Session 2
Maya Hadar
 Introduction to Israel
 Facts & Figures, Major Cities
 Israeli Political System
 Executive, Legislative & Judicial
Branches
 Israeli Economy
 Citizenship
 (Summarized) Israeli Political
History
 Jerusalem: a Contested Capital
On The Agenda or Today2
 Conventional long form: ‘State of Israel’
 Local long form: Medinat Yisra'el
 Etymology => named after the ancient Kingdom
of Israel
 According to Biblical tradition, the Jewish
patriarch Jacob received the name "Israel”
 Jacob's 12 sons became the ancestors of the
Israelites, aka the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who
formed the Kingdom of Israel
‫ישראל‬ ‫מדינת‬
Facts & Figures
4
 Location => Middle East, bordering the
Mediterranean Sea
 Capital => Jerusalem (controversial issue)
 Border countries => Egypt 208 km, Gaza Strip 59
km, Jordan 307 km, Lebanon 81 km, Syria 83 km,
West Bank 330 km
 Climate => Temperate, hot and dry in southern &
eastern desert areas
 Terrain => Negev desert (south); low coastal plain;
central mountains; Jordan Rift Valley
Facts & Figures
5
 Size => 20,770 km² (land 20,330, water 440 km²)
 Natural Resources => Timber, salts, copper ore, natural
gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clay, sand
Facts & Figures
 Natural Hazards => Sandstorms, droughts, periodic
earthquakes
 Environmental Issues => limited arable land, restricted
natural freshwater resources; air pollution from industrial &
vehicle emissions; groundwater pollution from industrial and
domestic waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides
Germany
Poland
6
 Population => 9,13 M (Dec 2019)
 10 million by 2024 or sooner
 Population Distribution => Population concentrated
in & around Tel-Aviv-Yafo (>4M) + the shoreline +
around the Sea of Galilee
 Urbanism => 15 cities with between 100k and 1
million people, 72 cities with between 10k and
100k people
 The south remains rather sparsely populated
Facts & Figures
Major Cities
 Jerusalem (>927k), Tel Aviv (>450k), Haifa
(>285k)
 Lake Tiberias/Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is
an important freshwater source
 The Dead Sea is the second saltiest body of
water in the world
 Ashdod => largest port in Israel,
accounting for 60% of the country's
imported goods
 Israel is the 95th most populous country in
the world
Facts & Figures
 Languages =>
Hebrew, Arabic,
English
 Out of est. 14.5
million Jews in
the world, only
46% reside in
Israel
Facts & Figures
 Flag => White with a blue hexagram known as Magen
David (Star of David/Shield of David), centered between
two equal horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom
edges of the flag
 Basic design resembles a traditional Jewish prayer shawl
(tallit), which is white with blue stripes
 Hexagram as a Jewish symbol dates back to medieval times
 National Symbols => Star of David, Menorah
 National Colors => Blue and white
Facts & Figures
 National Anthem =>
‘Hatikvah’ (‘The Hope’)
 Officially adopted in
2004, unofficially since
1948
 Used as the anthem of
the Zionist movement
since 1897
 Thought to be based on
a Romanian folk song
Facts & Figures
Israeli settlements:
 42 settlements in the Golan Heights
 35 settlements in East Jerusalem
 213 settlements + 132 outposts in the
West Bank
 No Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip:
all were evacuated in 2005
Facts & Figures
 Government Type => *Parliamentary Democracy
 A contested liberal democracy? Ethnocracy? Ethnic democracy?
 Israeli Arabs can vote, Palestinians in the West Bank cannot
Facts & Figures
*** In Parliamentary Democracy, the party with the greatest representation in
the parliament/ coalition forms the government and its leader becomes prime
minister.
