The 10 agorot controversy refers to a conspiracy theory [1] [2] promoted by Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat's appearance at a specially convened session of the UN Security Council in Geneva on 25 May 1990. At the session, Arafat claimed that the obverse design of an Israeli ten agorot coin showed a map of "Greater Israel" that represented Zionist expansionist goals. [1] [3]
To support his claims that the 10 agorot coins displayed a Greater Israel, Arafat quoted a 1989 paper by Gwyn Rowley of the University of Sheffield published in GeoJournal. The paper titled "Developing Perspectives upon the Areal Extent of Israel: An Outline Evaluation" raised the question of what the maximum territorial extents of Eretz Yisrael were in the eyes of Israelis. [3] As part of this inquiry, Rowley presented a map of the Middle East with a superimposed outline based on the embossed pattern of a contemporary 10 agorot coin. In the text Rowley surmised:
Whereas Israel has never formally defined its borders one possible indication of Israel's broader territorial ambitions might be seen in the Israeli ten agorot coin which carries a map, seemingly depicting an area that would extend over to encompass present-day Amman, Beirut, Baghdad, Damascus and the N parts of Saudi Arabia. This same territorial depiction was carried on the earlier one sheqal coin. [4]
S. M. Berkowicz, of the Department of Physical Geography, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem criticized Rowley's article in a subsequent paper also published by GeoJournal. Berkowicz concluded that the shape was based on an ancient coin and "There is of course no foundation to Rowley's undocumented claim." [5] Rowley then responded that the coin might have been chosen because of its map-like shape. [3]
Arafat's claims in Geneva generated widespread global media coverage. [3]
The Bank of Israel maintains that the 10 agorot design was selected for its historical value, and is a "replica of a coin issued by Mattathias Antigonus (40 – 37 B.C.E.) with the seven-branched candelabrum". [6]
The design, by Nathan Karp, first appeared on the 100 shekel coin issued by the Bank of Israel on 2 May 1984. [7] When the old shekel currency was replaced by the new shekel in September 1985, the design was copied to the new 10 agorot coin, which was equal in value to the old 100 shekel. This design was also adopted as the symbol of the Bank of Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people. Founded in 1964, it initially sought to establish an Arab state over the entire territory of the former Mandatory Palestine, advocating the elimination of the State of Israel. However, in 1993, the PLO recognized Israeli sovereignty with the Oslo I Accord, and now only seeks Arab statehood in the Palestinian territories that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.
Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004. Ideologically an Arab nationalist and a socialist, Arafat was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.
The 2000 Camp David Summit was a summit meeting at Camp David between United States president Bill Clinton, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. The summit took place between 11 and 25 July 2000 and was an effort to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The summit ended without an agreement, largely due to irreconcilable differences between Israelis and Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem. Its failure is considered one of the main triggers of the Second Intifada.
The new Israeli shekel, also known as simply the Israeli shekel, is the currency of Israel and is also used as a legal tender in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The new shekel is divided into 100 agorot. The new shekel has been in use since 1 January 1986, when it replaced the hyperinflated old shekel at a ratio of 1000:1.
Shekel or sheqel is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams —and became currency in ancient Tyre and ancient Carthage and then in ancient Judea under the Hasmonean dynasty.
The Roadmap for peace or road map for peace was a plan to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East: the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The principles of the plan, originally drafted by U.S. Foreign Service Officer Donald Blome, were first outlined by U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on 24 June 2002, in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. A draft version from the Bush administration was published as early as 14 November 2002. The final text was released on 30 April 2003. The process reached a deadlock early in phase I and the plan was never implemented.
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a draft Permanent Status Agreement to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, the Clinton Parameters, and the Arab Peace Initiative. The document was finished on 12 October 2003.
The pound or lira was the currency of the State of Israel from 9 June 1952 until 23 February 1980. The Israeli pound replaced the Palestine pound and was initially pegged at par to £1 sterling. It was replaced by the shekel on 24 February 1980, at the rate of IS 1 = IL 10, which was in turn replaced by the new shekel in 1985.
Greater Israel is an expression with several different biblical and political meanings over time. It is often used, in an irredentist fashion, to refer to the historic or desired borders of Israel.
Groschen is the name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in parts of Europe such as France, some of the Italian states, England, various states of the Holy Roman Empire, among others. The word is borrowed from the late Latin description of a tornose, a grossus denarius Turnosus, in English the "thick denarius of Tours". Groschen was frequently abbreviated in old documents to gl, whereby the second letter was not an l, but an abbreviation symbol; later it was written as Gr or g.
The Agora is a denomination of the currency of Israel. The Israeli currency – the Israeli new shekel (ILS)– is divided into 100 agorot.
Estonian euro coins feature a single design for all eight coins. This is a design by Lembit Lõhmus and features a silhouette map of Estonia together with the word Eesti (Estonia) and twelve stars, symbolic of the European Union, surrounding the map. This was the winning design in a public vote of ten announced in December 2004.
The Taba Summit were talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, held from 21 to 27 January 2001 at Taba, in the Sinai. The talks took place during a political transition period – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had resigned six weeks previously on 9 December 2000, and elections were due on 6 February 2001, and the inauguration of President George W. Bush had taken place just one day prior, on 20 January 2001.
The old Israeli shekel, then known as the shekel, was the currency of the State of Israel between 24 February 1980 and 31 December 1985. It was replaced by the Israeli new shekel at a ratio of 1,000:1 on 1 January 1986. The old shekel was short-lived due to its hyperinflation. The old shekel was subdivided into 100 new agorot. The shekel sign was although it was more commonly denominated as S or IS.
The Palestine pound was the currency of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1 November 1927 to 14 May 1948, and of the State of Israel between 15 May 1948 and 23 June 1952, when it was replaced with the Israeli lira.
The Clinton Parameters were guidelines for a permanent status agreement to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, proposed during the final weeks of the Presidential transition from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush.
Eliezer Weishoff is an Israeli multidisciplinary artist who has designed many of the state's iconic images.
The killing of Yehuda Shoham occurred on 5 June 2001 as the result of a stoning attack attributed to Palestinians on a civilian vehicle, from the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in which five-month-old American-Israeli Yehuda Shoham was seated. Rocks crashed through the car's windscreen and crushed the infant's skull. Shoham died of severe brain damage on 11 June 2001.
Israel Coins and Medals Corp. is the body permitted by the Government of Israel to issue the official State Medals of Israel and under an exclusive contract with the Bank of Israel, the corporation is the exclusive worldwide distributor of the commemorative coins and special banknote issues of the Bank of Israel. From its inception in 1958 until 2008, the corporation was fully owned by the Government. In 2008, it was privatized. The corporation has its own manufacturing plant, where commemorative coins for the Bank of Israel, Israel State medals and privately ordered medals are minted.
The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of unsuccessful U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are often compared to the nominally self-governing black homelands created in apartheid-era South Africa, and are thus referred to as bantustans. They have been referred to figuratively as the Palestinian archipelago, among other terms. The de facto status in 2024 is that Israel controls all area outside these enclaves.
Replica of a coin issued by Mattathias Antigonus (37 - 40 B.C.E.) with the seven-branched candelabrum; the emblem of the State of Israel; "Israel" in Hebrew, Arabic and English
See tab Coins, select: Agora and New Sheqel Series, select 10 agorot
See tab Coins, select: New Agora and Sheqel Series, select 100 Sheqalim