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Portal:Israel

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Welcome to the Israel Portal
מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל

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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon and Syria to the north, the West Bank and Jordan to the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The country also has a small coastline on the Red Sea at its southernmost point, and part of the Dead Sea lies along its eastern border. Israel's proclaimed capital is in Jerusalem, while Tel Aviv is the country's largest urban area and economic center.

Israel is located in a region known to Jews as the Land of Israel, synonymous with the Palestine region and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to the Canaanite civilization followed by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Situated at a continental crossroad, the region experienced demographic changes under the rule of various empires from the Romans to the Ottomans. European antisemitism in the late 19th century galvanized Zionism, which sought a Jewish homeland in Palestine and gained British support. After World War I, Britain occupied the region and established Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration in the leadup to the Holocaust and British colonial policy led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs, which escalated into a civil war in 1947 after the United Nations (UN) proposed partitioning the land between them. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world where Jews constitute more than 2% of the total national population, and in which they are the largest demographic. (Full article...)

Female Israeli infantry instructors preparing for a combat exercise, 2010

Israel is one of only a few countries where military service is compulsory for all able-bodied female citizens. Under Israeli conscription laws, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may draft recruits from three communities: the Jews, the Druze, and the Circassians. As the latter two communities are less populous, their women are not required to serve. Women from the Jewish majority are not exempted from the conscription laws, but serve for slightly shorter terms than male conscripts. All women who are exempted from the conscription laws may still enlist voluntarily. Jewish women who are called up for military service may apply for an exemption on humanitarian, religious, or certain legal grounds. Those who claim such an exemption will typically be redirected to Sherut Leumi, the alternative means of national service.

According to Israeli military statistics, 535 female soldiers had been killed while serving between the years of 1962 and 2016. The IDF's regulated integration of women is rooted in the days of the Yishuv, when Jewish women served in the ranks of various Zionist paramilitaries during the 1947–1949 Palestine War. In 1999–2000, an amendment was made to the Women's Equal Rights Law of Israel by which men and women became fully equalized — although separately — in the Israeli military apparatus. (Full article...)

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A block of four of the 1948 3 mils value from the first series of Israeli stamps.

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Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus, כַּשְׁרוּת) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher (/ˈkʃər/ in English, Yiddish: כּשר), from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the term that in Sephardi or Modern Hebrew is pronounced kashér (כָּשֵׁר‎), meaning "fit" (in this context: "fit for consumption"). Food that may not be consumed, however, is deemed treif (/trf/ in English, Yiddish: טרײף), also spelled treyf (Yiddish: טריף). In case of objects the opposite of kosher is pasúl (/pəˈsul/ in English, Yiddish: פָּסוּל).

Although the details of the laws of kashrut are numerous and complex, they rest on a few basic principles:

  • Only certain types of mammals, birds, and fish, meeting specific criteria are kosher; the consumption of the flesh of any animals that do not meet these criteria, such as pork, frogs, and shellfish, is forbidden, except for locusts, which are the only kosher invertebrate.
  • The most basic eating rule in the Torah is that blood is not to be consumed; therefore, as a step to being kosher, mammals and birds must be slaughtered according to a process known as shechita, in which a certified ritual slaughterer, called a shochet, severs the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, and jugular veins in a single, quick cut using an ultra-sharp instrument called a chalaf; doing so causes rapid and massive blood loss.
  • The meat must still go through a process known as koshering or kashering to be considered fit for consumption. The three approved methods are broiling, roasting, and soaking & salting.
  • Meat and meat derivatives may never be mixed with milk and milk derivatives. Separate equipment for the storage and preparation of meat-based and dairy-based foods must be used. (Full article...)

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The Seven Species, agricultural products listed as special to the Land of Israel in the Bible

Ancient Israelite cuisine refers to the culinary practices of the Israelites from the Late Bronze Age arrival of Israelites in the Land of Israel through to the mass expulsion of Jews from Roman Judea in the 2nd century CE. Dietary staples among the Israelites were bread, wine, and olive oil; also included were legumes, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish, and meat.

Israelite cuisine was adherent to the dietary restrictions and guidelines of Yahwism and its later-developed forms: Judaism and Samaritanism. There was a considerable continuity in the main components of the diet over time, despite the introduction of new foodstuffs at various stages. The food of ancient Israel was similar to that of other Mediterranean cuisines of the time. (Full article...)

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21 December 2024 – Red Sea crisis
Sixteen people are injured in a Houthi missile attack on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area in Israel. (CNN)
20 December 2024 – Syrian civil war
2024 Israeli invasion of Syria
Israeli soldiers injure a Syrian man protesting against the soldiers' presence in Ma'ariya, Daraa Governorate. (Al Jazeera)
20 December 2024 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli incursions in the West Bank during the Israel–Hamas war, Israeli settler violence

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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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