Israel the Hebrew nation or people. According to tradition they are descended from the patriarch Jacob (also named Israel), whose twelve sons became founders of the twelve tribes. Also called children of Israel.

Israel was also used as the name of the northern kingdom of the Hebrews (c.930–721 bc), formed after the reign of Solomon, whose inhabitants were carried away to captivity in Babylon.

The name comes from Hebrew Yiśrā'ēl ‘he that strives with God, from the story of Jacob's wrestling at Penuel with a man by whom he was given an angelic blessing, in Genesis 32:28, ‘Thy name shall be no more Jacob, but Israel.

The State of Israel, a small nation in the e Mediterranean, can be divided into four geographical regions: a narrow, fertile coastal plain, site of Israel's main industrial cities, Haifa and Tel Aviv; the Judaeo-Galilean highlands; the Negev Desert, which occupies the s half of Israel, extending to Elat on the Gulf of Aqaba, and includes the city of Beersheba; in the e lies part of the Great Rift Valley, including the Sea of Galilee, the River Jordan, and the Dead Sea, the world's lowest point, at 396m (1302ft). Israeli-occupied territories are the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights.

Israel has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry, summers and mild, rainy winters. Temperature and rainfall vary with elevation and proximity to the sea. The Dead Sea region has 70mm (2.5in) of rainfall a year, and temperatures rise to 49°C (120°F). Despite reforestation schemes, forests account for 6% of land use. Farmland covers c.20% of the land, with pasture making up another 40%. The arid Negev Desert is partly irrigated with water pumped from the Sea of Galilee.

Israel is part of a historic region which makes up most of the Biblical Holy Lands (for history pre-1947, see Palestine). In the late 19th century, Zionism began to agitate for a Jewish homeland. In 1947, the United Nations (UN) agreed to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, but Arabs rejected the plan. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled. In the first of the Arab-Israeli Wars, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria invaded, but the Haganah successfully defended the state. An Israeli government was formed with Chaim Weizmann as president, and David Ben-Gurion as prime minister.

In 1949, Israel joined the United Nations and the capital transferred from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. In 1950, the Law of Return provided free citizenship for all immigrant Jews. Following Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal, Israel captured Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. In 1957, Israel withdrew. In 1963, Ben-Gurion resigned, and Levi Eshkol became prime minister (1963–69). In 1967, Nasser blockaded Elat. Israel's defence minister Moshe Dayan launched a pre-emptive attack against Egypt and Syria. Within six days, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Eshkol died in 1969, and Golda Meir became prime minister (1969–74). On October 6, 1973, (Yom Kippur), Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli positions in Sinai and the Golan Heights. Recovering from the initial surprise, Israeli troops launched a counter-offensive and retained its 1967 gains. Yitzhak Rabin's government (1974–77) is chiefly remembered for the daring rescue of Israeli hostages at Entebbe.

Menachem Begin (1977–83) succeeded Rabin. Begin encouraged Jewish settlement on the West Bank, and suppressed Palestinian uprisings. Following the Camp David Accord, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty (1979) in which Egypt recognized the Israeli state and regained Sinai. In 1982, Begin launched a strike against nuclear installations in Iraq and a full-scale invasion of Lebanon (1982–85) to counter the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1987, the Intifada began in Israeli-occupied territory. From 1989–92 Israel's population rose by 10%, due to the immigration of Falashas and Soviet Jews. Increasing Jewish settlement inflamed the popular uprising. During the Gulf War (1991) Israel was the target of Iraqi Scud missiles, but under US pressure, did not respond. In 1992, Rabin was re-elected and began ‘land-for-peace’ negotiations with the PLO. In 1993, Rabin and Yasir Arafat signed the Israeli-Palestinian Accord. In 1994, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) assumed limited autonomy over the West Bank town of Jericho and the Gaza Strip. On November 4, 1995, a Jewish extremist assassinated Rabin. Shimon Peres, Rabin's successor, continued the peace process. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu narrowly defeated Peres in 1996 elections. Netanyahu, while vowing to maintain the peace process, favoured a more hardline policy and Jewish settlement on the West Bank intensified, despite US and UN disapproval.

In 1997, Israeli troops withdrew from Hebron, but further Jewish settlement on the West Bank threatened the process. The US-brokered Wye Accord (October 1998) saw Israel agree to redeploy troops on the West Bank, and the PLO promise to cancel anti-Israeli provisions in its charter. Opposition to the Accord led to fresh elections in May 1998, won by a Labour coalition, One Israel, led by Ehud Barak. In 2000, Barak withdrew Israeli troops from s Lebanon. His failure to secure peace led to further elections in which the Likud leader Ariel Sharon won a landslide victory. In September 2000, after the failure of peace talks, the Intifada renewed and the cycle of violence intensified.

Israel is a wealthy nation (2000 GDP per capita, US$18,900). Agriculture, which employs 4% of the workforce, is highly scientific. Manufactured goods are the leading export; products include chemicals, electronic and military equipment, and jewellery. Diamonds account for 23% of exports. About 66% of the workforce is employed in services. Tourism is also important.

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