What Sets Israel Apart?

Israel is officially referred to as the State of Israel, and it's a parliamentary republic. Located in the Middle East on the Mediterranean Sea's eastern shore, it is bordered to the north by Lebanon, Syria to the northeast, and Jordan to the east. Israel is set apart because it is the world's only Jewish majority state.

After the Arab-Israeli war ended in 1948, the Armistice Agreement enacted Israeli law. After the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem were annexed in 1980, Israeli law was applied there, but most of the area's Arabs did not want Israeli citizenship. Israel's citizens live in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.

The population of Isarel was estimated to be just over 7,600,000 people, of whom the vast majority are Jewish. Arab Israelis are the nation's second-biggest ethnic group, and it is estimated that there are over 300,000 Arabs living there who are not citizens.

The modern Israeli state came to be in 1948, and it has its roots in biblical times. Then it was known as Zion, giving rise to the Zionist movement of the late nineteenth century.

In the end of 1947, the UN voted to divide Palestine, creating Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem falling under their jurisdiction. The Zionists accepted the idea but the Arabs rejected it, leading to civil war. Israel declared its independence in May of 1948, and its Arab neighbors invaded it the next day.

Since then, Israel has been at war with its neighbors, and it has occupied the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. The border between the West Bank and Israel is not clearly defined because the political situation there is not resolved. The Israelis have signed treaties with Jordan and Egypt, but unrest continues there to this day.