Israel

Israel — page 3 — ISRAEL This chart shows the climate of Jerusalem Situated in Israel’s central upland area temperatures here are marginally cooler than on the coastal plain Temperature and rainfall in Jerusalem Temperature ºC ºF Maximum Temperature Average Temperature Minimum Temperature 30 86 25 77 63 15 59 10 50 5 41 0 32 Rainfall mm 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 J FMAMJ J A S O N D Source www worldtravelguide net Climate Israel has a Mediterranean climate with long hot dry summers and mild wet winters Between May and September there is hardly any rain at all and about 70 percent of the year’s rain falls between November and February mainly in the north and west In high mountain areas such as Jerusalem some light snow occasionally falls in winter Summers are hot and fairly dry in the mountainous regions but are more humid on the coastal plain Sometimes in late spring and autumn hot dry dusty air moves in from the east and sends temperatures soaring This wind is known as the sharay in Hebrew and the hamsin in Arabic Culture Israel is a unique blend of ancient and modern the old lands that are described in the Bible and the new vibrant developing nation Its culture reflects the diversity of its immigrant population who have brought their customs and traditions from many different places including Eastern Europe Russia the Middle East and North Africa Although Israel is officially a Jewish state people of other faiths also live there About 75 percent of the population is Jewish about a third of the world’s Jews 17 percent is Muslim and the rest is made up of Christians Druze and Bedouin Each community preserves its own culture including religious worship food art literature and social contact Because the two main groups of people are Jews and Arabs the official languages of the country are Hebrew and Arabic Many Israelis speak both languages as well as English Many others still speak the languages of the countries they came from 8

Israel — page 4 — Conflict The conflict between Arabs and Jews in the land now known as Israel occurred long before the country was established in 1948 In the 1890s European and Russian Jews known as Zionists started to settle in Palestine and clashes soon began with the Palestinian Arab inhabitants Since Israel was founded in 1948 the disagreements have continued The Palestinians having lived on the land for many centuries before the Zionists arrived believe that the land is theirs The Jewish claim is based on the fact that in 1947 the United Nations UN partitioned the land into two states one Jewish the other Arab Many Jews also believe that Israel was promised to them by God as stated in the Bible Although the conflict is essentially an argument about who owns the land it is also a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims Violence and wars have erupted frequently since 1948 and a peace settlement has proved difficult to find Israel is bordered by Egypt to the southwest Syria and Jordan to the east and Lebanon to the north Its most important river the Jordan flows from the north through Lake Hule and Lake Kinneret also known as the Sea of Galilee or Sea of Tiberias and empties into the Dead Sea 1,348 ft 411 m below sea level the world’s lowest land elevation 0 0 miles 50 LEBANON kilometres 50 Nahariyya Acre Har Meron SYRIA Golan Heights occupied by Israel Haifa Tiberias Nazareth Lake Tiberias Sea of Galilee MEDITERRANEAN SEA Hadera Netanya Jenin Tulkarm Herzliyya Ramat Gan Tel Aviv-Yafo Bat Yam Rishon le-Ziyyon Rehovot Bene Beraq Petah Tiqwa Nablus WEST BANK occupied by Israel Holon Lod Ashdod Ashqelon Ramallah Jerusalem Bethlehem Jericho n a d r o J r e v i R A E S D A E D Gaza City Hebron GAZA STRIP under control of Palestinian National Authority Beersheba ISRAEL Negev Deser t EGYPT JORDAN Key Capital city Cities over 100,000 people Cities under 100,000 people Mountain Elat SAUDI ARABIA a b a q ulf of A G

Israel — page 5 — CHAPTER 2 History In about 1500 BCE several early Hebrew tribes settled on the land now known as Israel Some 500 years later a king named David united the tribes and formed the kingdom of Israel David’s 10 son Solomon helped to make Israel rich and powerful by setting up trade links with other lands He used some of the wealth to build a great limestone temple in Jerusalem When he died in 928 BCE quarrels broke out between the north and south of the country and it split into two kingdoms Israel in the north and Judah in the south In 722 BCE Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians who were one of the great empires of the Middle East at the time Invaders Later Judah was conquered by a series of powerful invaders including the Babylonians 586 BCE the Persians 538 BCE the Greeks 333 BCE the Romans 63 BCE and the Byzantines 330 CE The Babylonians exiled the Judeans known as Jews but in 538 BCE the Persians allowed them to return home The Jews rebuilt Jerusalem including the great temple In 70 CE after the Jews rebelled against Roman rule the Romans burned the Jews frequently faced persecution in the places where they settled This engraving shows the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 Only those Jews who were willing to convert to Christianity could remain

Israel — page 6 — HISTORY A view of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem including the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple on the right and the golden Dome of the Rock temple to the ground After this the Jews began to leave Judea as the Romans called their land and move elsewhere This was the start of a mass scattering of Jews around the world known as the Diaspora By the eighth century CE Jewish communities had been established as far east as China and as far west as Spain CASE STUDY JERUSALEM Jerusalem is holy to three religions To Jews it was the site of Solomon’s Temple but all that remains of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans is its Western Wall It is holy to Christians because many events in Jesus’s life occurred there Jerusalem is also the third holiest city of Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad rose to heaven from Jerusalem to receive God’s word Jerusalem’s walled Old City is divided into quarters Muslim Jewish Christian and Armenian demonstrating its importance to different cultures and religions Sacred place Under the Byzantines Judea was renamed Palestine and it became an important center of Christianity because it was the place where Jesus of Nazareth the founder of Christianity lived and died In 638 Palestine was conquered by Muslim Arabs Muhammad the founder of Islam was said to have ascended to heaven from the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and so Palestine also became a sacred center of Islam The land remained almost continuously under Muslim control until the fall of the Ottoman Empire a Turkish Muslim empire in 1918 Throughout their history the Jews had suffered persecution in the lands they settled During the 1890s there was a rise in anti-Semitism hatred of Jews in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia Many Jews believed the only way to protect themselves was to create a separate Jewish state The Zionist movement was established with the aim of founding a Jewish state in Palestine 11

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