Country Summary: Israel
Country Name: Israel
Capital: Jerusalem
Government Type:
Background: The State of Israel was established in 1948. The UN General Assembly had proposed in 1947 to partition the British Mandate for Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. Over the following years. Israel and its Arab neighbors fought wars in 1956, 1967 and 1973, and Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
Israel took control of the West Bank, the eastern part of Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in the course of the 1967 war. It ceded the Sinai back to Egypt in the 1979-1982 period but has continued to administer the other territories since then, and subsequently administered those territories through military authorities. Israel and Palestinian officials signed interim agreements in the 1990s that created an interim period of Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. On October 7, 2023, HAMAS militants launched a combined unguided rocket and ground terrorist attack from Gaza into southern Israel. The same day Israel’s Air Force launched air strikes inside Gaza and initiated a sustained air campaign against Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip. The following day, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu formally declared war on HAMAS, and on October 28, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale ground assault inside Gaza.
Offshore gas discoveries in the Mediterranean, most notably in the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields, place Israel at the center of a potential regional natural gas market. In late 2022, a US-brokered agreement between Israel and Lebanon established their maritime boundary, allowing Israel to begin production on additional gas fields in the Mediterranean. However, Israel's economic development has been uneven. Structural issues such as low labor force participation among religious and minority populations, low workforce productivity, high costs for housing and consumer staples, and high-income inequality, concern both economists and the general population. The war with Hamas following the October 7, 2023, attack disrupted Israel’s solid economic fundamentals, but is not likely to have long-term structural implications for the Israeli economy. Despite Israel boasting about its thriving tech industry, Israel is largely dependent on foreign aid from Western countries. Political tensions are rising in the US and in other Western countries as many US and Western countries’ citizens do not agree with supplying Israel with military aid in the form of weaponry, which has been used by Israel to carry out its highly controversial military operation in the Gaza Strip.
In the current ongoing conflict with Palestine, Israel has been accused of killing over 13,000 Palestinian children and blocking basic humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip such as food, water, and medicine, which has led to international outrage at the United Nations and around the world. The current situation in the Gaza Strip has been compared to a modern day genocide being carried out by Israel. Many protests, leaders, organizations, and countries around the world have called for a ceasefire to preserve human life in the Gaza Strip, and to stop the starvation and suffering of innocent Palestinian citizens which include many babies and young children.
Continent: Middle East
Population: 9,043,387 (2023 est.) (includes populations of the Golan Heights or Golan Sub-District and also East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after 1967)
note: approximately 236,600 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem (2021); following the March 2019 US recognition of the Golan Heights as being part of Israel, The World Factbook no longer includes Israeli settler population of the Golan Heights (estimated at 23,400 in 2019) in its overall Israeli settler total
Ethnic Groups: Jewish 73.5% (of which Israel-born 79.7%, Europe/America/Oceania-born 14.3%, Africa-born 3.9%, Asia-born 2.1%), Arab 21.1%, other 5.4% (2022 est.)
Languages: Hebrew (official), Arabic (special status under Israeli law), English (most commonly used foreign language)
Religions: Jewish 73.5%, Muslim 18.1%, Christian 1.9%, Druze 1.6%, other 4.9% (2022 est.)
Economic Overview: high-income, technology- and industrial-based economy; highly dense, fast-growing labor force; recent debt spikes; persistent inequality and poverty; significant tariff and regulatory burdens, especially in agriculture; quantitative easing in effect
Currency: Israeli New Shekel (ILS)
Reserves of Foreign Exchange & Gold: $194.231 billion (2022 est.) note: holdings of gold (year-end prices)/foreign exchange/special drawing rights in current dollars
Real GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $424.289 billion (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars
Real GDP Growth Rate: 6.83% (2022 est.) note: annual GDP % growth based on constant local currency
Real GDP per Capita: $44,400 (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars
Exports:
$166.227 billion (2022 est.) note: balance of payments - exports of goods and services in current dollars
Comparison Ranking: 37
Export Commodities: diamonds, integrated circuits, refined petroleum, medical instruments, packaged medicines, measuring instruments (2021)
Export Partners: United States 27%, China 8%, India 4%, Germany 3%, Ireland 3% (2021)
Imports:
$150.804 billion (2022 est.) note: balance of payments - imports of goods and services in current dollars
Comparison Ranking: 38
Import Commodities: diamonds, cars, crude petroleum, refined petroleum, broadcasting equipment (2021)
Import Partners: United States 12%, China 11%, Germany 7.5%, Switzerland 7%, Turkey 6% (2020)
Natural Resources: timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays, sand
Agricultural Products: milk, potatoes, poultry, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, tangerines/mandarins, green chillies/peppers, eggs, vegetables
Industries: high-technology products (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, pharmaceuticals, construction, metal products, chemical products, plastics, cut diamonds, textiles, footwear
Industrial Production Growth Rate:
6.05% (2021 est.) note: annual % change in industrial value added based on constant local currency
Comparison Ranking: 49
Labor Force: 4.451 million (2022 est.)
Unemployment Rate: 3.7% (2022 est.) note: % of labor force seeking employment
Natural Hazards: sandstorms may occur during spring and summer; droughts; periodic earthquakes
Geography:
Total: 21,937 sq km
Land: 21,497 sq km
Water: 440 sq km
(Country Summary, The World Factbook, CIA.gov)
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