Hatikvah is the national anthem of the State of Israel. Part of 19th-century Jewish poetry, the theme of the Romantic composition reflects the 2,000-year-old desire of the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel in order to reclaim it as a free and sovereign nation-state. The piece's lyrics are adapted from a work by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Złoczów, Austrian Galicia. Imber wrote the first version of the poem in 1877, when he was hosted by a Jewish scholar in Iași.
The Emblem of Israel depicts a temple menorah surrounded by an olive branch on each side, with the word Israel written in Hebrew below it. While it is commonly displayed in blue and white, the emblem has appeared in alternative colour combinations depending on the use, such as on the Israeli Presidential Standard.
Anemone coronaria, the poppy anemone, Spanish marigold, or windflower, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to the Mediterranean region.
Chai or Hai is a symbol that figures prominently in modern Jewish culture; the Hebrew letters of the word are often used as a visual symbol.
Yair Golan is an Israeli politician and senior military officer. He served as the Deputy Minister of Economy in the Thirty-sixth Israeli government, and served as a Member of the Knesset representing Meretz from 2019–2022. He is a reserve major general (Aluf) in the Israel Defense Forces. During his military service he served, among other roles, as the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander of the Home Front Command and Commander of the Northern Command.
The State of Judea is a proposed halachic state in the West Bank put forward by Israeli Jewish settlers. After the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared the existence of a Palestinian state in 1988, some settler activists feared that international pressure would lead Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and sought to lay the groundwork for an Orthodox Jewish state in the West Bank if this came to pass. The establishment of this state was announced in a Jerusalem hotel on December 27, 1988. Veteran Kahanist, Michael Ben-Horin, was declared president of the state of Judea. In January 1989 several hundred activists met and announced their intention to create such a state if Israel withdrew.
Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, informally known as the Nation-State Bill or the Nationality Bill, is an Israeli Basic Law that specifies the country's significance to the Jewish people. It was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature. The law outlines a number of roles and responsibilities by which Israel is bound in order to fulfill the purpose of serving as the Jews' nation-state. However, it was met with sharp backlash internationally and has been characterized as racist and undemocratic by some critics. After it was passed, several groups in the Jewish diaspora expressed concern that it was actively violating Israel's self-defined legal status as a "Jewish and democratic state" in exchange for adopting an exclusively Jewish identity. The European Union stated that the Nation-State Bill had complicated the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, while the Arab League, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Muslim World League condemned it as a manifestation of apartheid.
Naftali Bennett is an Israeli politician who was the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minister of Israel from 1 July to 8 November 2022. Bennett was the leader of the New Right party from 2018 to 2022, having previously led The Jewish Home party between 2012 and 2018.
Marc Hinawi is an Arab-Israeli swimmer.
Yom HaAliyah, or Aliyah Day, is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually according to the Jewish calendar on the tenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan to commemorate the Jewish people entering the Land of Israel as written in the Hebrew Bible, which happened on the tenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan. The holiday was also established to acknowledge Aliyah, immigration of Jews to the Jewish state, as a core value of the State of Israel, and honor the ongoing contributions of Olim, Jewish immigrants, to Israeli society. Yom HaAliyah is also observed in Israeli schools on the seventh of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan.
Netta Barzilai, also known mononymously as Netta, is a singer-songwriter and musician from Israel. After winning the fifth season of HaKokhav HaBa, she earned the right to represent her country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. On 12 May 2018, she won the contest, held in Lisbon, Portugal, with her song "Toy", marking Israel's fourth win in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Torch-lighting ceremony is the official ceremony that marks the closure of the Yom Hazikaron commemorations and the opening of the Independence Day celebrations in Israel. The Ceremony is held annually at the burial site of Theodor Herzl, the Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, and is officiated by the Speaker of the Knesset. The ceremony is attended by the government ministers, members of the Knesset, the Chief of General Staff, members of the diplomatic staff, IDF veterans and a number of citizens who are accommodated in three pavilions with around 5,000 seats temporarily set up around the compound.
Yaron Kanner is an Israeli social entrepreneur and lawyer, as well as the director of the Hinam Center for Social Tolerance.
The Plurinational State of Bolivia and the State of Israel first established a diplomatic relationship with each other in 1950, two years after the Israeli Declaration of Independence and one year after Bolivia recognized Israel's sovereignty. Both countries enjoyed generally stable and close ties until the beginning of the 21st century, when successive Bolivian governments became vocally opposed to Israeli military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under the Bolivian political party Movement for Socialism, which has governed the country on a near-continuous basis since 2006, Bolivia has adopted an increasingly pro-Palestinian stance at the United Nations with regard to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, eliciting a negative response from the Israeli government.
Samuel Klein was a Hungarian-born rabbi, historian and historical geographer in Mandatory Palestine.
Noam is a far-right Orthodox Jewish, Religious Zionist political party in Israel, officially established in July 2019 by a very conservative faction in the Religious Zionist community inspired by Rabbi Zvi Thau and his Har Hamor Yeshiva. The party's main goal is to advance policies against LGBT rights, and against what its backers call "the destruction of the family". Avi Maoz, the party's leader, was elected to the Knesset in 2021, and is the party's sole representative.
Ilay Madmon is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a centre-midfielder for Israeli Premier League club Hapoel Be'er Sheva, captains the Israel national under-20 team, and plays for the Israel national under-21 team.
The killing of Yuval Castleman occurred on 30 November 2023, during the Givat Shaul shooting in Jerusalem when Yuval Doron Castleman, an Israeli civilian, charged at the attackers in the shooting, killing one of them, and was subsequently shot by Aviad Freija, an IDF soldier, who mistook him for a terrorist.