 Constitution => No formal constitution exists
 The Declaration of Establishment (1948), Basic Laws, the Law of Return, regular laws,
bureaucratic decisions and court rulings: developing incrementally
 Amendments to the Constitution => proposed by the government/ Knesset
 Requires a majority vote of Knesset members + subject to judicial review of the
supreme court
 11 of the 13 Basic Laws have been amended at least once, latest in 2018
 Legal System => mixed: English common law, British Mandate regulations +
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious laws
Facts & Figures
 International law organization participation =>
 Israel has not submitted an International Court of Justice (ICJ) jurisdiction
declaration
 Withdrew acceptance of International Criminal Court jurisdiction in 2002
 International organization participation => OSCE, OECD, UN, UNCTAD,
UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNWTO, WTO, observer country at EU parliament
Facts & Figures
Israeli Politics
 Independence => 14 May 1948,
upon termination of the British
Mandate over Palestine
 The Jewish People's Council
gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum,
and declared the establishment of
the State of Israel
 Cabinets often dominated by
Ashkenazi Jews (80%)
 Chief of State => President Reuven Rivlin
(since 2014)
 Head of Government => Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu (since 2009)
 Netanyahu formed the last center-right
coalition following the 2015 elections
 2 rounds of elections in 2019 => no
coalition formed
 Next elections => March 2nd, 2020
Israeli Politics
The Executive Branch
 Cabinet => appointed by the prime
minister, approved by the Knesset
 The President => elected by the Knesset
for a 7-year term (max 1); election last
held on 10 June 2014
 Following general elections, the
president (in consultation with party
leaders) tasks a Knesset member (usually
head of the largest party) with forming a
government
The Legislative Branch
 Unicameral Knesset => 120 seats, members directly elected in a single
nationwide constituency by proportional representation vote
 Members serve 4-year
terms
 History =>
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=bdpA-Emn0FY
 Action =>
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=h0mLUgfvZl8
The Judicial Branch
 Highest Courts => Supreme Court (Chief justice + 14 judges)
 Selection of Justices & Term of
Office => judges appointed by
the Judicial Selection Committee
consisting of:
 3 Supreme Court judges + 2
Cabinet members
 Mandatory retirement at age
70
President Rivlin and PM Netanyahu with the justices of the
Supreme Court
Citizenship
 Citizenship by birth? No => by descent only (at least
one parent must be a citizen of Israel)
 Israeli law (Law of Return, 5 July 1950) provides for
the granting of citizenship to any Jew:
 A person being born to a Jewish mother/converted
to Judaism while renouncing any other religion
 Who immigrates to & expresses a desire to settle in Israel on the basis of the
Right of Aliyah
 In 1970, the law was amended to include non-Jewish family members
(spouse, child/grandchild, spouses of children/grandchildren)
Citizenship
 The gap between a civic and Halachic definitions of ‘Jewishness’ is a source of
discrimination of non-Jews
 To qualify for citizenship under the ‘Law of Return’, an individual must have at least
one Jewish grandparent, a Jewish spouse/have undergone a conversion in a
recognized Jewish community
 To qualify as a Jew under Halachic (religious) law
 An individual must have been born to a Jewish mother or have undergone
an Orthodox conversion by rabbis recognized by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
 Lack of separation between religion & state + religious monopoly in personal
status laws => Problematic
Israeli Economy
 Technologically advanced, free market economy (+
agriculture & other industries)
 Leading exports => High-technology products,
pharmaceuticals
 2018 =>
 Israel shipped US$61.9 billion worth of products
around the globe; 0.4% of overall global exports
 32.3% of Israeli exports by value were delivered
to European countries, 29% sold to North
American importers, 28.1% to Asia, 2.9% to
Latin America, 1.3% to Africa and 1% to Oceania
(1%)
Currency: New Israeli Shekel
Israeli Economy
 Israel’s top trading partners + percentage consumption of total Israeli exports
1. United States: US$16.8 billion (27.1%)
2. China: $4.8 billion (7.7%)
3. United Kingdom: $4.4 billion (7.1%)
4. Hong Kong: $4.2 billion (6.8%)
5. Netherlands: $2.3 billion (3.7%)
7. India: $2.1 billion (3.5%)
14. South Korea: $972.4 million (1.6%)
 Expending Markets => China (up 44.8%), Japan (up 38.5%), Turkey (up 34.2%)
then Brazil (up 27.6%)
Israeli Economy Cost of Living
Israeli Economy
 Tourism, service exports + significant foreign investment inflows
 The global financial crisis (2008-09) spurred a brief recession in Israel, but the
 Israel entered the crisis
with solid fundamentals
(years of prudent fiscal
policy + resilient banking
sector)
 Withstood the 2011 Arab
Spring, no spillover effects
Israeli Economy
 Natural gas fields discovered off
Israel's coast (2009) have brightened
Israel's energy security outlook
 ‘Tamar’ and ‘Leviathan’, two of the
world's largest offshore natural gas
finds in the last decade
 Political + regulatory issues
delayed the development of
Leviathan, but production from
Tamar provided boosted Israel’s
GDP (0.8%: 2013, 0.3%:2014)
 Israel's income inequality and poverty rates are among the highest among
OECD countries => broad public perception that a small number of "tycoons"
have a cartel-like grip over the major parts of the economy
 Main Contemporary Issues:
 Limited housing supply
 Rising cost of living (including food prices)
 Government officials have called for reforms to boost housing supply +
increase competition in the banking sector => political instability makes it
difficult…
Israeli Economy
Fun Facts
 Golda Meir was one of the first women in
history to serve as a country’s prime minister
 The Dead Sea in Israel is the lowest point
on earth (1,315 feet below sea level)
 The glue on Israeli stamps is kosher, there
are also kosher McDonald’s
 Generally suck at sports
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCYTqkpk
ElQ
Next Session...30
 (SUMMERISED) Israeli Political History
 Jerusalem => a Contested Capital
 From Mandate to Statehood
31
Thank You For Your Attention!
Questions???