FACTS ABOUT

ISRAEL
FACTS ABOUT ISRAEL 2

Israel is small country in the

Middle East, about the size of
New Jersey, located on the
eastern shores of the
Mediterranean Sea and bordered
by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and
Syria.
FACTS ABOUT ISRAEL 3

The word Israel comes from

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob,
who was renamed “Israel” by
the Hebrew God in the Bible.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 4

 King David and King Solomon

King Solomon is credited with building the first holy temple in
ancient Jerusalem. In about 931 B.C., the area was divided into
two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 5

 The Balfour Declaration

From 1517 to 1917, Israel, along with much of the Middle
East, was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.But World War I
dramatically altered the geopolitical landscape in the Middle
East. In 1917, at the height of the war, British Foreign Secretary
Arthur James Balfour submitted a letter of intent supporting the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British
government hoped that the formal declaration—known thereafter
as the Balfour Declaration.
HISTORY OF ISRAEL 6

 Conflict between Jews and Arabs

Much of the conflict in recent years has centerred
around who is occupying the following areas:
Gaza Strip: A piece of land located between Egypt and
modern-day Israel.
Golan Heights: A rocky plateau between Syria and modern-
day Israel.
West Bank: A territory that divides part of modern-day Israel
and Jordan.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 7

 The Zionism Movement

In the late 19th and early 20th century, an organized
religious and political movement known as Zionism emerged
among Jews. Zionists wanted to re-establish a Jewish homeland
in Palestine. Massive numbers of Jews immigrated to the ancient
holy land and built settlements. Between 1882 and 1903, about
35,000 Jews relocated to Palestine. Another 40,000 settled in the
area between 1904 and 1914.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 8

 Israeli Independence
The United Nations approved a plan to partition Palestine
into a Jewish and Arab state in 1947, but the Arabs rejected it. In
May 1948, Israel was officially declared an independent state
with David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, as the
prime minister. While this historic event seemed to be a victory
for Jews, it also marked the beginning of more violence with the
Arabs.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 9

 1948 Arab – Israeli War

Following the announcement of an independent Israel, five
Arab nations—Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon—
immediately invaded the region in what became known as the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. Civil war broke out throughout all of Israel,
but a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1949. As part of the
temporary armistice agreement, the West Bank became part of
Jordan, and the Gaza Strip became Egyptian territory.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 10

 Arab-Israeli Conflict
A. Suez Crisis: In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal
Abdel Nasser overtook and nationalized the 
Suez Canal, the important shipping waterway that
connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. With
the help of British and French forces, Israel attacked
the Sinai Peninsula and retook the Suez Canal. 
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 11

 Arab-Israeli Conflict
B. Six-Day War: In what started as a surprise
attack, Israel in 1967 defeated Egypt, Jordan and
Syria in six days. After this brief war, Israel took
control of the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, the West
Bank, and Golan Heights. These areas were
considered “occupied” by Israel.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 12

 Arab-Israeli Conflict
C. Yom Kippur War: 1973 Egypt and Syria launched air
strikes against Israel on the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. The
fighting went on for two weeks, until the UN adopted a
resolution to stop the war. Syria hoped to recapture the
Golan Heights during this battle but was unsuccessful. In
1981, Israel annexed the Golan Heights, but Syria
continued to claim it as territory.
 
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 13

 Arab-Israeli Conflict
D.Hamas Wars: Israel has been involved in repeated
violence with Hamas, a Sunni Islamist militant group
that assumed Palestinian power in 2006. Some of the
more significant conflicts took place beginning in
2008, 2012 and 2014.
 HISTORY OF ISRAEL 14

 Arab-Israeli Conflict
The United States is one of Israel’s closest allies. In a visit to
Israel in May 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump urged
Netanyahu to embrace peace agreements with Palestinians. And
in May 2018, the U.S. Embassy relocated to from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, which Palestinians perceived as signal of
American support for Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinians
responded with protests at the Gaza-Israel border, which were
met with Israeli force resulting in the deaths of dozens of
protesters.
JERUSALEM – CAPITAL CITY 15

It is one of the oldest cities in

the world, and is considered
holy to the three major
Abrahamic religions—Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
 HEBREW – OFFICIAL LANGUAGE 16

