethyloleuropein and ligstroside are hydrolyzed by endogenous beta-glucosidases to form aldehydic aglycones. Polyphenol content also varies with olive cultivar (Spanish Manzanillo highest) and the manner of presentation, with plain olives having higher contents than those that are pitted or stuffed.[124]      ebay5426

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