Portal:Israel


Welcome to the Israel Portal
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

Location of Israel
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Map of Israel
The emblem of Israel

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. Israel occupies the Palestinian territories of the West Bank in the east and the Gaza Strip in the southwest, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel's western coast lies on the Mediterranean Sea, the southern tip reaches the Red Sea, and the east includes the Earth's lowest point near the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the government seat and proclaimed capital, while Tel Aviv is Israel's largest urban area and economic centre.

The Land of Israel is synonymous with Palestine or the Holy Land. In antiquity it was home to the Canaanites and later the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Its location at a continental crossroads brought demographic shifts under various empires. Nineteenth-century European antisemitism fuelled the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland. Britain endorsed this goal in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1920. Jewish immigration and British policies intensified Arab-Jewish tensions, and the 1947 United Nations (UN) Partition Plan led to a civil war. (Full article...)

A black-and-white photograph of an association football team. A row of eight men stands at the rear, six in dark-coloured soccer jerseys with a light stripe horizontal across the centre, and one on each end in dark-coloured suits. In front of them sit eight more players. In the background a tall floodlight and two grandstands can be seen.
In terms of titles won, Maccabi Tel Aviv are Israel's most successful club. The Maccabi squad of 1939 is pictured at Sydney Cricket Ground during a tour of Australia.

The association football champions of Israel are the winners of the highest league in Israeli football, which is currently the Israeli Premier League. The league is contested on a round robin basis and the championship awarded to the team that is top of the league at the end of the season. Having won the 2023–24 competition, Maccabi Tel Aviv are the current champions.

Following the creation of the Eretz Israel Football Association in August 1928, the first nationwide football championship in Mandatory Palestine, the Palestine League, began in October 1930, although this competition was abandoned. The Palestine League's last edition was played during the 1947–48 season, and was abandoned as well due to the Independence War. The league resumed in May 1949 and since then the national championship has been played under three names: Liga Alef, between 1949 and 1955; Liga Leumit, from 1955 to 1999; and finally, since 1999, the Israeli Premier League. (Full article...)

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Jaffa Road in the 19th century

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Schwester Selma, 1968

Selma Mayer (3 February 1884 – 5 February 1984) known as Schwester Selma (German: Sister Selma or Nurse Selma; Hebrew: שווסטר סלמה) was an Israeli nurse who was the head nurse at the original Shaare Zedek Hospital on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem for nearly 50 years. For many years she was the right-hand assistant of the hospital's founding director, Dr. Moshe Wallach. Working long hours and with limited infrastructure, she trained and supervised all personnel at the hospital from 1916 to the 1930s, and founded the Shaare Zedek School of Nursing in 1934. She never married, and resided in a room in the hospital until her last day. In her later years she became known as the "Jewish Florence Nightingale" for her decades of selfless devotion to patient welfare. (Full article...)

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Jahnun served with oven-baked egg, fresh grated tomato and zhug

Jachnun or jahnun (Hebrew: גַ'חְנוּן, Hebrew pronunciation: ['d͡ʒaχnun], ['d͡ʒaħnun]) is a Jewish pastry, originating from the Adeni Jews, and traditionally served on Shabbat morning, with resek agvaniyot (a freshly grated tomato dip), hard-boiled eggs, and zhug (a type of spicy green herbal condiment).

Jachnun has become popular in Israeli cuisine, where it is served in homes (usually on Shabbat), as fast food at roadside stalls, and in restaurants, events, and dining halls. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Israel-related articles on Wikipedia.

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6 December 2025 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Two Palestinians are killed and a soldier is injured when Israel Defense Forces soldiers open fire on a car speeding toward troops in Hebron, West Bank. (The Times of Israel)
4 December 2025 – Gaza war
Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of the Israeli-backed and anti-Hamas Popular Forces, is fatally shot in Rafah, Gaza, by unidentified gunmen. (Middle East Eye)
4 December 2025 – Eurovision Song Contest 2026
Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands announce they will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel's participation. (BBC News)
3 December 2025 – Gaza war
Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip

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Sources

  1. ^ Butcher, Tim. Sharon presses for fence across Sinai, Daily Telegraph, December 07, 2005.
  2. ^ cite web| title=11 Jan, 2010; from google (Israel–Egypt barrier construction began) result 8|url=https://www.rt.com/politics/israel-approves-democratic-barrier/}}
  3. ^ "November 22, 2010; from google (Israel–Egypt barrier construction began) result 10".
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