Israel’s

Story
in Maps
 3D Illustration of the Land of Israel

Ramat HaGolan Jordan

Sea o
Galileef

Afula Emek 60 Shchem Shiloh

Yizrael Sam Maaleh
aria Nablus Beit Adumim
El
Ariel Jerusalem
Herodiun
The Dead Se
Biny a

55
ami
Wadi Milek n Bethlehem
Efrat
Haifa
Kfar

km
Nachal Kfar Etzion Jud

15
Eiron Saba ea 60

km
Hadera Yarkon Modi'in
Ben Hevron
Netanya River Gurion Kiryat Arba
Mt. Hevr
Tel Aviv Nachal on
Ayalon
Rechovot Susia
Nachal
Soreq
Nachal
Ha'elah

Ashdod
Kiryat Gat
Nachal Lachish Beersheba

Ashkelon

Illustration: Meir Kahane, Ofra Field School Gaza Nachal Habashur

Map No. 1
Everything’s Relative

Israel’s Story in Maps

Israel: 10,733 sq mi
27,799 sq km Including Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights

United States: 3,794,100 sq mi Russia: 6,601,668 sq mi

9,826,675 sq km 17,098,242 sq km

Washington
Moscow

Israel: 0.28% of the USA Israel: 0.16% of Russia

France: 248,428 sq mi China: 3,705,406 sq mi

643,427 sq km 9,596,960 sq km

Paris
Beijing

Israel: 4.3% of France Israel: 0.28% of the China

The area of Israel includes the Golan Heights and Jerusalem.

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Map No. 2
Map of Israel today

Israel's demarcated borders, reached following peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, and
the internationally recognized border with Lebanon.

LEBANON

Mediterranean
Sea Golan
Heights SYRIA
Galilee
Haifa
Nazareth

ISRAEL
Samaria
Herzliya

Tel Aviv
Jaffa Jerusalem
Ashdod

Ashkelon
Judea
GAZA

Beer Sheba
Negev

EGYPT

JORDAN

Sinai
Peninsula

0 40 km
Eilat
0 40 mi

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Map No. 3
Map of Biblical sites:
Judea and Samaria: The Land of the Bible

Israel’s Story in Maps

The "Derekh Ha'avot," or "Road of our Patriarchs," runs on Israel's central mountain range from Beer-
Sheba in the south through Hebron, Jerusalem up to Shechem and other Biblical sites.
ItIsrael’s
was used by
StoryAbraham
in Maps
Israel’s on his
Story way to sacrifice his son Isaac.
in Maps
More than 80% of Biblical events took place in areas along this road.
The major cities and towns in Judea and Samaria have existed for over 4,000 years,
since Biblical times.
Judea and Samaria: Biblical & Historical Sites
Megiddo

Biblical and
Historical
Landmarks

Pre-1967
cease-fire lines

Jerusalem Ta’anach
municipal
boundaries Dothan

Road of the
Patriarchs Sebaste

Shechem

Sartaba

Yafo
Shilo

Gilgal

Beit El
Mitzpeh

Jericho

Jerusalem
Qumran
Bethlehem
Solomon’s
Pools
Herodium

Hebron

Carmel
Sussiya
Maon
0 10 km
0 10 mi
Beer Sheba
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Map No. 4
Israel in the Middle East
An isolated democracy in a sea of totalitarian state

Israel lies on the eastern Mediterranean Basin, and borders on Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
There are 22 Arab countries surrounding it, that is, 22 dictatorships or unstable regimes in the region
and just one Jewish democratic state.
Israel upholds democratic values, providing equal rights to Arabs and Jews, men and women.
There are over 500 million Muslims and 7 million Jews living in this region. The Arab world is 500 times larger
than the State of Israel.

