CM June 2022

COUNTRY FOCUS
Israel: a land
of diversity and
opportunity.
Biblical opportunities
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein
THERE’S so much to say about Israel
and it’s much more than most would
expect from a land so detailed in the
Bible.
There’s evidence – near the Sea
of Galilee – of man having settled
1.5m years ago after dispersing from Africa, and
also 120,000-year-old fossils of modern humans
in northern Israel. 2000 years BCE the region
was dominated by the Egyptians who were then
followed by the Romans after whom came the
Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders and Mongols,
Mamluks and Ottomans. More recently, a British
Mandate controlled the area until the creation of
the State of Israel in 1948.
In other words, it’s almost impossible to
succinctly summarise the history and background
of Israel in a piece as short as this.
But beyond Israel’s past is its present, and
depending on a bystander’s perspective, it is either
a legitimate state or an occupier of another’s
land. While it’s outside the remit of this profile to
discuss the underlying tensions in the region, an
understanding of the region’s politics is helpful.
This aside, Israel has been described by
Thomson Reuters as: “one of the most robust and
technologically advanced market economies in
the world. The country enjoys a skilled and highly
qualified labour force, and a concentration of
venture capital allows the country to lead in all
areas high-tech.”
LOCATION
Israel is geographically located on the eastern
flank of the Mediterranean, south of Lebanon,
west of Syria and Jordan and north of Egypt. In
terms of landmass, it is narrow and short – 100km
at its widest and just 400km top to bottom and
occupies just 20,770 sq.km – excluding the land
it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. If all lands
that Israel controls are included, it covers an area
of 27,927 sq. km. Interestingly, the CIA World
Factbook makes no distinction between land in
the State of Israel itself and the land it controls.
But no matter how Israel is viewed, it’s not a very
large country.
With a central position in the Middle East,
temperatures and climate can vary. Coastal areas
see cool wet winters but hot summers. The north
and northern Negev is arid with hot summers,
cool winters, and little rain. In contrast, the
south of the Negev is more desert-like with very
hot summers and very little in the way of rain.
With a central
position in the
Middle East,
temperatures and
climate can vary.
Coastal areas see
cool wet winters but
hot summers. The
north and northern
Negev is arid with
hot summers, cool
winters, and little
rain.
The more mountainous parts of the country –
including Jerusalem – often see snow.
THE PEOPLE
Demographically speaking, estimates of Israel’s
population vary according to source. World
Population Review cites UN data which counts
the population at 8.89m currently (May 2022);
the Jewish Virtual Library reckons it to be around
9.45m.
The population is set to reach 10m by the end
of 2024, according to Israel's Central Bureau
of Statistics. The US Government expects that
number to rise to 13m by 2040.
It’s ethnically quite diverse with – again, quoting
2019 CIA data – 74.1 percent of the population
being Jewish (of which 78.1 percent were born
in Israel; 15.2 percent from Europe, the US and
Oceania; 4.3 percent from Africa; 2.4 percent from
Asia); 21 percent Arab; and 4.9 percent classified
as other.
Hebrew is the official language spoken,
but Arabic and English are spoken too – the
latter being the most used. As for age and sex
distribution, 2022 data from the U.S. Census
Bureau’s International Database, points to Israel
being a young country with a median age of 30.4
years. It also highlights that 26.76 percent of its
people are aged 14 or under; 15.67 percent aged
15-24; 37.2 percent aged 25-54 years; 8.4 percent
aged 55-64 years; and 11.96 percent over 65 years.
The ratio of males to females in each grouping is
similar.
The World Bank lists the birth rate as being
2.9 children per woman (2020 data) which is
much higher than that for the West which sits
around 1.2 to 1.7 children per woman.As to
levels of urbanisation, most – some 92.5 percent
according to World Bank 2020 data – live in
urban environments. That rate has been stable
since 2010. In terms of where the population
lives, 2019 data from the Israel Central Bureau of
Statistics, estimates that 936,425 live in the capital
Jerusalem, 460,613 in Tel Aviv-Yafo and 285,316 in
Haifa. There are another six conurbations with
more than 200,000 residents, seven with between
100,000 and 200,000, and 57 with between 18,000
and 97,000 inhabitants. On top of that are,
according to the Embassy of Israel in Georgia,
some 267 kibbutz (agricultural communities) with
around a combined 150,000 people, and some 441
moshavim (settlements) with a combined 315,000
residents.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / June 2022 / PAGE 24