1.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
2.
Negev
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The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The regions largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba, in the north, at its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi and Lakyah. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker, the origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting dry. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction south, during the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district. The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² or at least 55% of the land area. It forms a triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features, among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region, Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol, and Makhtesh Katan. The Negev is a rocky desert and it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions, northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau, the northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light, sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev stands between 370 metres and 520 metres above sea level with temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior, the Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually and it has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants there, among them Acacia, Pistacia, Retama, Urginea maritima. A small population of Arabian leopards, an animal in the Arabian peninsula. The Negev Tortoise is a endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western. The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel, hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev
3.
Beersheba
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Beersheba also spelled Beer-Sheva is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Beersheba grew in importance in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks built a police station there. The Battle of Beersheba was part of a wider British offensive in World War I aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba. In 1947, Bir Seba, as it was known, was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, following the declaration of Israels independence, the Egyptian army amassed its forces in Beersheba as a strategic and logistical base. In the Battle of Beersheba waged in October 1948, it was conquered by the Israel Defense Forces, Beersheba has grown considerably since then. Second and third waves of immigration have taken place since 1990, bringing Russian-speaking Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the Soviet immigrants have made the game of chess a major sport in Beersheba and the city is now a developing technology center. The city is now Israels national chess center, with more chess grandmasters per capita than any city in the world. There are several etymologies for the origin of the name Beersheba, the oath of Abraham and Abimelech is the one stated in Gen.21,31. Others include the seven wells dug by Isaac though only three or four have been identified, the oath of Isaac and Abimelech, the seven lambs that sealed Abraham, Beer is the Hebrew word for well, sheva could mean seven or oath. In this case the meaning is probably oath, as the ancient Hebrews believed seven to be a number. The Arabic toponym can also be translated as Seven wells or as commonly believed Lions well. During Ottoman administration city was referred as بلدية بءرالسبع Birüsseb, Beersheba is mainly dealt with in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, who both dig a well and close peace treaties with King Abimelech of Gerar at the site. Hence it receives its name twice, first after Abrahams dealings with Abimelech, the place is thus connected to two of the three Wife–sister narratives in the Book of Genesis. According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was founded when Abraham and Abimelech settled their differences over a well of water, Abimelechs men had taken the well from Abraham after he had previously dug it so Abraham brought sheep and cattle to Abimelech to get the well back. He set aside seven lambs to swear that it was he that had dug the well, Abimelech conceded that the well belonged to Abraham and, in the Bible, Beersheba means Well of Seven or Well of the Oath. Beersheba is further mentioned in following Bible passages, Isaac built an altar in Beersheba, jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Simeon and Judah, the sons of the prophet Samuel were judges in Beersheba. Saul, Israels first king, built a fort there for his campaign against the Amalekites, the prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed
4.
Dead Sea
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The Dead Sea, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west. Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea is 304 m deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With 34. 2% salinity, it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean and this salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide at its widest point and it lies in the Jordan Rift Valley and its main tributary is the Jordan River. The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years and it was one of the worlds first health resorts, and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics, the Dead Sea water has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. The Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate, multiple canals and pipelines were proposed to reduce its recession, which had begun causing many problems. The Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, carried out by Jordan, will provide water to neighboring countries, the first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in 2018 and be completed in 2021. In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is Yām ha-Melaḥ, meaning sea of salt, the Bible uses this term alongside two others, the Sea of the Arabah, and the Eastern Sea. The designation Dead Sea never appears in the Bible, in prose sometimes the term Yām ha-Māvet is used, due to the scarcity of aquatic life there. In Arabic the Dead Sea is called al-Bahr al-Mayyit, or less commonly baḥrᵘ lūṭᵃ, another historic name in Arabic was the Sea of Zoʼar, after a nearby town in biblical times. The Greeks called it Lake Asphaltites, the Dead Sea is an endorheic lake located in the Jordan Rift Valley, a geographic feature formed by the Dead Sea Transform. This left lateral-moving transform fault lies along the plate boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It runs between the East Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey and the end of the Red Sea Rift offshore of the southern tip of Sinai. It is here that the Upper Jordan River/Sea of Galilee/Lower Jordan River water system comes to an end. The Jordan River is the major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, forming pools. The Mujib River, biblical Arnon, is one the larger sources of the Dead Sea other than the Jordan. The Wadi Mujib valley,420 m below the sea level in the southern of Jordan valley, is a biosphere reserve, other more substantial sources are Wadi Darajeh /Nahal Dragot, and Nahal Arugot
5.
