1.
Moshav
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Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second wave of aliyah. A resident or a member of a moshav can be called a moshavnik, the moshavim are similar to kibbutzim with an emphasis on community labour. Workers produced crops and goods on their properties through individual and/or pooled labour and resources and used profit, moshavim are governed by an elected council. Community projects and facilities were financed by a special tax, there are several variants, of which the most common are, Moshav ovdim, a workers cooperative settlement. This is the more numerous type and relies on cooperative purchasing of supplies and marketing of produce, the family or household is, however, Moshav shitufi, a collective smallholders settlement that combines the economic features of a kibbutz with the social features of a moshav. Farming is done collectively and profits are shared equally and this form is closer to the collectivity of the kibbutz, although consumption is family- or household-based, production and marketing are collective. Unlike the moshav ovdim, land is not allotted to households or individuals, the first moshav, Nahalal, was established in the Jezreel Valley on September 11,1921. By 1986 about 156,700 Israelis lived and worked on 448 moshavim, for this reason, the moshav became largely a Mizrahi institution, whereas the kibbutz movement remained basically an Ashkenazi institution. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, both moshavim and kibbutzim have relied increasingly on outside—particularly Palestinian—labour, financial instabilities in the early 1980s hit many moshavim hard, as did their high birth rate and the problem of absorbing all the children who might wish to remain in the community. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Palestinians
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Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the worlds Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine, the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, known as the Palestinian diaspora, the history of a distinct Palestinian national identity is a disputed issue amongst scholars. Palestinian was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I, Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period. Founded in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization is an organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before the international community. Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, herodotus also employs the term as an ethnonym, as when he speaks of the Syrians of Palestine or Palestinian-Syrians, an ethnically amorphous group he distinguishes from the Phoenicians. Herodotus makes no distinction between the Jews and other inhabitants of Palestine, the Greek word reflects an ancient Eastern Mediterranean-Near Eastern word which was used either as a toponym or ethnonym. In Ancient Egyptian Peleset/Purusati has been conjectured to refer to the Sea Peoples, among Semitic languages, Akkadian Palaštu is used of Philistia and its 4 city states. Biblical Hebrews cognate word Plištim, is usually translated Philistines, the Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the time of the earliest medieval Arab geographers. It appears to have used as an Arabic adjectival noun in the region since as early as the 7th century CE. The Arabic newspaper Falasteen, published in Jaffa by Issa and Yusef al-Issa, the first Zionist bank, the Jewish Colonial Trust, was founded at the Second Zionist Congress and incorporated in London in 1899. The JCT was intended to be the instrument of the Zionist Organization. On 27 February 1902, a subsidiary of this Trust called the Anglo-Palestine Company was established in London with the assistance of Zalman David Levontin and this Company was to become the future Bank Leumi. Following the 1948 establishment of Israel, the use and application of the terms Palestine and Palestinian by, for example, the English-language newspaper The Palestine Post, founded by Jews in 1932, changed its name in 1950 to The Jerusalem Post. Jews in Israel and the West Bank today generally identify as Israelis, Arab citizens of Israel identify themselves as Israeli and/or Palestinian and/or Arab. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father – whether in Palestine or outside it – is also a Palestinian. Thus, the Jews of Palestine were/are also included, although limited only to the Jews who had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion. The Charter also states that Palestine with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is a territorial unit. The although the timing and causes behind the emergence of a distinctively Palestinian national consciousness among the Arabs of Palestine are matters of scholarly disagreement
5.
