X-Nico

56 unusual facts about Israel


2012–13 Israeli Hockey League season

The 2012-13 Israeli Hockey League season was the 22nd season of the Israeli Hockey League, the top level of ice hockey in Israel.

Abel Ehrlich

Abel Ehrlich (Hebrew: אבל ארליך; September 3, 1915 – October 30, 2003) was an Israeli composer.

Amnon Kapeliouk

Amnon Kapeliouk (Hebrew: אמנון קפליוק) (22 December 1930– 26 June 2009) was an Israeli journalist and author.

Belarusian diaspora

A separate group of emigrants from Belarus were Belarusian Jews who have established significant communities in the USA and Israel.

Belgian Resistance

In total, 1,612 Belgians have been awarded the distinction of "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel for risking their lives to save Jews from persecution during the occupation.

Berakah Project

Mohammed Nazam's work with Berakah led to an invitation to take part in projects based in Israel/Palestine in 2005 and 2009.

Bnot Ya'akov Bridge

Jacob's Ford was a key river crossing point and major trade route between Acre and Damascus.

British-Israel-World Federation

At one time this organization enjoyed the patronage of members of the British establishment including HRH Princess Alice of Athlone, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Dysart, Lord Gisborough, and William Massey, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Dahaniya

Dahaniya (Arabic: دهنية) was a village near the southernmost point in the Gaza Strip, evacuated in Israel's disengagement of 2005.

Dan Harel

In this capacity he not only implemented counterterrorism measures, but was also the commander in charge of Israel's Gaza pull-out in the summer of 2005.

Danny Ben-Israel

Danny Ben-Israel was a notable Israeli musician of the late 1960s and early 1970s, producing psychedelic progressive rock with socially concerned lyrics in Hebrew.

Elon Moreh

Eight times, the group tried to choose a plot of land to settle but the Israeli government under Yitzchak Rabin, then in his first term, prevented these attempts - arguing that the settlers' main aim was to secure permanent Israeli possession of the territory and that such possession would preclude any possibility of peace with Jordan or a Palestinian state.

Fishi Ha-Gadol

Adam Levinzon (born in 1977) in Israel, know as The Big Fishi (Fishi Hagadol - פישי הגדול) and Adam Ben-Lavi, is a music producer and an Israeli rapper.

Garin Torani

At that point, the idea of building up the people and hearts of Israel, and not only the physical landmarks, took hold as part of the Religious Zionist vision.

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The phrase is used today, in Israel, to refer to a group of idealistic, religious zionist individuals and families who try to effect social and religious development in underdeveloped communities.

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While Rabbis and synagogues are in abundance in Israel, members of traditional (masorati) communities often have no connection to a community rabbi.

George Biddlecombe

When attached to the Talbot, 1838–42, he surveyed numerous anchorages on the Ionian station, in the Archipelago, and up the Dardanelles and Bosphorus; examined the south shore of the Black Sea as far as Trabzon, as well as the port of Varna, and prepared a survey, published by the admiralty, of the bays and banks of Akko.

Haim Yahiel

In 1949 Yahiel returned to Israel joining the Jewish Agency Department of Absorption as director in Jerusalem.

Hakhel

The ceremony performed at the Western Wall in 2001 was led by the President of Israel, Moshe Katzav.

Hapoel Rishon LeZion

Hapoel Rishon LeZion is an Hapoel sports club in the city of Rishon LeZion, Israel.

Henry Maundrell

Their circuit took them across Syria to Latakia, down the Syrian and Lebanese coasts as far as Acre, which they found in ruinous state save for a khan (caravanserai) occupied by some French merchants, a mosque and a few poor cottages.

History of the Jews in Pakistan

Developments in the Middle East peace process such as the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip led to the first high level meeting between Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers.

Hundred Days' War

The outcome of the meeting was essentially a reaffirmation of the role of the ADF and a strong condemnation of those dealing with Israel.

Hurricane Ismael

During the 2001 season, a reporter stationed in Israel felt offended from the name choice, and the president of the Anti-Defamation League felt it was insensitive.

Igor Kipnis

Following his debut in 1959, harpsichordist, fortepianist, duo-pianist, and clavichordist Kipnis performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including North, Central, and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Israel, and Australia.

Indians in Israel

Indians in Israel almost exclusively consist of Indian Jews who migrated there on formation of the modern state of Israel.

Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment

Among those interviewed are first, second and third generation members from kibbutzim like Degania, the flagship commune established in 1910; Hulda, once near collapse and recently privatized; Sasa, the first to be settled entirely by Americans and today Israel's wealthiest kibbutz; and Tamuz, an urban kibbutz founded in 1987 and located in Beit Shemesh.

Israel, Palestine, and the United Nations

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, denounced the speech stating that Hamas was an internationally recognized terrorist organization that targeted civilians.

Israel's Department Store

Following the takeover of the store, Wilfrid Israel, who had run the business with his brother, emigrated to England, where he took up a research position at Balliol College, Oxford.

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They were allegedly flying as a decoy so that another plane, which carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill, could land safely.