Arabah
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The Arabah, known in Hebrew as Arava or Aravah, is a geographic name for the area south of the Dead Sea basin which forms part of the border between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. This included the Jordan River Valley between Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, the Dead Sea itself, and what is called today the Arava Valley. The modern use of the term is restricted to this section alone. The southern stretch of the Arabah is 166 km in length from the Gulf of Aqaba to the shore of the Dead Sea. Topographically, the region is divided into three sections, from this crest, the land slopes gently northward over the next 74 km to a point 15 km south of the Dead Sea. In the last section, the Arabah drops steeply to the Dead Sea, the Arabah is scenic with colorful cliffs and sharp-topped mountains. The southern Arabah is hot and dry and virtually without rain, there are numerous species of flora and fauna in the Aravah Valley. Notably the Caracal, Caracal caracal, is found on savannas of the valley, in Biblical times, the Arava was a center of copper production, King Solomon is believed to have had mines here based on copper mines dating to his reign. The Arabah was home to the Edomites, east of the Arabah was the domain of the Nabateans, the builders of the city of Petra. Kibbutz Yotvata founded in 1957, was named for an ancient town in the mentioned in the Bible. Kibbutz Lotan has a bird-watching center, the oldest moshav in the central Arava area is Ein Yahav. The Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in the Arava on October 26,1994, the governments of Jordan and Israel are promoting development of the region. There is a plan to bring sea water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea through a canal and this project was once an issue of dispute between Jordan and Israel, but it was recently agreed that the project shall be constructed on and by the Jordanian side. In 2004, the Jordanian administrative district of Wadi Araba had a population of 6,775, the main economic activities for these Arabah residents revolve around herding sheep, agriculture, handicrafts, and the Jordanian Army. Timna Valley Park is notable for its rock carvings, some of the oldest copper mines in the world. On the Jordanian side is the famous Wadi Rum, which is famous among rock climbers, hikers, campers, Feynan Ecolodge was opened in Wadi Feynan by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in 2005. Below is a list of Jordanian population clusters in Wadi Araba, The total population of the Jordanian portion of the region is 103,000, below is a list of Israeli localities in the Arava, from north to south. The population of the Israeli portion is 52,000, of which 47,500 live in Eilat, and just over 5,000 live in 20 small towns north of Eilat, the Israeli residents of the region are almost entirely Jews
6.
Joshua
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Joshua /ˈdʒɒʃuə/ or Jehoshua is the central figure in the Hebrew Bibles Book of Joshua. According to the books of Exodus, Numbers and Joshua, he was Moses assistant and his name was Hoshea the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him Yehoshua the name by which he is commonly known. The name is shortened to Yeshua in Nehemiah, according to the Bible he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus. According to the Hebrew Bible, Joshua was one of the spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. In Numbers 13, 1–16, and after the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, according to Biblical chronology, Joshua lived between 1355 and 1245 BCE, or sometime in the late Bronze Age. According to Joshua 24,29, Joshua died at the age of 110, Joshua also holds a position of respect among Muslims. According to Islamic tradition, he was, along with Caleb, all Muslims also see Joshua as the leader of the Israelites, following the death of Moses. Some Muslims also believe Joshua to be the attendant of Moses mentioned in the Qurān, before Moses meets Khidr, the English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew language Yehoshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation. The vocalization of the second name component may be read as Hoshea—the name used in the Torah before Moses added the divine name, Jesus is the English of the Greek transliteration of Yehoshua via Latin. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word Yehoshua are rendered as Ἰησοῦς, thus, in Greek, Joshua is called Jesus son of Naue to differentiate him from Jesus Christ. This is also true in the Slavic languages following the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus. He was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim. He later accompanied Moses when he ascended biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God, visualize Gods plan for the Israelite tabernacle and receive the Ten Commandments. Joshua was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites celebrations around the Golden Calf, and broke the tablets bearing the words of the commandments. However, when Moses returned to the mountain to re-create the tablets recording the Ten Commandments, Joshua was not present, according to Joshua 1, 1-9, God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses as leader of the Israelites along with giving him a blessing of invincibility during his lifetime. The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan, at the Jordan River, the waters parted, as they had for Moses at the Red Sea. The first battle after the crossing of the Jordan was the Battle of Jericho, Joshua led the destruction of Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west. However, they were defeated with thirty-six Israelite deaths, the defeat was attributed to Achan taking an accursed thing from Jericho, and was followed by Achan and his family and animals being stoned to death to restore Gods favor
7.
David Ben-Gurion
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David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurions passion for Zionism, which early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader. On 14 May 1948, he proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces, subsequently, he became known as Israels founding father. Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israels first Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, as Prime Minister, he helped build the state institutions, presiding over various national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world, a centerpiece of his foreign policy was improving relationships with the West Germans. He worked very well with Konrad Adenauers government in Bonn, in 1954 he resigned as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, although he remained a member of the Knesset. However, he returned as Minister of Defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair resulted in the resignation of Pinhas Lavon, later in the year he became Prime Minister again, following the 1955 elections. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from life in 1970. He then moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time magazines 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. David Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk in Congress Poland – then part of the Russian Empire and his father, Avigdor Grün, was a lawyer and a leader in the Hovevei Zion movement. His mother, Scheindel, died when he was 11 years old, Ben-Gurions birth certificate, when rediscovered in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. At the age of 14 he and two formed a youth club, Ezra, promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. In 1905, as a student at the University of Warsaw and he was arrested twice during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying, For many of us, I personally never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk was remarkably free of it, nevertheless, and I think this very significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size. We emigrated not for reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland. Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough, there were three main communities, Russians, Jews and Poles
8.
