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About Israel

Geography

- Capital: Israel has declared Jerusalem its capital. Because of the conflict and the unresolved situation concerning the status of the city foreign embassies are located in the Tel Aviv area.

- Area: approx. 22,000 sq.km (Denmark 43,000 sq.km).
- Population: approx. 9 mio.
- Population growth per year: 1.9 %.
- Ethnic groups: Jews, Arabs, Druze, Bedouins.
- Languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Russian.
- Religion: 75 % Jews, 18 % Muslim, 2 % Christian, 2 % Druze, 4 % unclassified.

Economy

- GDP per capita: 267.896 (40,270 US$) in 2017
- GDP real growth rate: 3.3 % in 2017
- Currency: 100 Shekel (NIS) equals around 188 DKK (Juli 2019)
- Unemployment: 3.6 % (May 2019)

Government

Head of State: President Reuven Rivlin

Head of Government: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud).

Learn more about the government here: https://www.gov.il/en

Domestic Political Situation

Israel is a republic with a democratically elected parliament, the Knesset. Not having a formal constitution, the Declaration of Independence of 1948 and several "basic laws" serve as the main judicial foundation. The Knesset is a single chamber parliament with 120 members (MKs) with elections scheduled for every four years.

Read more about the current Knesset here.

Foreign Political Situation

Israel has signed formal peace agreements with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994). Furthermore, Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, and from Gaza in 2005. No peace agreements have been signed with either Syria or Lebanon. During the Danish Presidency of the European Union in 2002, the Middle East Quartet (the UN, US, EU and Russia) formulated a joint "Road Map for Peace". The aim is to establish a Palestinian state and negotiate a definitive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, which has yet to be realized.
Israel’s most important partner politically, militarily and strategically is the United States.

Click the link to learn more about Israel in general: https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Pages/default.aspx