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CIA Factbook: Israel
Background: Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories Israel occupied since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982. In April 2003, US President BUSH, working in conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement was undermined by Israeli-Palestinian violence between September 2003 and February 2005. An Israeli-Palestinian agreement reached at Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005, along with an internally-brokered Palestinian cease-fire, significantly reduced the violence. In the summer of 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, evacuating settlers and its military while retaining control over most points of entry into the Gaza Strip. The election of HAMAS in January 2006 to head the Palestinian Legislative Council froze relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Ehud OLMERT became prime minister in March 2006; he shelved plans to unilaterally evacuate from most of the West Bank following an Israeli military operation in Gaza in June-July 2006 and a 34-day conflict with Hizballah in Lebanon in June-August 2006. OLMERT in June 2007 resumed talks with the PA after HAMAS seized control of the Gaza Strip and PA President Mahmoud ABBAS formed a new government without HAMAS. OLMERT in September 2008 resigned in the wake of several corruption allegations, but remained prime minister until the new coalition government under former Prime Minister Binyamin NETANYAHU was completed in late March 2009, following the February general election. Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Lebanon Geographic coordinates: 31 30 N, 34 45 E Map references: Middle East Area: Area - comparative: slightly smaller than New Jersey Land boundaries: Coastline: 273 km Maritime claims: Climate: temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas Terrain: Negev desert in the south; low coastal plain; central mountains; Jordan Rift Valley Elevation extremes: Natural resources: timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays, sand Land use: Irrigated land: 1,940 sq km (2003 est.) Total renewable water resources: 1.7 cu km (2001) Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): Natural hazards: sandstorms may occur during spring and summer; droughts; periodic earthquakes Environment - current issues: limited arable land and natural fresh water resources pose serious constraints; desertification; air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; groundwater pollution from industrial and domestic waste, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides Environment - international agreements: Geography - note: there are about 340 Israeli civilian sites - including 100 small outpost communities in the West Bank - as well as 42 sites in the Golan Heights, 0 in the Gaza Strip, and 29 in East Jerusalem (July 2008 est.); Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) is an important freshwater source Population: 7,233,701 Age structure: Median age: Population growth rate: 1.671% (2009 est.) Birth rate: 19.77 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) Death rate: 5.43 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.) Net migration rate: 2.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.) Urbanization: Sex ratio: Infant mortality rate: Life expectancy at birth: Total fertility rate: 2.75 children born/woman (2009 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: HIV/AIDS - deaths: Nationality: Ethnic groups: Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born 22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly Arab) (2004) Religions: Jewish 76.4%, Muslim 16%, Arab Christians 1.7%, other Christian 0.4%, Druze 1.6%, unspecified 3.9% (2004) Languages: Hebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language Literacy: Country name: Data code: IS Government type: parliamentary democracy Capital: Jerusalem Administrative divisions: 6 districts (mehozot, singular - mehoz); Central, Haifa, Jerusalem, Northern, Southern, Tel Aviv Independence: 14 May 1948 (from League of Nations mandate under British administration) National holiday: Independence Day, 14 May (1948) Constitution: no formal constitution; some of the functions of a constitution are filled by the Declaration of Establishment (1948), the Basic Laws of the parliament (Knesset), and the Israeli citizenship law; note - since May 2003 the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee of the Knesset has been working on a draft constitution Legal system: mixture of English common law, British Mandate regulations, and, in personal matters, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal systems; in December 1985, Israel informed the UN Secretariat that it would no longer accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: Legislative branch: unicameral Knesset or parliament
(120 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) Judicial branch: Supreme Court (justices appointed by Judicial Selection Committee - made up of all three branches of the government; mandatory retirement age is 70) Political parties and leaders: Balad [Azmi BISHARA]; Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (HADASH) [Muhammad BARAKEH]; Kadima [Tzipora "Tzipi" LIVNI]; Labor Party [Ehud BARAK]; Likud [Binyamin NETANYAHU]; National Union [Yaakov KATZ]; The Jewish Home (HaBayit HaYehudi) [Daniel HERSCHKOWITZ]; SHAS [Eliyahu YISHAI]; The New Movement-Meretz [Haim ORON]; United Arab List-Ta'al [Ibrahim SARSUR]; United Torah Judaism or UTJ [Yaakov LITZMAN]; Yisrael Beiteinu or YB [Avigdor LIEBERMAN] Political pressure groups and leaders: B'Tselem [Jessica MONTELL, Executive Director] monitors human rights abuses; Peace Now [Yariv OPPENHEIMER, Secretary General] supports territorial concessions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; YESHA Council of Settlements [Danny DAYAN, Chairman] promotes settler interests and opposes territorial compromise International organization