Dead Sea Works
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The Dead Sea Works is an Israeli potash plant in Sdom, on the Dead Sea coast of Israel. The company was established in 1930 by Moshe Novomeysky and it was known then as the Palestine Potash Company. From 1936, it was a profitable enterprise despite attempts by the German potash cartel to strangle the business by dumping potash at below-cost prices. In the Israel War of Independence in 1948, the half of the production facilities was occupied by the Jordanian Legion. In 1951, the company was nationalized by the Israeli government under the Ministry of Development, in 1953, it was renamed the Dead Sea Works. Dead Sea Works is the worlds fourth-largest producer and supplier of potash products, the company also produces magnesium chloride, industrial salts, de-icers, bath salts, table salt, and raw materials for the cosmetic industry. It has customers in over 60 countries, Dead Sea Works is part of the Fertilizers Division of Israel Chemicals Ltd. It is located in the basin of the Dead Sea. Rather than extracting potash and other minerals from the Dead Sea by mining them directly, Dead Sea Works has been blamed by conservationists for polluting the environment and contributing to the Dead Seas slow evaporation. Arab Potash Economy of Israel Ahava Company website 19th century boat of British explorer displayed at Dead Sea Works Wealth from the Dead Sea Popular Mechanics, November 1930, pp 794-798
9.
North Africa
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North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa. The United Nationss definition of Northern Africa is, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb, which is the Arabic word for sunset. Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia, while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel, Egypt is a transcontinental country because of the Sinai Peninsula, which geographically lies in Western Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland are included in considerations of the region. From 3500 BC, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to changes in the Earths orbit. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world. Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, are part of the mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, the sediments of the Sahara overlie an ancient plateau of crystalline rock, some of which is more than four billion years old. Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, a wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, the Nile Valley is particularly fertile, and most of the population in Egypt and Sudan live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve yields on the desert margins. The inhabitants of Saharan Africa are generally divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa, the Maghreb, the Nile valley. The edge of the Sahel, to the south of Egypt has mainly been inhabited by Nubians, Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber, as well as Nubians from the south. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations, the official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic, the Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are more conservative than those of the coastal cities. Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with cultures, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans
10.
Black Hebrew Israelites
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Black Hebrew Israelites are groups of African Americans who believe that they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism. They are not recognized as Jews by the greater Jewish community, many choose to identify as Hebrew Israelites or Black Hebrews rather than as Jews to indicate their claimed historic connections. Many Black Hebrew groups were founded in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Kansas to New York City, in the mid-1980s, the number of Black Hebrews in the United States was between 25,000 and 40,000. In the 1990s, the Alliance of Black Jews estimated that there were 200,000 African-American Jews, the exact number of Black Hebrews within that surveyed group remains unspecified. While Black Christians traditionally have identified spiritually with the Children of Israel and this identification with the Israelites was a response to the sociopolitical realities of their situation in the United States, including discrimination. For African-Americans, appropriating Jewish history was part of a rebellion against the American racial hierarchy that deemed Africans inferior and it was also a means of fulfilling their desire to know their origins and regain their lost history. One of the first groups of Black Hebrews, the Church of God and Saints of Christ, was founded in 1896 in Kansas, during the following decades, many more Black Hebrew congregations were established, some without any connection to Christianity. After World War I, for example, Wentworth Arthur Matthew and he called it the Commandment Keepers of the Living God. Similar groups selected elements of Judaism and adapted them within a similar to that of the Black church. He incorporated it in 1930 and moved the congregation to Brooklyn, where he founded the Israelite Rabbinical Seminary. The beliefs and practices of Black Hebrew groups vary considerably, Black Hebrews, who are more traditional in their practice of Judaism. Black Israelites, who are most nationalistic and furthest from traditional Judaism, Black Hebrew organizations have certain common characteristics. Anthropologist James E. Landing, author of Black Judaism, distinguishes the Black Hebrew movement, significantly, it does not depend on documented lineage to Jewish ancestors nor to recognized Orthodox or Conservative conversions, Black Judaism is. A form of institutionalized religious expression in which black persons identify themselves as Jews, Israelites, Black Judaism has been a social movement, black Judaism has been an isolated social phenomenon. Landings definition, and its assumptions about race and normative Judaism, have been criticized. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dozens of Black Hebrew organizations were established, in Harlem alone, at least eight such groups were founded between 1919 and 1931. The Commandment Keepers, founded by Wentworth Arthur Matthew in New York, are noted for their adherence to traditional Judaism, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are widely known for having moved from the United States, primarily Chicago, to Israel in the late-20th century
Israel
Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (1975)