Turkey

Tunisia Syria
Lebanon Iran
Morocco Israel Iraq
Western Kuwait
Sahara Jordan
Algeria
Libya Egypt Bahrain Qatar
Saudi Arabia UAE
Oman

Yemen
Sudan

0 300 km

0 300 mi

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Map No. 5
The British Mandate in the Land of Israel.
Current-day Israel is only a quarter the size
of the original Land of Israel

1917: The Balfour Declaration announces the support of Great Britain for the establishment of a
national homeland for the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.
1920: At the San Remo Conference, the Principal Allied Powers allocated to Great Britain a
mandate over the Land of Israel to implement that goal.
Following Arab riots in 1920-22, British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill published the White
Paper in 1922, dividing Transjordan into east and west and retreating from the goal of creating a
wholly Jewish Palestine.
1923: The League of Nation divides the original "Land of Israel" into two parts: 76% East of the
Jordan River renamed Transjordan and given to Emir Abdullah, and 24% West of the Jordan River
designated for the Jews.

Syria
Mediterranean (French Mandate)
Sea

Iraq

Eretz Israel
Transjordan

Saudi Arabia

British Mandate
Palestine

Egypt

Area Separated and closed to

Jewish settlement, 1922

Area ceded to Syria, 1923

Area remaining for Jewish

National Home

0 80 km

0 80 mi

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Map No. 6
Second Partition: The UN's proposal for
partitioning the Land of Israel, 1947: UN proposes
partition - Israel accepts; Arabs reject and go to war

The UN's proposal for partitioning the western part of the Land of Israel into a Jewish state and
an Arab state was based on the locations of population centers.
15,000 square kilometers, about 54 percent, were to be a Jewish democratic state, while the
remaining 12,000 square kilometers, or 45 percent, an Arab democratic state. About 187 square
kilometers, or some 1 percent, mostly in Jerusalem, would be under an internationalized regime.
On November 29, the UN voted on partition, with 33 countries backing the plan, 13 against
(including the Arab countries), and 10 countries abstaining. The leadership of the Jews living in
the Land of Israel accepted the decision and worked towards implementing it. However, the Arab
leadership in the area, the Arab League and other Arab states rejected the offer outright. Thus, it
never became a binding agreement. Following that rejection, the Arabs living in the mandate
immediately took up arms and began fighting the not-yet-born State of Israel. The partition idea
died in infancy because the Arab side rejected it.
In May 1948, after the British army left the Land of Israel, seven Arab armies and other irregular
forces invaded the newly created State of Israel with the goal of destroying it. They failed.
Lebanon

Metulla

Mediterranean Sea Nahariya Syria

Haifa

Netanya

Tel Aviv
Jaffa
Jerusalem

Yad Mordechai
Kfar Etzion Transjordan

Beer Sheba

Egypt

Mandate boundary

Jewish State

Arab State

International Zone
0 40 km

0 40 mi
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Map No. 7
Map of Israel on June 10, 1967

Up until 1967, Egypt controlled the Gaza strip under military rule, as conquered territory but not
part of Egypt itself. In 1951, Jordan annexed Judea and Samaria, a move which was not recognized
by the international community or by the Arab League. The Arabs themselves rejected the idea.
During the Six-day-war Israel urged Jordan not to join Egypt and Syria in the fighting, however
King Hussein decided to open fire on Israel. During this war Israel conquered Judea, Samaria,the
Golan Heights, Sinai and the Gaza Strip and assumed administrative control over these area.
In 1967 the Israeli Knesset extended Israel’s legal and administrative jurisdiction to all of Jerusalem and
expanded the city’s municipal borders. In 1981 Israel extended its legal control of the Golan Heights.
As per the peace treaty concluded with Egypt,all the Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982,
a move which included uprooting all the Jewish communities that had been established there.
Egypt rejected the offer to regain the Gaza Strip. In 1988, Jordan's King Hussein declared that
Judea and Samaria, illegally occupied and annexed by his grandfather in 1951,were not part of the
Jordanian kingdom and turned the area into territory not officially belonging to any state, leaving
Judea and Samaria a legal "no mans land". In 1994, in the peace treaty with Jordan, new borders
were set between Jordan and Israel. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip,
expelled its Jewish population and destroyed all the Jewish communities there.
Lebanon