participation: BIS, BSEC (observer), CERN (observer), EBRD, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, OAS (observer), OECD (accession state), OPCW (signatory), OSCE (partner), PCA, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO Diplomatic representation in the US: Diplomatic representation from the US: Flag description: white with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as the Magen David (Shield of David) centered between two equal horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag Economy - overview: Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with substantial, though diminishing, government participation. It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports substantial quantities of grain but is largely self-sufficient in other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable trade deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the US, its major source of economic and military aid. Israel's GDP, after contracting slightly in 2001 and 2002 due to the Palestinian conflict and troubles in the high-technology sector, has grown by about 5% per year since 2003. The economy grew an estimated 3.9% in 2008, slowed by the global financial crisis. The government's prudent fiscal policy and structural reforms over the past few years have helped to induce strong foreign investment, tax revenues, and private consumption, setting the economy on a solid growth path. GDP (purchasing power parity - PPP): $203 billion (2008 est.) GDP (official exchange rate): $202.1 billion (2008 est.) GDP - real growth rate: 4.2% (2008 est.) GDP - per capita (PPP): $28,600 (2008 est.) GDP - composition by sector: Population below poverty line: 21.6% (Israel's poverty line is $7.30 per person per day) (2005) Household income or consumption by percentage share: Distribution of family income - Gini index: 38.6 (2005) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.6% (2008 est.) Labor force: 2.957 million (2008 est.) Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 2%, industry 16%, services 82% (2005) Unemployment rate: 6.1% (2008 est.) Budget: Industries: high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metals products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles, footwear Agriculture - products: citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products Industrial production growth rate: 3.5% (2008 est.) Electricity - production: 50.41 billion kWh (2007 est.) Electricity - consumption: 46.15 billion kWh (2007 est.) Electricity - exports: 2.081 billion kWh (2007 est.) Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2008 est.) Oil - production: 5,246 bbl/day (2008 est.) Oil - consumption: 235,000 bbl/day (2008 est.) Oil - exports: 69,580 bbl/day (2007 est.) Oil - imports: 318,900 bbl/day (2007 est.) Oil - proved reserves: 1.94 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.) Natural gas - production: 1.19 billion cu m (2008 est.) Natural gas - consumption: 1.19 billion cu m (2008 est.) Natural gas - exports: 0 cu m (2008) Natural gas - imports: 0 cu m (2008 est.) Natural gas - proved reserves: 30.44 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.) Current account balance: $2.213 billion (2008 est.) Exports: $57.16 billion (2008 est.) Exports - commoditie: machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel Exports - partners: US 32.5%, Belgium 7.5%, Hong Kong 6.7% (2008) Imports: $64.4 billion (2008 est.) Imports - commodities: raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods Imports - partners: US 12.3%, Belgium 6.5%, China 6.5%, Switzerland 6.1%, Germany 6% (2008) Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: $42.51 billion (31 December 2008 est.) Debt - external: $86.08 billion (31 December 2008) Economic aid - recipient: $662 million from US (2003 est.) Currency: new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency abbreviation; ILS is the International Organization for Standarization (ISO) code for the NIS Currency code: ILS Exchange rates: new Israeli shekels (ILS) per US dollar - 3.56 (2008 est.), 4.14 (2007), 4.4565 (2006), 4.4877 (2005), 4.482 (2004) Fiscal year: calendar year Telephones - main lines in use: 2.9 million (2008) Telephones - mobile cellular: 8.902 million (2008) Telephone system: Radio broadcast stations: AM 23, FM 15, shortwave 2 (1998) Television broadcast stations: 17 (plus 36 low-power repeaters) (1995) Internet country code: .il Internet hosts: 1.544 million (2009) Internet users: 2.106 million (2008) Railways: Roadways: Pipelines: gas 176 km; oil 442 km; refined products 261 km (2008) Ports and terminals: Ashdod, Elat (Eilat), Hadera, Haifa Merchant marine: Airports: 47 (2009) Airports - with paved runways: Airports - with unpaved runways: Heliports: 3 (2009) Military branches: Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel Naval Forces (INF), Israel Air Force (IAF) (2009) Military service and age obligation: 18 years of age for compulsory (Jews, Druzes) and voluntary (Christians, Muslims, Circassians) military service; both sexes are obligated to military service; conscript service obligation - 36 months for enlisted men, 21 months for enlisted women, 48 months for officers; reserve obligation to age 41-51 (men), 24 (women) (2008) Military manpower - availability: Military manpower - fit for military service: Military manpower - reaching military age annually: Military expenditures - dollar figure: $9.11 billion (2003) Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 7.3% of GDP (2006) Disputes - international: West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan Heights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the region Refugees and internally displaced persons: Illicit drugs: increasingly concerned about ecstasy, cocaine, and heroin abuse; drugs arrive in country from Lebanon and, increasingly, from Jordan; money-laundering center Source: CIA World Factbook 2009 |
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![[Country map of Israel]](/jsource/images/israelmap.jpg)