The Israeli population is linguistically and culturally diverse. HEBREW

is the country's official language, and almost the entire population
speaks it either as native speakers or proficiently as a second
language. Its standard form, known as Modern Hebrew, is the main
medium of life in Israel. ARABIC is used mainly by Israel's Arab
Minority which comprises about one-fifth of the population. Arabic has a
special status under Israeli law. Russian is spoken by about 20% of the
Israeli population, mainly by the large immigrant population from the
former Soviet Union, and English is a known foreign language by a
significant proportion of the Israeli population.
ISAAC HERZOG – 11TH PRESIDENT 17

Isaac Herzog was elected the

11th President of Israel with 87
Knesset members voting for
him, which was the biggest
majority a candidate has ever
won.
RELIGION 18

About eight-in-ten (81%) Israeli

are Jewish, while the remainder are
mostly ethnically Arab and
religiously Muslim (14%), Christian
(2%) or Druze (2%). Jews, Muslims,
Christians and Druze say all or most
of their close friends belong to their
own religious group.
 19

8,794,727
Whoa! That’s a big number!
 Largest cities or towns in Israel
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics[23]
Rank Name District Pop. Rank Name District Pop.
1
I am Jayden Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Smith 936,425 a
11 Ramat Gan Tel Aviv 163,480
2 Tel Aviv Tel Aviv 460,613 12 Ashkelon Southern 144,073
3I am
Haifa here because
Haifa I love285,316
to 13 Rehovot Central 143,904
4
5
give presentations.
Rishon LeZion
Petah Tikva
Central
Central
254,384
247,956
14
15
Bat Yam
Beit Shemesh
Tel Aviv
Jerusalem
129,013
124,957
6You can find me
Ashdod at
Southern 225,939 16 Kfar Saba Central 101,432
7 Netanya Central 221,353 17 Herzliya Tel Aviv 97,470
8
@username
Beersheba Southern 209,687 18 Hadera Haifa 97,335

9 Bnei Brak Tel Aviv 204,639 19 Modi'in-Maccabim Central 93,277

-Re'ut
10 Holon Tel Aviv 196,282 20 Nazareth Northern 77,445
NATIONAL
SYMBOL
S
NATIONAL FLAG – FLAG OF ISRAEL 22

The flag of Israel is the official flag of the 

State of Israel, which represents the state,
its sovereignty, its institutions, and its
citizens both in Israel and worldwide. This
flag has a white background and two
horizontal blue stripes, charged with a
blue Star of David (Magen David) in the
middle.
NATIONAL FLAG – FLAG OF ISRAEL 23

» The two blue stripes represent a tallit

 or prayer shawl, and both sides of the 
split Red Sea that the Hebrews walked
through as written in the 
Book of Exodus.
» The Star of David also represents the
Jewish identity of Israel, as well as the
culture and history of the Jewish
people.
NAT’L EMBLEM – EMLEM OF ISRAEL 24

» The emblem of Israel is an escutcheon which

contains a menorah in its center, two olive
branches on both sides of the menorah and at the
bottom the label "Israel" in Hebrew.
» The emblem was designed by the brothers 
Gabriel and Maxim Shamir, and was officially
chosen on 10 February 1949 from among many
other proposals submitted as part of a design
competition held in 1948.
NATIONAL ANTHEM - HATIKVAH 25

"Hatikvah" is the national anthem of Israel. The anthem was written

in 1878 by Naphtali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew 
from Zolochiv, who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s.
The music to Hatikvah was composed by Samuel (Shmuel) Cohen,
adapted from a Moldovian-Romanian folk song, in 1888.  The poem
was subsequently adopted as the anthem of Hovevei Zion and later
of the Zionist Movement at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. The
text subsequently underwent a number of other changes.
NATIONAL COLORS – BLUE AND WHITE 26

» The national colours of Israel are officially blue and

white as seen on the flag of Israel.[3] The origin of
the combination of these colors is from the Bible, in
which they are mentioned in several instances.
» Blue and white are also the traditional team colours
of the Israel national sporting teams.
NATIONAL BIRD - HOOPOE 27

» The hoopoe was chosen as the 

national bird of the State of Israel in May
2008 in conjunction with the country's
60th anniversary, following a national
survey of 155,000 citizens, outpolling
the white-spectacled bulbul.
» The hoopoe was declared as the national
bird of the State of Israel on 29 May
2008 by President Shimon Peres.
NATIONAL FLOWER – ANEMONE CORONARIA 28

