X-Nico

40 unusual facts about Israel


Abel Ehrlich

Abel Ehrlich (Hebrew: אבל ארליך; September 3, 1915 – October 30, 2003) was an Israeli composer.

Amnon Kapeliouk

Amnon Kapeliouk (Hebrew: אמנון קפליוק) (22 December 1930– 26 June 2009) was an Israeli journalist and author.

Arable land

Israel: Israel's land primarily consisted of desert until the construction of desalination plants along the country's coast.

Belaugh

According to records displayed in the church, the letter writer also added disapprovingly that, "The Steeple house of Belaugh St Peter stands high, perked like one of the idolatrous high places of Israel".

Belgian Resistance

In total, 1,612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation.

Berakah Project

Mohammed Nazam's work with Berakah led to an invitation to take part in projects based in Israel/Palestine in 2005 and 2009.

British-Israel-World Federation

At one time this organization enjoyed the patronage of members of the British establishment including HRH Princess Alice of Athlone, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Dysart, Lord Gisborough, and William Massey, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Dahaniya

Dahaniya (Arabic: دهنية) was a village near the southernmost point in the Gaza Strip, evacuated in Israel's disengagement of 2005.

Dan Harel

In this capacity he not only implemented counterterrorism measures, but was also the commander in charge of Israel's Gaza pull-out in the summer of 2005.

Danny Ben-Israel

Danny Ben-Israel was a notable Israeli musician of the late 1960s and early 1970s, producing psychedelic progressive rock with socially concerned lyrics in Hebrew.

Economy of the Palestinian territories

In the wake of Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza, there were shortages of bread and basic supplies due to closure of the al Mentar/Karni border-crossing into Israel.

Elon Moreh

Eight times, the group tried to choose a plot of land to settle but the Israeli government under Yitzchak Rabin, then in his first term, prevented these attempts - arguing that the settlers' main aim was to secure permanent Israeli possession of the territory and that such possession would preclude any possibility of peace with Jordan or a Palestinian state.

Guy Barnea

Barnea was born and raised in Omer in southern Israel, the oldest of three sons and his brothers Nir and Or are also swimmers.

Haim Yahiel

In 1949 Yahiel returned to Israel joining the Jewish Agency Department of Absorption as director in Jerusalem.

Hakhel

In the twentieth century, however, it was revived by the government of Israel and by groups of Jews in other places on a symbolic basis.

Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment

Among those interviewed are first, second and third generation members from kibbutzim like Degania, the flagship commune established in 1910; Hulda, once near collapse and recently privatized; Sasa, the first to be settled entirely by Americans and today Israel's wealthiest kibbutz; and Tamuz, an urban kibbutz founded in 1987 and located in Beit Shemesh.

Israel, Palestine, and the United Nations

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, denounced the speech stating that Hamas was an internationally recognized terrorist organization that targeted civilians.

Israel's Department Store

They were allegedly flying as a decoy so that another plane, which carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill, could land safely.

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From there, he tried to establish contact with the German underground through Sir Stafford Cripps, Britain's foreign minister, and organized ship transports for Jewish children escaping from Europe.

Jerusalem Program

The task of Zionism is the consolidation of the State of Israel, the in gathering of exiles in Eretz Israel, and the fostering of the unity of the Jewish people.

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The Jerusalem Program differed from the original Basel Program in which it shifted the goals of the Zionist Movement once the State of Israel was already established.

Judaization

In modern Hebrew, the term Judaization is used to describe the cultural life of baalei teshuvah, or "returnees", and refers to a "process through which secular, non-observant, young (and not so young) Israelis who have grown up in Israel within the majority culture, have become practicing Orthodox Jews and have joined the minority subculture of Orthodoxy".

Jund al-Urdunn

During the Fatimid era, the principal cities were Acre, Tiberias, Baysan, Beit Ras, Jadur, Fiq, Tyre, Lajjun, Faradiyya, Kabul and Saffuriya.

