📰 Israel · page 6

Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons[502] and per a 1993 report, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.[503]457 Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons[504] and maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity towards its nuclear capabilities.[505]458 The Israeli Navy's Dolphin submarines are believed to be armed with nuclear missiles offering second-strike capability.[506]459 Since the Gulf War in 1991, all homes in Israel are required to have a reinforced security room, Merkhav Mugan, impermeable to chemical and biological substances.[507]460

Since Israel's establishment, military expenditure constituted a significant portion of the country's gross domestic product, with peak of 30.3% of GDP in 1975.[508]461 In 2021, Israel ranked 15th in the world by total military expenditure, with $24.3 billion, and 6th by defence spending as a percentage of GDP, with 5.2%.[509]462 Since 1974, the United States has been a particularly notable contributor of military aid.[510]463 Under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, the U.S. is expected to provide the country with $3.8 billion per year, or around 20% of Israel's defence budget, from 2018 to 2028.[511]464 Israel ranked 8th globally for arms exports in 2020–2024.[512]465 The majority of Israel's arms exports are unreported for security reasons.[513]466 Israel is consistently rated low in the Global Peace Index, ranking 134th out of 163 nations in 2022.[514]467

Legal system

Main article: Judiciary of Israel, Israeli law

Israel has a three-tier court system.468 At the lowest level are magistrate courts, situated in most cities across the country.469 Above them are district courts, serving as both appellate courts and courts of first instance; they are situated in five of Israel's six districts.470 The third and highest tier is the Supreme Court, located in Jerusalem; it serves a dual role as the highest court of appeals and the High Court of Justice.471 In the latter role, the Supreme Court rules as a court of first instance, allowing both citizens and non-citizens to petition against the decisions of state authorities.[515]472

The legal system combines three legal traditions: English common law, civil law, and Jewish law.[315]473 It is based on the principle of stare decisis (precedent) and is an adversarial system.474 Court cases are decided by professional judges.[516]475 Marriage and divorce are under the jurisdiction of the religious courts: Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian.476 The election of judges is carried out by a selection committee chaired by the justice minister (currently Yariv Levin).[517]477 Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty seeks to defend human rights and liberties in Israel.478 The United Nations Human Rights Council and Israeli human rights organisation Adalah have highlighted that this law does not in fact contain a general provision for equality and non-discrimination.[465][518]479 As a result of "Enclave law", large portions of Israeli civil law are applied to Israeli settlements and Israeli residents in the occupied territories.[519]480 Israeli law is seldom enforced in the occupied territories, with 96% of police investigations into settler violence in the West Bank from 2020 to 2025 ending without an indictment.481 No one has been charged in the killings of at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2020.[520]482

Economy

Main article: Economy of Israel

Israel is considered the most advanced country in West Asia and the Middle East in economic and industrial development.[521][522] as of 2023 10, the IMF estimated its GDP at 521.7 billion dollars and GDP per capita at 53.2 thousand (ranking 13th worldwide).[523]483 It is the third richest country in Asia by nominal per capita income[524] and has the highest average wealth per adult in the Middle East.[525]484 The Economist ranked Israel as the fourth most successful economy among the developed countries for 2022.[526]485 It has the most billionaires in the Middle East and the 18th most in the world.[527]486 In recent years, Israel had one of the highest growth rates in the developed world.[528]487 In 2010, it joined the OECD.[529][530]488 The country is ranked 35th on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index.[531]489 Economic data covers the economic territory of Israel, including the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.[369]490

Despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the agricultural and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely self-sufficient in food production, apart from grains and beef.491 Imports, totalling $96.5 billion in 2020, include raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, and consumer goods.[315]492 Leading exports include machinery, equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles, and apparel; in 2020, exports reached $114 billion.[315]493 The Bank of Israel holds $201 billion of foreign-exchange reserves, the 17th highest in the world.[315]494 Since the 1970s, Israel has received military aid from the United States, as well as loan guarantees, which account for roughly half of Israel's external debt.495 Israel has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and is a lender in terms of net external debt (assets vs. liabilities abroad), which as of 2015 stood at a surplus of $69 billion.[532]496

Israel has the second-largest number of startup companies after the United States[533] and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies.[534]497 It is the world leader for number of start-ups per capita[535] and has been dubbed the "Start-Up Nation".[536][537][538][539]498 Intel[540] and Microsoft[541] built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel, and other high-tech multinational corporations have opened research and development centres in the country.499

The days which are allocated to working times are Sunday through Thursday (for a five-day workweek), or Friday (for a six-day workweek).500 In observance of Shabbat, in places where Friday is a work day and the majority of population is Jewish, Friday is a "short day".501 Several proposals have been raised to adjust the work week with the majority of the world.[542]502

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in Israel, List of Israeli inventions and discoveries

Israel's development of cutting-edge technologies in software, communications and the life sciences have evoked comparisons with Silicon Valley.[543][544]503 Israel is first in the world in expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP.[545]504 It is ranked 14th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025,[546][547] and 5th in the 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index.[548]505 Israel has 140 scientists, technicians, and engineers per 10,000 employees, the highest number in the world[549][550] and has produced six Nobel Prize-winning scientists, mostly in chemistry, since 2004[551] and has been frequently ranked as one of the countries with the highest ratios of scientific papers per capita.[552][553][554]506 Israeli universities are ranked among the top 50 world universities in computer science (Technion and Tel Aviv University), mathematics (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and chemistry (Weizmann Institute of Science).[555]507