Jewish Agency for Israel
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The Jewish Agency for Israel is the largest Jewish nonprofit organization in the world. Its mission is to inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel. It is best known as the organization responsible for the immigration and absorption of Jews. Since 1948, the Jewish Agency for Israel has been responsible for bringing 3 million immigrants to Israel, the Jewish Agency played a central role in the founding and the building of the State of Israel. David Ben Gurion was the Chairman of its Executive Committee from 1935 and he became Israels first Prime Minister. In the years before and after the creation of the State and it serves as the main link between Israel and Jewish communities around the world. For example, it conducts intensive Hebrew-language immersion programs in Israel, by law, the Jewish Agency is a para-statal organization but it does not receive core funding from the Israeli government. The Jewish Agency is funded by The Jewish Federations of North America, Keren Hayesod, major Jewish communities and federations, the dozens of programs it supports or operates benefit well over a million Israelis and Jews worldwide every year. In 2008, The Jewish Agency won the Israel Prize for its contribution to Israel. As of 2016, The Jewish Agency sponsors dozens of programs that connect Jews to Israel, the Agency organizes the programs into four different categories, Israel Experiences, Israel in Your Community, Jewish Social Action, and Aliyah. Some programs, According to its website, the Israel Experience programs bring young Jews from around the globe to Israel to get to know the country, Taglit-Birthright Israel provides ten-day educational trips to Israel for Jews ages 18 to 26 from around the world, completely free of charge. Onward Israel organizes 6-to-10-week professional internships in Israel for students and young professionals who have previously visited Israel on Taglit-Birthright or another group tour, participants come in groups, all from the same community or organization. Masa Israel Journey is an organization founded in 2004 by the Government of Israels Office of the Prime Minister, together with The Jewish Agency. It includes a portfolio of more than 200 programs in Israel for Jews aged 18–30, including programs, service programs. It sponsors over 10,000 participants per year, masa provides significant scholarships to participants, performs outreach, and operates alumni activities. Israel Tech Challenge is a partnership of The Jewish Agency with the National Cyber Bureau and it offers trips to Israel of varying lengths for students and young professionals with knowledge in the field of computer science and programming. The programs offer visits with Israeli hi-tech professionals and academics, along with experience or training in coding and it was founded in 1946 by the World Zionist Organization. As of 2013, it had 12,000 alumni from South America, the United States, South Africa, Australia, North Africa, naale allows Jewish teenagers from the diaspora to study in Israel and earn a high school diploma
6.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
7.
Netivot
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Netivot is a city in the Southern District of Israel located between Beersheba and Gaza. In 2015 it had a population of 31,314, Netivot was founded in 1956 as a Negev development town. The first residents were immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia, in the 1990s, they were joined by immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia. For many years, Netivot suffered from high unemployment, since 2008, Netivot has been the target of Grad missile attacks from Gaza. In 2012, a rocket exploded near a school in the city, a major landmark is the tomb of the Baba Sali, a Moroccan-born kabbalist who is buried there. In 2001, the makeup of the city was 99. 9% Jewish, with no significant Arab population. The city ranked relatively low in the socioeconomic index In the wake of Operation Solomon, by the end of 2009 Netivot had a population of 26,700. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 22 schools and 4,243 students in the city,16 elementary schools with 3,053 students,43. 1% of 12th grade students were entitled to a Bagrut matriculation certificate in 2001. Netivot schools have chosen for a special pilot project in which elementary school children build their own mini-robots. In 2009, a school student from Netivot won first prize in the First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics competition. In 2011, Netivot hosted a festival sponsored by the international organization FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science. First, second and third graders at the Noam Eliyahu religious school in Netivot spend eight hours a week studying science and robotics at Lehava, the Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev runs a two-year community-based leadership program in Netivot. Netivot is known for being the home of Jewish mystics and as a pilgrimage site. The growth of mysticism and sacred sites in Netivot led to it being dubbed the Varanasi of Israel, the most prominent rabbis in Netivot include Baruch Abuhateizra, Yaakov Israel Ifergan and Yoram Abergel. On the anniversary of the Baba Salis death, thousands of pilgrims come to Netivot to visit his tomb, eleven local newspapers are published in the city. Three successful nightclubs have opened in Netivot which also draw clientele from out of town, attracting people from Ashkelon, Beersheba, Omer, Lehavim, Ofakim. Two additional neighborhoods with a total of 3,600 new housing units are planned for Netivot and they are expected to double the citys population. Two large supermarkets are also planned for the city, in addition to the seven already built there, there are 24 plants and factories located in a nearby industrial park mostly in food processing, metals, plastics and construction sectors
8.
