Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 2 May 1960 | ||
Place of birth | Southend, England | ||
Position(s) | Forward | ||
Youth career | |||
Wimbledon | |||
Southend United | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1986–1988 | Beitar Jerusalem | 30 | (6) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Gary Vandermolen (born 2 May 1960) is an English retired Israeli footballer. During his career, Vandermolen played for Wimbledon and Southend United at youth level and for Beitar Jerusalem at senior level. [1] Since retiring, he has become one of the highest ranked amateur golfers in Israel. [2]
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city. Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely recognized internationally.
The West Bank, so called due to its location relative to the Jordan River, is the larger of the two Palestinian territories that comprise the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the Levant region of West Asia, it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west, and north. Since 1967, the territory has been under Israeli occupation, which had become illegal under international law.
BenjaminNetanyahu is an Israeli politician, serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. He is chair of the Likud party. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, having served a total of over 17 years.
The Jerusalem Post is an English language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name to The Jerusalem Post. In 2004, the paper was bought by Mirkaei Tikshoret, a diversified Israeli media firm controlled by investor Eli Azur. The Jerusalem Post is published in English. Previously, it also had a French edition.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states. It encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories, within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region. Palestine shares most of its borders with Israel, and it borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its administrative center. Gaza City was its largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.
East Jerusalem is the portion of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered part of the West Bank, and Palestinian territories, and under illegal occupation by Israel. Many states recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine, whereas other states assert that East Jerusalem "will be the capital of Palestine", while referring to it as "an occupied territory". In 2020, East Jerusalem had a population of 595,000 inhabitants, of which 361,700 (61%) were Palestinian Arabs and 234,000 (39%) Jewish settlers. Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem are illegal under international law and in the eyes of the international community.
Mevaseret Zion is a town and local council located 10 km (6 mi) to the west of Jerusalem, straddling both sides of the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway. Mevaseret Zion is composed of two distinct older townships, Maoz Zion and Mevaseret Yerushalayim, under the jurisdiction of one local council. The newer neighborhoods of Mevaseret Zion were not part of either settlement.
The status of Jerusalem has been described as "one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict" due to the long-running territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, both of which claim it as their capital city. Part of this issue of sovereignty is tied to concerns over access to holy sites in the Abrahamic religions; the current religious environment in Jerusalem is upheld by the "Status Quo" of the former Ottoman Empire. As the Israeli–Palestinian peace process has primarily navigated the option of a two-state solution, one of the largest points of contention has been East Jerusalem, which was part of the Jordanian-annexed West Bank until the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.
Demographic features of the population of the area commonly described as the Palestinian territories includes information on ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of that population.
Sport in Israel plays an important role in Israeli culture and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The most popular sports in Israel have traditionally been Association football (mainly) and basketball (secondly) – with the first being considered the national sport – in both of which Israeli professional teams have been competitive internationally. Israel is an international center for Jewish sport around the world and since 1932 the Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes, is held in the country. Despite Israel's location in the Asian continent, the Israeli sports associations in various sports belong to the European associations due to the refusal of many Arab Asian countries to compete with Israeli athletes.
Israel is an associated state of the European Union. The relations between the two are framed in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and the Union for the Mediterranean.
Dawidh Ḥanokh Yissḥaq Bar-Ḥayim is an Israeli rabbi who heads Machon Shilo, a Jerusalem-based rabbinical court and institute of Jewish education dedicated to the Torah of Israel.
Avraham "Avi" Rikan is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a defender or midfielder.
Baka is a neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. The official name is Geulim, which is mainly used on road signs.
Laetitia Beck is an Israeli professional golfer. She made her professional debut at the 2014 Women's British Open.
Israel competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's sixteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics. The Olympic Committee of Israel confirmed a team of 47 athletes, 22 men and 25 women, to compete across 17 sports at the Games. Breaking its previous record of 43 athletes set in 2008, it was the nation's largest ever delegation sent to the Olympics, until the record was again broken by the 90 athletes delegation to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Among the sports represented by its athletes, Israel marked its Olympic debut in golf, mountain biking, and triathlon, as well as its return to road cycling, taekwondo, weightlifting, and wrestling after long years of absence. The nation's full roster also reached a historic milestone for Israeli women, as they officially outnumbered the men for the first time.
The trial of Benjamin Netanyahu began following investigations into allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust by him and close political allies within his inner circle during his fourth and fifth terms as Israel's prime minister. The Israel Police began investigating Netanyahu in December 2016 and subsequently recommended indictments against him.
On December 6, 2017, the United States of America officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of the State of Israel. American president Donald Trump, who signed the presidential proclamation, also ordered the relocation of the American diplomatic mission to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, constituting what is now the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem, which was established on the grounds of the former Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision and praised the announcement by the Trump administration. On December 8, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified that Trump's statement "did not indicate any final status for Jerusalem" and "was very clear that the final status, including the borders, would be left to the two parties to negotiate and decide" in reference to the recognition's impact on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
The Abraham Accords are bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain on September 15, 2020. Mediated by the United States, the announcement of August 13, 2020, concerned Israel and the Emirates before the subsequent announcement of an agreement between Israel and Bahrain on September 11, 2020. On September 15, 2020, the signing of the agreements was hosted by US president Trump on the Truman Balcony of the White House amid elaborate staging intended to evoke the signings of historic formal peace treaties in prior administrations.