» Anemone Coronaria was

selected as national flower
in a poll conducted by the
Society for the Protection
of Nature in Israel in
November 2013.
NATIONAL TREE – OLIVE TREE 29

In September 2007 the olive was elected

as the national tree of the State of Israel
and as its official representative in the
botanical exhibition "We Are One
World" held in Beijing. The olive is one
of the Seven Species of the Land of
Israel described in the Bible.
NATIONAL DOG – CANAAN DOG 30

The Canaan Dog is the national

dog breed of Israel. It is a member
of the pariah-type dogs, a sub
family of the spitz group of dogs.
The Canaan Dog has been very
common in the Southern Levant
 region, from Sinai to Syria.
 31

TOURIST
ATTRACTIONS
JERUSALEM
32
HAIFA
33
NAZARETH
34
JAFFA
35
THE DEAD SEA
36
BETHLEHEM
37
SEA OF GALILEE
38
TIMNA PARK
39
MASADA
40
MAR SABA MONASTERY
41
BEIT SHEAN
42
AKKO
43
 44

EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEM
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

GRADES 10-12 (14-19 YEARS

HIGH SCHOOL OLD

MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES 7-9 (12-14 YEARS OLD

GRADES 1-6 (6-12

PRIMARY
YEARS OLD
 46

A. Education is a core value in Jewish culture and in Israeli society

at large with many Israeli parents sacrificing their own personal
comforts and financial resources to provide their children with the
highest standards of education possible.

B. Israel's Jewish population maintains a relatively high level of

educational attainment where just under half of all Israeli Jews
(46%) hold post-secondary degrees.
 47

C. In Arab, Christian and Druze schools, the exam on Biblical

studies is replaced by an exam on Muslim, Christian or Druze
heritage.

D. Maariv described the Christian Arabs sectors as "the most

successful in education system",[20] since Christians fared the best in
terms of education in comparison to any other religion in Israel.
 48

E. The Israeli education system has been praised for various

reasons, including its high quality and its major role in spurring
Israel's economic development and technological boom.
TYPES OF SCHOOLS 49

STATE SECULAR SCHOOLS teach a standard

curriculum. This includes history, mathematics, languages,
science, and literature. These schools emphasise focus and
rigour in study. Many state secular schools specifically design
their programs to prepare students for bagrut examinations for
university.
TYPES OF SCHOOLS 50

YESHIVA SCHOOLS have a similar curriculum to state

secular schools, but they supplement education with studying
the Torah.
TYPES OF SCHOOLS 51

ARAB SCHOOLS teach students in Arabic and

supplement Israeli education with Arabic history.
Although the Ministry of Education tries to provide
high quality education for all students, Arab schools
receive fewer government funds than other schools.
TYPES OF SCHOOLS 52

PRIVATE SCHOOLS include boarding schools

and international schools. Depending on the school,
instructors may teach in English.
PREPRIMARY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 53

The preprimary educational program developed from the

traditional Jewish Heder (translated from Hebrew as room), a
form of early childhood education common among Jews in the
Middle Ages. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Israeli
schools had begun to develop kindergarten and nursery school
programs consistent with modern concepts of early child
development. These programs entail general preparation for
school in three areas: social skills, Hebrew language and
cultural study, and some academic preparation for reading and
writing.
PREPRIMARY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 54

The primary schools address issues that arise from the diverse
population of Israel and its large immigrant groups. The dual goals of
equality of opportunity and integration into Israeli society provide the
focus of instruction in the primary school system. The curriculum of
the primary schools is set by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It
includes the usual school academic subjects: science, math,
geography, history, and so forth. In all schools, students also study
the Bible and Talmud (Jewish tradition), with more time allocated to
these subjects in the state religious schools than in the state
schools.
PREPRIMARY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 55

Students generally proceed together through the

education system as part of a cohesive group. Each school
year, they are not rearranged into different classes.
Considerable emphasis is placed on making sure that
everyone stays with the group (i.e., remediation for slower
students as necessary); less emphasis is given to enhancing
opportunities for the more able students.
PREPRIMARY AND PRIMARY EDUCATION 56

Aside from the school based assessment, the National

Assessment Test (NAT) has been introduces in the primary and
lower secondary school in order to provide information on the
extent to which educational goals set by the Ministry are being
attained. The test is given only to a representative sample of
the pupil population. The exam is administered at the different
grade levels in accordance with the need for feedback
expressed by the national co-
SECONDARY 57

