Map of the Kingdom of Israel, 1020 BCE–930 BCE as imagined from the Bible narrative
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended the adoption and implementation of the Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This UN plan specified borders for new Arab and Jewish states and also specified an area of Jerusalem and its environs which was to be administered by the UN under an international regime. The end of the British Mandate for Palestine was set for midnight on 14 May 1948. That day, David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel," which would start to function from the termination of the mandate.
The borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration. Neighboring Arab armies invaded the former Palestinian mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement) and the Golan Heights. It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world's longest military occupation in modern times.
City of David, archaeological site of ancient Jerusalem
The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2016 to be 8,476,600 people. It is the world's only Jewish-majority state, with 6,345,400 citizens, or 74.9% of Israelis, being designated as Jewish. The country's second largest group of citizens are denoted as Arabs, numbering 1,760,400 people (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs). The great majority of Israeli Arabs are settled Sunni Muslims, with smaller but significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other far smaller minorities include Maronites, Samaritans, Dom people and Roma, Black Hebrew Israelites, other Sub-Saharan Africans, Armenians, Circassians, Vietnamese boat people, and others. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia.
Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village, abandoned some time between the 7th–13th centuries AD.
In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2015. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with the one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the fourth highest in Asia, and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
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