Keren Hayesod

According to the Reconstitution Agreement of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Keren Hayesod is one of its three constituent bodies (along with the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the United Israel Appeal in the United States, a subsidiary of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)) and provides 20% of the representatives on the Board of Governors and the Assembly.

Kiryat Menachem

It is bordered by Ir Ganim to the south and east, Mount Ora to the west, and the Jerusalem Hills to the north.

Middle Eastern Empires

Naram-Sin quickly destroyed and dispersed the Sumerian rebels and also went on a vast campaign of conquest, taking his armies to Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and then to Egypt.

Molad

The molad amiti (true molad), which has no relevance to the Hebrew calendar, is the time at which the actual astronomical lunar conjunction occurs, often expressed either as the mean solar time in Jerusalem (Universal Time + 2h 20m 56s or simply + 2h 21m) or as the clock time in Israel.

Mt Carmel blind mole rat

Following the identification of S. carmeli in 2001, Nevo et al. recorded specimens in the vicinity surrounding the Afik, Kabri, and Tzippori settlements.

Operation Nachshon

On 31 March a 60 vehicle Jewish convoy was ambushed at Hulda and forced to turn back with the loss of five vehicles and 17 dead.

Ram Moav

Ram Moav (1930 - 1984) was an Israeli geneticist and science fiction writer.

Reuven Shiloah

Shiloah's involvement in political and defense matters commenced before the establishment of the State of Israel.

Sabra and Shatila massacre

Notwithstanding the dissuading conclusions of the Kahan report, Sharon would later become Prime Minister of Israel.

Sheikh Khalifa City

Once called "Morag", when it was a Gush Katif settlement, it has been retroceded to the Palestinian authorities after the settlers' buildings and facilities were destroyed by Israel in 2005.

Socialist Zionists

Adherents of Socialist Zionism or Labor Zionism, a major ideological and political current in the history of Zionism and Israel

The MUJU Crew

Walls is a play which tells the story of two British teenage friends, one Muslim and one Jewish, whose relationship is turned upside down when the Jewish boy’s family move to Israel.

Theodore Motzkin

Theodore Samuel Motzkin (26 March 1908–15 December 1970) was an Israeli-American mathematician.

Tzohar organization

Tzohar organization was founded by a group of rabbis from religious Zionism group, in order to be partners in shaping the Jewish character of Israel, from the dialogue and the search for common identity elements.

Yechiel Michel Epstein

Aruch HaShulchan he'Atid (Laying the Table of the Future) - a parallel work to Arukh HaShulkhan summarising and analysing the laws that will apply in Messianic times; this work became more relevant when Jewish farming communities were re-established in Israel, since many agricultural laws which apply only in Israel are covered in this work;

Yeshivat Ma'alot

The Yeshiva is named after Rabbi Dr. Ya'akov Herzog, son of the late Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and brother of the late President of Israel Chaim Herzog.

Yitzhak Katz

Yitzhak Katz (May 19, 1901 – 1991) was an Israeli civil servant and art critic active in all spheres of Israeli arts and culture.


1950 in Israel

17 February – King Abdullah I of Jordan and Mossad Director Reuven Shiloah of Israel met at the King's winter palace at El Shuneh, where the King presented a seven point treaty proposal.

5uu's

In May 2004, Dave Kerman/5uu's regrouped again in Israel, this time comprising Kerman, Drake, Cutler, Perry, Koomran and Janet Feder on prepared guitar.

Akureyri Art Museum

Artists that have had their work displayed in the Akureyri Art Museum include Icelandic artists Erró, Kjarval and Louisa Matthíasdóttir, American artist Spencer Tunick, Israeli video artist Guy Ben-Ner and French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Alabama Policy Institute

In 2005, it criticized Democrats for failing to take on a hardline position against Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements about Israel.

Americo-Liberian

In 2007 BET founder Robert Johnson called for "African Americans to support Liberia like Jewish Americans support Israel".