In 2012, Israel was ranked ninth in the world by the Futron's Space Competitiveness Index.[556]508 The Israel Space Agency coordinates all space research programmes with scientific and commercial goals, and have designed and built at least 13 commercial, research and spy satellites.[557]509 Some satellites are ranked among the world's most advanced space systems.[558]510 Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit.[559]511 It was first launched in 1988, making Israel the eighth nation to have a space launch capability.512 In 2003, Ilan Ramon became Israel's first astronaut, serving on the fatal mission of Space Shuttle Columbia.[560]513

The ongoing water shortage has spurred innovation in water conservation techniques, and a substantial agricultural modernisation, drip irrigation, was invented in Israel.514 Israel is also at the technological forefront of desalination and water recycling.515 The Sorek desalination plant is the largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility in the world.[561]516 By 2014, desalination programmes provided roughly 35% of the drinking water, and it is expected to supply 70% by 2050.[562] as of 2015, over 50 per cent of the water for households, agriculture and industry is artificially produced.[563]517 In 2011, Israel's water technology industry was worth around $2 billion per year with annual exports of products and services in the tens of millions of dollars.518 As a result of innovations in reverse osmosis technology, Israel is set to become a net exporter of water.[564]519

Israel has embraced solar energy; its engineers are on the cutting edge of solar energy technology,[565] and its solar companies work on projects around the world.[566][567]520 Over 90% of homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest per capita.[338][568]521 According to government figures, the country saves 8% of its electricity consumption per year because of its solar energy use in heating.[569]522 The high annual incident solar irradiance at its geographic latitude creates ideal conditions for what is an internationally renowned solar research and development industry in the Negev.[565][566][567]523 Israel had a modern electric car infrastructure involving a countrywide network of charging stations;[570][571][572] however, its electric car company Better Place shut down in 2013.[573]524

Energy

Main article: Energy in Israel

Israel began producing natural gas from its own offshore gas fields in 2004.525 In 2009 Tamar gas field was discovered near the coast, and Leviathan gas field was discovered in 2010.[574]526 The natural gas reserves in these two fields could make Israel energy-secure for more than 50 years.527 Commercial production of natural gas from the Tamar field began in 2013, with over 7.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) produced annually.[575]528 Israel had 199 billion bcm of proven reserves of natural gas as of 2016.[576]529 The Leviathan gas field started production in 2019.[577]530

Ketura Sun is Israel's first commercial solar field.531 Built in 2011 by the Arava Power Company, the field will produce about 9 GW.h of electricity per year,[578] sparing the production of some 125,000 t of carbon dioxide over 20 years.[579]532

Transport

Main article: Transport in Israel

As of 2016, Israel has 19224 km of paved roads[580] and 3 million motor vehicles.[581]533 The number of motor vehicles per 1,000 persons is 365, relatively low among developed countries.[581]534 The country aims to have 30% of vehicles on its roads powered by electricity by 2030.[582]535

Israel has 5,715 buses on scheduled routes,[583] operated by several carriers, the largest and oldest of which is Egged, serving most of the country.[584]536 Railways stretch across 1277 km and are operated by government-owned Israel Railways.[585]537 Following major investments beginning in the early to mid-1990s, the number of train passengers per year has grown from 2.5 million in 1990, to 53 million in 2015; railways transport 7.5 e6t of cargo per year.[585]538

Israel is served by three international airports: Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main hub for international air travel; Ramon Airport; and Haifa Airport.539 Ben Gurion handled over 21.1 million passengers in 2023.[586]540 There are three main ports: the Port of Haifa, the oldest and largest; Ashdod Port; and the Port of Eilat on the Red Sea.541

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Israel

See also: List of archaeological sites in Israel and Palestine

Tourism, especially religious tourism, is an important industry, with beaches, archaeological, other historical and biblical sites, and unique geography also drawing tourists.542 In 2017, a record 3.6 million tourists visited Israel, yielding a 25 per cent growth since 2016 and contributed NIS 20 billion to the economy.[587][588]543

Real estate

Main article: Housing in Israel

Housing prices are listed in the top third of all countries,[589] with an average of 150 salaries required to buy an apartment.[590]544 As of 2022, there are about 2.7 million properties in Israel, with an annual increase of over 50,000.[591]545 However, demand for housing exceeds supply, with a shortage of about 200,000 apartments as of 2021.[592]546 As a result, by 2021 housing prices rose by 5.6%.[593]547 In 2021, Israelis took a record of NIS 116.1 billion in mortgages, an increase of 50% from 2020.[594]548

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Israel, Israelis

Israel has the largest Jewish population in the world and is the only country where Jews are the majority.[595]549 As of April 2025, the population was an estimated 10,094,000.[596]550 In 2025, the government recorded of the population as Jews, as Arabs, and as "Others" (non-Arab Christians and people who have no religion listed).[16]551 Over the last decade, large numbers of migrant workers from Romania, Thailand, China, Africa, and South America have settled in Israel.552 Exact figures are unknown, as many of them are living in the country illegally,[597] but estimates run from 166,000 to 203,000.[598]553 By June 2012, approximately 60,000 African migrants had entered Israel.[599]554

About 93% of Israelis live in urban areas.[600]555 90% of Palestinian Israelis reside in 139 densely populated towns and villages concentrated in the Galilee, Triangle and Negev regions, with the remaining 10% in mixed cities and neighbourhoods.[601]556 The OECD in 2016 estimated the average life expectancy at 82.5 years, the 6th-highest in the world.[602]557 Israeli Arab life expectancy lags by 3 to 4 years[603][604] and is higher than in most Arab and Muslim countries.[605][606]558 The country has the highest fertility rate in the OECD and the only one which is above the replacement figure of 2.1.[607]559 Retention of Israel's population since 1948 is about even or greater, when compared to other countries with mass immigration.[608]560 Jewish emigration from Israel (called yerida), primarily to the United States and Canada, is described by demographers as modest,[609] but is often cited by Israeli government ministries as a major threat to Israel's future.[610][611]561