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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, the Red Sea to the south, Egypt to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest. Tel Aviv is the country's financial, economic, and technological center. Israel’s governmental seat is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is of limited international recognition. Israel is located in a region known historically as Canaan, Palestine, and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to several Canaanite, and later, Israelite and Judahite states, and is referred to as the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region subsequently came under the rule of many different empires. The late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism in Europe, a movement seeking a Jewish homeland, which garnered British support during World War I. During the war, British occupation led to the setting up of Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration combined with British colonial policy led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs. The 1947 UN Partition Plan triggered a civil war between the two groups, which saw the expulsion and flight of most of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population, known as the Nakba, A minority remained and became Arab citizens of Israel. The State of Israel declared its establishment on 14 May 1948, the day the British terminated the Mandate, seeing the immigration of European Jews displaced during World War II. On 15 May 1948, the armies of neighboring Arab states invaded the area of former Mandatory Palestine, starting the First Arab–Israeli War. The 1949 Armistice Agreements established Israel's borders over most of the former Mandate territory. The rest, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were taken by Jordan and Egypt respectively. The 1967 Six-Day War saw Israel occupying the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights. The Israeli government has since established and continues to expand settlements across the occupied territories, actions which are deemed illegal under international law, and has annexed both East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, actions which are largely unrecognized internationally. Since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt, returning the Sinai Peninsula, and with Jordan, and has more recently normalized relations with several Arab countries. However, international efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not succeeded. Israel's practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international criticism along with accusations from human rights organizations and United Nations officials that it has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people. The country has a parliamentary system elected by proportional representation. The prime minister serves as head of government, and is elected by the Knesset, Israel's unicameral legislature. Israel has one of the biggest economies in the Middle East by nominal GDP, it is one of the richest countries in the Middle East and Asia, and an OECD member since 2010. It has one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East and Asia, and has been ranked as one of the most advanced and technological countries. Israel has a population of nearly 10 million people as of 2023. Etymology Under the British Mandate (1920–1948), the whole region was known as Palestine. Upon establishment in 1948, the country formally adopted the name State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel]; Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]) after other proposed names including Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), Ever (from ancestor Eber), Zion, and Judea, were considered but rejected. The name Israel was suggested by Ben-Gurion and passed by a vote of 6–3. In the early weeks after establishment, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of the Israeli state. 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. The name 'Israel' (Hebrew: Yīsrāʾēl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ, Israēl, 'El (God) persists/rules', though after Hosea 12:4 often interpreted as 'struggle with God') 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. The earliest known archaeological artefact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE). History Early expansions of hominins out of Africa into the Levant, where Israel is located, dates back at least 1.5 million years based on traces found at the Ubeidiya prehistoric site. The Skhul and Qafzeh hominins, dating back 120,000 years, are some of the earliest traces of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa. The Natufian culture emerged in the southern Levant by the 10th millennium BCE, followed by the Ghassulian culture by around 4,500 BCE. Bronze and Iron Ages Early references to "Canaanites" and "Canaan" appear in Near Eastern and Egyptian texts (c. 2000 BCE); these populations were structured as politically independent, territorially based city-states. During the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE), large parts of Canaan formed vassal states paying tribute to the New Kingdom of Egypt. As a result of the Late Bronze Age collapse, Canaan fell into chaos, and Egyptian control over the region collapsed. A people named Israel appear for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an ancient Egyptian inscription which dates to about 1200 BCE. Ancestors of the Israelites are thought to have included ancient Semitic-speaking peoples native to this area.: 78–79  Modern archaeological accounts suggest that the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centered on Yahweh. They spoke an archaic form of Hebrew, known as Biblical Hebrew. Around the same time, the Philistines settled on the southern coastal plain. Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the narrative in the Torah concerning the patriarchs, The Exodus and the tales of conquest in the Book of Joshua, and instead views the narrative as the Israelites' national myth. However, some elements of these traditions do appear to have historical roots. There is debate about the earliest existence of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their extent and power. While it is unclear if there was ever a United Kingdom of Israel, historians and archaeologists agree that the northe.... Discover the Jeffrey Anshel Laura Stevens popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jeffrey Anshel Laura Stevens books.