Andrew Hutchison

Hutchison delivered a response in late 2005 to the call for the destruction of Israel by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemning Ahmadinejad for his remarks which incite "hatred of the Jewish people and supporting violence against them."

Australian rules football in the Middle East

Australian Rules in Israel has been played sporadically since at least 1995, when a group of around 20 players began regular social matches in Tel Aviv, although most of the players were based in Jerusalem.

Barylka Yerahmiel

In 1993 he moved to Israel where he served as rabbi and director of religious activities of KKL-JNF, the Jewish National Fund.

Battle of Beirut

Siege of Beirut (1982), a siege by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War

Big Brother 5

HaAh HaGadol 5, the current 2013 edition of Big Brother in Israel

Big Gus, What's the Fuss?

Big Gus, What's the Fuss? (also known as Ha-Balash Ha'Amitz Shvartz and Fat Spy) was a 1973 Israeli comedy film directed by Ami Artzi and American director Lloyd Kaufman, the president of Troma Entertainment.

Chezki Lifshitz

Chezki Lifshitz was born in 1974 to Tzvi Menashe and Ester Lifshitz in Bnei Brak, Israel, he Studied in Chabad Yeshiva Ktana of Lod, and Yeshiva Gdola of Kfar Chabad.

Dark retreat

All spiritual traditions have used Darkness Techniques in the pursuit of enlightenment: in Europe, the dark room appeared as a network of tunnels, in Egypt as the Pyramides, in Rome as the catacombs, by the Essenes in Israel and Taoists in China as caves.

Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times

The exhibition was created by the Israel Antiquities Authority with items from the Israel National Treasures Department, and is produced by Discovery Times Square and the Franklin Institute.

Dorothy Norman

During the 1930s and 1940s Norman was active in various liberal causes, particularly civil rights, education, and independence for India and for Israel.

Edward Israel

Israel and the rest of the crew spent two years at a camp they called Fort Conger.

Edwin R. Thiele

Thiele was able to reconcile the Biblical chronological data from the books of Kings and Chronicles with the exception of synchronisms between Hoshea of Israel and Hezekiah of Judah towards the end of the kingdom of Israel and reluctantly concluded that at that point the ancient authors had made a mistake.

Elisha Ben Yitzhak

His parents immigrated to Israel in 1936 after being in a Zionist movement.

Eric Moonman

From 1980 it was funded instead by the World Zionist Organization and from 1985 also by the Israel Foreign Ministry.

Ernst Uhrlau

It is believed Uhrlau was a mediator between Hezbollah and Israel for the return in 2008 of the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose kidnapping triggered the 2006 Lebanon war.

Eyal Gabbai

This period was characterized by vigorous privatization of state companies, including El Al, Bezeq, Israel's Oil Refineries and Zim, selling shares in a total value of 14b NIS in an unprecedented privatization spree.

First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics

In 2009, the prize went to Mor Tzaban, a high school student from Netivot, Israel.

Francisca Subirana

In 1961, the couple moved to Israel where Ricardo was assigned the Cuban ambassador by Fidel Castro.

Hamuchtar

Accompanied by an accordionist, he toured Israel amidst scud rocket attacks and re-introduced chansons and burlesque to Bauhaus Tel-Aviv.

Hasideans

Several modern scholars (Schürer, Kautzsch, and others) have agreed to this view, which had already been adopted in part by Georg Heinrich August von Ewald (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv. 401).

History of Egypt under Anwar Sadat

The October War of 1973 launched against Israel began when the coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which occurred that year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hutzot HaMifratz Railway Station

Hutzot HaMifratz Railway Station is a station on both the main North-South coastal line of Israel Railways (Nahariya – Haifa – Tel Aviv – Ben-Gurion Airport – Be'er Sheva Inter-City Service) and the suburban line serving Haifa's northern suburbs – The Qrayot (Haifa - Qiryat Motzkin Suburban Service), although only a third of all the Inter-City trains actually stop at the station.