Secondary education is divided into 3 years of

lower secondary (ages 12-15) and 3 years of upper
secondary school (ages 15-18). Pupils in upper-
secondary education can choose between 2 different
pathways, or 'tracks': the general track and the
technology track.
LOWER SECONDARY 58

The 3 years of lower secondary education consist of general

subjects, including Hebrew language and literature, English,
Arabic, French, mathematics, science, history, geography, social
studies, religious studies and physical education. Hebrew state-
religious schools devote twice as much time to religion as state-
education schools, and Arab schools teach both Hebrew and
Arabic.
LOWER SECONDARY 59

After completing grade 9, pupils continue on to

one of the two upper-secondary education tracks.
The type of upper secondary education attended by
pupils is determined in part by their results from
grades 7-9. No diploma is issued at the end of grade
9.
UPPER SECONDARY 60

The upper secondary education tracks are offered by

all public-sector schools (secular state-education
schools, state-religious schools and Arab schools).
GENERAL AND TECHNOLOGY TRACKS 61

The main difference between the curricula of the general

and technology tracks. Both tracks prepare students for their
final exams, and for admission to tertiary education. At the end
of grade 12, most pupils take the final exam, called the Bagrut,
which tests the knowledge accumulated throughout the whole
of secondary school, and is designed and assessed by the
Ministry of Education.
SECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 62

Secondary vocational education and training in Israel takes

place at industrial schools and is regulated by the Ministry of
Industry, Trade and Labour. Pupils can begin this type of
programme in grade 9 or 10 and continue until graduation in
grade 12. Training programmes are available for the
occupations of electrician, auto mechanic, cook, hair stylists
and computer technicians and practical experience is an
important part of the curriculum.
ADMISSION TO HIGHER EDUCATION 63

1. Access to higher education requires a Bagrut.

2. In addition to their Bagrut, Israeli students must
also complete what is called a Psychometric
Entrance Test (PET). The PET is primarily an
aptitude test, and consists of multiple-choice
questions and a written task. It is divided into 3
sections: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning,
and English.
HIGHER EDUCATION 64

Higher education in Israel is the responsibility of the

Council for Higher Education, or CHE. Higher education
includes both undergraduate and graduate
programmes, and is provided by institutions that are
divided into 4 categories by the CHE: universities (9 in
total), academic institutions (36), academic colleges for
education (23) and academic programmes in colleges
under the academic. auspices of universities (4).
HIGHER EDUCATION 65

1. Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BSc)

2. Master’s Degree (MA/MSc)

3. PhD
GRADING SYSTEM - SECONDARY 66

Letter Grade Numerical Grade Description

A 95-100 10 Outstanding
A- 85-94 9 Very good
B 75-84 8 Good
C 65-74 7 Above Average
D 55-64 6 Average
E 45-54 5 Below Average
F 05-44 4 Unsatisfactory
GRADING SYSTEM – HIGHER EDUCATION 67

Tel Aviv university / Open university

95-100 Excellent
85-94 Very good
75-84 Good
65-74 Fairly good
60-64 Fair
60 Lowest passing grade
GRADING SYSTEM – HIGHER EDUCATION 68

University of Haifa
95-100 A+
85-94 A
75-84 B
65-74 C
51-64 D
0-50 Fail
LAWS AND OTHER BASIC REGULATIONS
CONCERNING EDUCATION

Compulsory Education Law (1949)

According to this law, compulsory education applies to

all children between ages of 5 (compulsory
kindergarten) and 15 (grade 10) inclusive. This
education is free of charge.
LAWS AND OTHER BASIC REGULATIONS
CONCERNING EDUCATION

State Education Law (1953)

This law provides for a six-day school week and

determines the content and procedures of State
education. State education is defined as education
provided by the State on the basis of the curriculum
approved by the Minister of Education.
LAWS AND OTHER BASIC REGULATIONS
CONCERNING EDUCATION

Council in Higher Education Law (1958)

The law defines the tasks of the Council for

Higher Education which is responsible for
accrediting and authorizing institutions of higher
education to award degrees.
LAWS AND OTHER BASIC REGULATIONS
CONCERNING EDUCATION

Pupil’s Right Law of 2000

This law establishes principles regarding
student rights in compliance with the UN charter for
Children’s Rights. According to this law, a child has
a right to education, to participate in matriculation
examinations, a right to confidentiality and realize
his or her rights.