Israel
Israel, 1948 to today. Draft, not yet reviewed
Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, shortly before the end of the mandate. The 1949 armistice left Israel controlling more territory than had been allocated to it under the UN partition plan. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and Egyptian Sinai, and annexed East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights. Peace treaties were signed with Egypt in 1979 (the Sinai being returned in 1982) and Jordan in 1994.
Seat of power: Jerusalem
Rulers
Chaim Weizmann
President of Israel, 1948–1952
He was an Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. He was elected on 16 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952.
Portrait of Chaim Weizmann: Hugo Mendelson, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
_-_President_Chaim_Weizmann_(retouched).jpg){kind=link}
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
President of Israel, 1952–1963
He was a historian, ethnologist, and Labor Zionist who was the second president of Israel from 1952 until his death in 1963.
Portrait of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi: Fritz Cohen, Public domain, file
Joseph Sprinzak
Head of state, 1952–1952
He was the first Speaker of the Knesset, a role he held from 1949 until his death in 1959.
Portrait of Joseph Sprinzak: Zoltan Kluger, Public domain, file
Zalman Shazar
President of Israel, 1963–1973
Shazar served as the president of Israel for two terms, from 1963 to 1973.
Portrait of Zalman Shazar: Fritz Cohen, Public domain, file
Kadish Luz
Head of state, 1963–1963
He served as Minister of Agriculture between 1955 and 1959 and as Speaker of the Knesset from 1959 and 1969.
Portrait of Kadish Luz: Moshe Pridan, Public domain, file
Ephraim Katzir
President of Israel, 1973–1978
He was the president of Israel from 1973 until 1978. He was an Israeli biophysicist and Labor Party politician.
Portrait of Ephraim Katzir: Gotfried Danny, Dan Hadani Collection, The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, The National Library of I..., CC BY 4.0, file
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Isaac Navon
President of Israel, 1978–1983
He served as the president of Israel between 1978 and 1983 as a member of the centre-left Alignment party. He was the first Israeli president born in Jerusalem and the first Sephardi Jew to serve in that office.
Chaim Herzog
President of Israel, 1983–1993
He served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935.
Portrait of Chaim Herzog: Knesset photographer, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
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Ezer Weizman
President of Israel, 1993–2000
He served as the president of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.
Portrait of Ezer Weizman: IAF Magazine photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
Moshe Katsav
President of Israel, 2000–2007
He was the president of Israel from 2000 to 2007. Katsav resigned from the presidency in 2007 as part of a plea bargain.
Portrait of Moshe Katsav: Knesset photographer, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
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Abraham Burg
Head of state, 2000–2000
He was a member of the Knesset, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Speaker of the Knesset, and interim President of Israel.
Portrait of Abraham Burg: Itzhak Harari, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
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Shimon Peres
President of Israel, 2007–2014
He served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years.
Portrait of Shimon Peres: Avi Ohayon, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
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Dalia Itzik
Head of state, 2007–2007
She became the first female speaker of the Knesset on 4 May 2006, and served as President of Israel in an interim capacity in July 2007.
Portrait of Dalia Itzik: הצלם אלכס קולומויסקי וידיעות אחרונות, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
Reuven Rivlin
President of Israel, 2014–2021
He served as the president of Israel between 2014 and 2021. Rivlin was Minister of Communications from 2001 to 2003, and subsequently served as Speaker of the Knesset from 2003 to 2006 and 2009 to 2013.
Portrait of Reuven Rivlin: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office (Israel), CC BY-SA 3.0, file
Isaac Herzog
President of Israel, 2021 to today
He has been serving since 2021 as the president of Israel. He is the first president to have been born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence.
Portrait of Isaac Herzog: Avi Ohayon, CC BY-SA 3.0, file
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Culture
- The 1947 UN Partition Plan proposed separate Arab and Jewish states. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan while the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected it, arguing it violated the principle of self-determination and constituted Western colonial interference.
- The 1993 Oslo Accords introduced limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza, while the 2020 Abraham Accords normalised ties with more Arab states, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists.
- The Knesset passes all laws, elects the president and prime minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government, among other things.
- The only country with a revived official language, Hebrew, the culture of Israel combines Jewish traditions with Arab influences.
Picture
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel.
Image: User:אורי פרקש, Public domain, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.