Indirect election

Many republics with parliamentary systems elect their president indirectly (Germany, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, India, Israel).

Israel and legitimacy

M.J. Rosenberg, writing in the Los Angeles Times, argued that the term "delegitimization" is a "distraction", whose purpose is to divert attention away from world opposition to the "illegitimate" occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip, from the "illegal" settlements, and from "the ever-louder calls for Israel to grant Palestinians equal rights".

Israel's Department Store

Following the takeover of the store, Wilfrid Israel, who had run the business with his brother, emigrated to England, where he took up a research position at Balliol College, Oxford.

Jennens

Charles Jennens (1700 – 20 November 1773) was an English landowner and patron of the arts, who assembled the text for five of Handel's oratorios: Saul, Israel in Egypt, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Messiah, and Belshazzar.

Mario Pergolini

The Israel TV version (anchored by Avri Gilad) did not catch with Israeli audiences and was discontinued after half a season.

Middle East

These were followed by the Hittite, Greek and Urartian civilisations of Asia Minor, Elam in pre-Iranian Persia, as well as the civilizations of the Levant (such as Ebla, Ugarit, Canaan, Aramea, Phoenicia and Israel), Persian and Median civilizations in Iran, North Africa (Carthage/Phoenicia) and the Arabian Peninsula (Magan, Sheba, Ubar).

Mostar Round-Trip

A year after 17-year-old Yuval leaves home in Israel to attend the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, filmmaker David Fisher, his father, follows.

Nitzhonot

Nitzhonot (Hebrew: נצחונות, "victories") is a crossover between Goa trance and uplifting trance, emerged during the mid-late 1990s in Israel.

Olympic Committee of Israel

OCI achieved IOC recognition in early 1952, just in time for Israel's Olympic debut at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

Omar Barghouti

In response, Samir El-Youssef states that "Barghouti’s 'true peace based on justice' is that Israel must be punished, brought down to its knees, before a Palestinian is allowed to greet an Israeli in the street".

Oramir

Oramir was founded in 1992 by Fairchild Corporation, Teuza Venture Capital Fund and Rafael Development Corporation of Israel.

Palestine Railways P class

After the War of Independence and subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War, main line services were truncated to the territory within the new State of Israel.

Patricia Harrison

Under Harrison's direction, the State Department initiated the CultureCommect program in which American celebrities such as YoYo Ma, Denyce Graves, Doris Roberts and Frank McCourt acted as "cultural ambassadors" in trips to Pakistan, Russia, Israel and other countries.

Shahira Amin

Amin became the subject of criticism after she interviewed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on October 18, 2011 in Egypt, following Shalit's release from more than five years of captivity in Gaza but preceding his return to Israel and reunification with his family.

Syro-Ephraimite War

Isaiah concludes these prophecies concerning his children (Shear-Jashub (meaning 'a remnant returns', Isaiah 7.3), Immanuel (meaning 'God is with us'), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (meaning 'quick to plunder, speedy to spoil') by saying, 'Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.' (Isaiah 8.18 NIV) Interestingly enough, the context continues into chapter 9 which also uses a birth of a child as its object.

Tzedakah

There are many examples of Tzedakah funds that operate according to Maimonides' principles above (particularly #2), including Hands on Tzedakah (working with non-profits in the USA and in Israel), and Mitzvah Heroes Fund (working mainly with non-profits in Israel).

Ulpana Tzfira

Ulpana Tzfira is a religious institution for girls which is located in Tzafria, Israel.

Weizmann

Weizmann Institute of Science, a world-renowned institute of higher learning and research in Rehovot, Israel

Yehuda Talit

During the past few years, Talit has been responsible in a joint production with the Beit Lesin Theater in Israel, for the hit one man show starring Avi Kushnir, Returning the Cave Man.

Zucchetto

Menasseh Ben Israel for a portrait of Rabbi ben Israel wearing zucchetto-style yarmulke