Golan
Heights Syria
Haifa

Mediterranean Sea

Samaria

Tel Aviv
Jaffa Jerusalem

Judea

Gaza
Beer Sheba

Suez
Canal

Jordan

Sinai
Peninsula

Eilat

Gulf
of
Eilat
Gulf
of Saudi Arabia
Suez

Israeli territory
before Six Day War
Egypt
Under Israeli control
0 40 km after Six Day War

0 40 mi Red Sea

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Map No. 8
Judea & Samaria - A tall mountain range
controlling the narrow, low plains of Tel-Aviv

The State of Israel has been in control of Judea and Samaria for over 44 years - almost the same time
as the British and the Jordanians combined.
Israel's leaving the Gaza Strip led to massive rocket fire on Ashdod and Beer-Sheba.
The mountain range of Judea and Samaria reaches a height of 1,100 meters and dominates Israel's
population center from Beer-Sheba and Ashkelon in the South to Netanya and Afula in the North.

0
0 40 km Lebanon Syria

0
0 40 mi Kiryat
Shmona
Israeli communities

Arab communities

Safed

Haifa

Afula
6 mi/10 km

Mediterranean Sea Jenin

9 mi/15 km
Netanya
Tulkarm

Nablus
Kalkilya

11 mi/18 km
Tel Aviv
Jaffa Jordan
4 mi/6 km
Ben Gurion
Airport

Ramallah
Jerusalem
10 mi/17 km
Bethlehem
Ashkelon
7 mi/11 km
Beit Hanoun Sderot Hebron
3 mi/5 km

Gaza
25 mi/40 km
10 mi/16 km

Beer Sheba

Egypt

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Map No. 9
A Cross Section - A tall mountain range
controlling the narrow, low plains of Tel-Aviv

The height of the Coastal Plain from the sea to the Green Line rises from 0 to 100 meters above sea level.
The height of the area of Judea and Samaria is between 100 and 1100 meters above sea level, and control
of the area means full topographic control of the region.
It takes only three minutes to fly from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Control of the mountain range allows the defense of Israel's eastern border.
Beyond that border lie Jordan, Iran and Iraq, with considerable political and security instability and risk.
The mountain range in Judea and Samaria allows for protection against aerial or other invasion from the east.

1000 m 3000 ft

2000 ft

500 m Ariel

1000 ft

Sea Level
Herzliya “Green Line”
Jordan - Israel Jordan
armistice line 1949-1967 River
KM 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
MILES 0 10 20 30 40

Herzliya Ariel Jordan

Rosh
Ha’ayin
Tel Aviv
Sea of Galilee

Jordan

Jerusalem

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Map No. 10
Municipal authorities in Judea and Samaria

There are six regional councils, four cities, thirteen local councils and a total of 130 Jewish towns in Judea
and Samaria.
At the end of 2010, the Jewish population was 330,000.

REGIONAL COUNCILS
SHOMRON Afula
JORDAN VALLEY
BENYAMIN
GUSH ETZION
HAR HEVRON
MEGILOT
Hadera
Municipal Council

City
Netanya
Pre-1967
cease-fire lines SHOMRON
(31 communities)
Jerusalem
municipal
Alfei Menashe
JORDAN
boundaries Kfar Saba
Karnei Shomron VALLEY
(21 communities)
Kedumim
Oranit
Immanuel
Elkana Ariel
Tel Aviv
Ma’ale Efraim

Beit Aryeh
Ben Gurion
Airport Modi’in Illit
Beit El

BENYAMIN
Givat Ze’ev (54 communities)

Har Adar
Jerusalem Ma’ale Adumim
Beit Shemesh

Betar
Illit Efrat
GUSH ETZION
(14 communities)

Hebron
Kiryat Arba MEGILOT
(6 communities)
HAR HEVRON
(16 communities)
0 10 km
0 10 mi

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Map No. 11
The Oslo Agreements:
Israel no longer controls the Arabs

Under the Oslo Agreements, 40 percent of the land was turned over to Palestinian Authority (PA)
civilian rule (Area B). Some of it (the large cities) was turned over to PA security control as well (Area A).
More than 95 percent of the Arab population living in Judea and Samaria lives under Palestinian
Authority rule (Area A,B),vote in local elections, pays taxes to the PA and administers its own separate
educational, legal, medical and social welfare systems. The Palestinians arabs living there, run their
own lives, and there is no "occupation" there.