Institute for Palestine Studies
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The Institute for Palestine Studies is the oldest independent nonprofit public service research institute in the Arab world. It was established and incorporated in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1963 and has served as a model for other such institutes in the region. It is the institute in the world solely concerned with analyzing and documenting Palestinian affairs. IPSs Library in Beirut is the largest in the Arab world specializing in Palestinian affairs, the Arab–Israeli conflict and it is led by a Board of Trustees comprising some forty scholars, businessmen, and public figures representing almost all Arab countries. The Institute currently maintains offices in Beirut, Paris, Washington and it is independent of government, party, or political organization. IPS activities are financed by income from its endowment, contributions and gifts from donors, the project is online and users can access the legislation as well as the Congressional record from which it is drawn through the Congressional Monitor Database. Tips on using the database as well as a guide to the U. S. legislative process are provided. The Institutes library is located at the Institutess headquarters in Beirut and it is also interested in studying and promoting knowledge of Hebrew. The Institute publishes three quarterly journals in English and Arabic and these are independently edited and published from Washington, Paris, Jerusalem, and Beirut respectively. The journals are, The Journal of Palestine Studies, which was established in 1971 and it is published and distributed by the University of California Press on behalf of the institute. The current editor is Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University, the French quarterly, Revue détudes palestiniennes, which began publication in 1982, was independently edited and produced by The Institute for Palestine Studies – Paris. The Revue was printed and distributed by Editions de Minuit, the Arabic language quarterly, Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyah, was founded in 1990. It is edited in London and Beirut and is reprinted in Ramallah in the West Bank for distribution in the Palestinian Territories. Elias Khoury, renowned Lebanese author is the Editor of the Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyah, the Jerusalem Quarterly was conceived in 1998 as the Jerusalem Quarterly File, and is published by the Institute of Jerusalem Studies, an affiliate of the Institute for Palestine Studies. Jerusalem Quarterly publishes historical features and contemporary analysis of aspects of city life, the journal is available quarterly online, and in print copy through paid subscription. It has also published over 600 books and it has published many first-person Palestinian accounts of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Institute is led by a Board of Trustees composed of Arab scholars, businessmen, a volunteer executive committee, elected by the Board, manage the regular activities. The trustees come from most Arab countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, education in the Palestinian territories List of Palestinian universities Official website Journal of Palestine Studies
9.
Kawfakha
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Kawfakha was a Palestinian village located 18 kilometers east of Gaza that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The village stood on a stretch of sandy, rolling land in the northern Negev, a network of secondary roads linked it to the highways between Gaza and Julis, which ran parallel to the coastal highway. The village contained ruins of Khirbat al-Kawfakha which included remnants of cisterns, marble columns, a Corinthian capital, mosaic walkways, kawfakwa was founded in the late nineteenth century by Gaza city residents who came to cultivate the surrounding land. In its center was a mosque that was known in the region. The village had a school and some small shops. The villagers obtained water for use from two wells inside the village. The land on the side of the village was planted with fruit trees, such as apricots, olives, almonds, grapes. On the other sides of the grain was grown. In 1945 Kawfakha had a population of 500 Muslims, with a total of 8,569 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 97 dunums was irrigated or used for orchards, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the villagers of Kawfakha repeatedly asked to surrender, accept Jewish rule and be allowed to stay, all to no avail. Kawfakha, together with al-Muharraqa, was raided by the Palmachs Negev Brigade on May 27–28, on May 30, a New York Times correspondent reported that the two villages had been captured. The Israeli settlement of Nir Akiva was established in 1953 on village lands, according to Khalidi, by 1992 the village remaining structures on the village land were, Only the mosque remains, and it is used as a storehouse for animal fodder and as a horse stable. It is a structure with arched entrances and windows on all sides. The site, which contains piles of rubble and is overgrown with cactuses and other plants, has been fenced in. There is a citrus grove west of it, and grain is grown by Israeli farmers on part of the surrounding land, the village mosque was inspected in 1994, and found to be built of ashlar stones with the corners emphasised by a slight offset. At the north-west corner there was a square minaret 10–15 meters high with chamfered corners. There are three doorways on the side, two of which lead into the prayer hall, whilst the east door leads into a separate room. At the time of the inspection, the mosque was used as a storehouse for a nearby farm