Full (A) & Partial (B) Afula

PA Control

Full Israeli Control

Israeli
Community Jenin
Arab
Hadera
Community

Pre-1967
cease-fire lines Netanya
Jerusalem
Tulkarm
municipal
boundaries
Nablus
Kfar Saba Kalkilya
Alfei Menashe
Kedumim
Oranit Karnei
Shomron Ariel
Tel Aviv
Ma’ale Efraim

Beit Aryeh

Modi’in Illit Beit El

Ramallah

Jericho

Jerusalem Ma’ale Adumim

Beit Shemesh
Betar
Illit
Bethlehem
Efrat

Hebron
Kiryat Arba

0 10 km
0 10 mi

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Map No. 12
Judea and Samaria -
Half of Israel's Water Sources

Fifty percent of Israel’s natural water resources come from the mountain aquifer (including all three of
its basins).The rain trickles down from Judea and Samaria and flows into groundwater reservoir under
the coastal plain and the coast itself.
Whoever controls this area, controls water pollution or overuse of water resources.
The water requirements of the Arabs living in Judea and Samaria have increased greatly in the past 40
years.They are now almost equal in demand per capita to that of Israelis, largely due to Israeli
improvements in the water infrastructure and the advancement of Arab society.
The Arabs here have a far better quality of life than their neighbors in Jordan.
Groundwater Reservoir

MAIN AQUIFERS Afula

Eastern
Gilboa-Schehem
Yarkon-Taninin

Israeli
Community Jenin
Arab
Hadera
Community

Pre-1967
cease-fire lines Netanya
Jerusalem
Tulkarm
municipal
boundaries
Nablus
Kfar Saba Kalkilya

Ariel
Tel Aviv

Beit El
Ben Gurion
Airport Ramallah

Jericho

Jerusalem Ma’ale Adumim

Beit Shemesh

Bethlehem
Efrat

Hebron
Kiryat Arba

0 10 km
0 10 mi

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Map No. 13
Jerusalem: Israel's eternal capital

Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over 3,000 years.
Since 1864 Jews have been an absolute majority in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, mentioned over 600 times
in the Bible, is not mentioned once in the Koran.
In 1967, Israel widened Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries of the city to include areas east, north and
south of the former 1949 armistice lines which had been under Jordanian rule for 19 years.
The State of Israel rebuilt the destroyed Jewish Quarter inside the walls of the Old City.
The Government of Israel also built the new neighborhoods of Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, Gilo, Har
Homa, Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Ze'ev, Armon Hanatziv and others in those sectors of the city.
As of 2008, Jerusalem includes 510,000 Jews (317,000 in the western neighborhoods and 193,000 in
eastern neighborhoods) while 264,000 Arabs live in eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

Israel-Jordan Armistice
Line, 1949 - 1967
Jerusalem Municipal
Boundary after Six Day War
Major Jewish neighborhoods
since the Six Day War

Municipal Boundary under

Jordanian occupation 1949-1967
Neve
Yaakov

Pisgat
Zeev
Ramot
Ramat
French
Eshkol
Hill

Sanhedria Mt.Scopus
Har Nof Mea
Shearim
Beit Hakerem
Old City
City Center
Mt. Herzl
Jewish
Yad Vashem Knesset
Quarter
Talbieh
German Colony
Malcha Talpiot
East
Talpiot

Gilo
Har
Homa
0
0 1 km
0
0 1m

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