Jerusalem Program

The Jerusalem Program differed from the original Basel Program in which it shifted the goals of the Zionist Movement once the State of Israel was already established.

Keren Hayesod

The resolution adopted called on "the whole Jewish people", Zionists and non-Zionists alike to contribute toward the building of the Land of Israel through Keren Hayesod.

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According to the Reconstitution Agreement of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Keren Hayesod is one of its three constituent bodies (along with the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and the United Israel Appeal in the United States, a subsidiary of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)) and provides 20% of the representatives on the Board of Governors and the Assembly.

Luigi Romersa

He worked there for decades, traveling around the world, from the South Pole to Israel - during the Six-Day War - and Bahrain, where he covered the 1973 oil crisis.

Melatef Umeshaker

Melatef Umeshaker is the debut album of the Israeli singer and musician Ivri Lider.

Michael Maschler

He was a professor in the Einstein Institute of Mathematics and the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

Middle Eastern Empires

Naram-Sin quickly destroyed and dispersed the Sumerian rebels and also went on a vast campaign of conquest, taking his armies to Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and then to Egypt.

Military Rabbinate

More recently, it was placed in charge of dismantling of the cemetery in Gush Katif during the Gaza disengagement plan.

Moshe Karadi

During this time, he oversaw the preparation and participation of the police in Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of the summer of 2005.

Political accusations against the Baha'i Faith

Since the founding of Israel, there are also accusations of Bahá'ís being associated with Zionism, since the Bahá'í World Centre is located in current-day Israel, although this is an historic accident, rather than the result of deliberate action by the Baha'is.

Post-Zionism

Post-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israelis, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered at an end.

Refusal to serve in the IDF

In 2005, as a reaction to the Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, a group called "Mateh Chomat Magen" (the name referring to Operation Defensive Shield) published a letter with 10,000 signatures of soldiers who signed a petition saying that they would refuse to uproot and remove Israeli settlements.

Reuven Shiloah

After his tenure at the Mossad Shiloah worked in the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC and continued serving as an advisor.

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Shiloah's involvement in political and defense matters commenced before the establishment of the State of Israel.

Sabra and Shatila massacre

Notwithstanding the dissuading conclusions of the Kahan report, Sharon would later become Prime Minister of Israel.

Sheikh Khalifa City

Once called "Morag", when it was a Gush Katif settlement, it has been retroceded to the Palestinian authorities after the settlers' buildings and facilities were destroyed by Israel in 2005.

Shlomo Baum

Shlomo Baum (1929 – January 17, 1999) was an Israeli military commando fighter.

Socialist Zionists

Adherents of Socialist Zionism or Labor Zionism, a major ideological and political current in the history of Zionism and Israel

Sufa

Sufa, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel and a border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip

The MUJU Crew

Walls is a play which tells the story of two British teenage friends, one Muslim and one Jewish, whose relationship is turned upside down when the Jewish boy’s family move to Israel.

The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

Its only theatrical release was in Israel, and was launched straight to DVD elsewhere, including the United States and United Kingdom.

Two-state solution

Such occurred in 2005 when the evacuation of settlers and security personnel from Gaza was undertaken by the IDF, with many of the former settlers being re-settled in the West Bank.

Valentin Kontridze

Israel, 25 October 2002) was a Georgian Jewish scientist, ophthalmologist, and eye microsurgeon.

Yavneh Olami

The organization, affiliated with World Mizrachi, runs educational programs that focus on pro-Israel advocacy, Israel connectivity, leadership development, and encouraging Jewish students to make Israel their home.

Yeshivat Ma'alot

The Yeshiva is named after Rabbi Dr. Ya'akov Herzog, son of the late Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and brother of the late President of Israel Chaim Herzog.

Yitzhak Katz

Yitzhak Katz (May 19, 1901 – 1991) was an Israeli civil servant and art critic active in all spheres of Israeli arts and culture.


1950 in Israel

17 February – King Abdullah I of Jordan and Mossad Director Reuven Shiloah of Israel met at the King's winter palace at El Shuneh, where the King presented a seven point treaty proposal.

5uu's

In May 2004, Dave Kerman/5uu's regrouped again in Israel, this time comprising Kerman, Drake, Cutler, Perry, Koomran and Janet Feder on prepared guitar.

Akureyri Art Museum

Artists that have had their work displayed in the Akureyri Art Museum include Icelandic artists Erró, Kjarval and Louisa Matthíasdóttir, American artist Spencer Tunick, Israeli video artist Guy Ben-Ner and French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Americo-Liberian

In 2007 BET founder Robert Johnson called for "African Americans to support Liberia like Jewish Americans support Israel".

Andrew Hutchison

Hutchison delivered a response in late 2005 to the call for the destruction of Israel by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemning Ahmadinejad for his remarks which incite "hatred of the Jewish people and supporting violence against them."

Arkadaş Association

Arkadaş Association is an Israel-Turkey friendship organization located in Yehud, Israel.

Barner

Uri Bar-Ner, a senior adviser to the President of the America-Israel Friendship League

Chakhei

2. Nazareth Vaih: A street named after Nazareth in the Holy Bible, which is the name of the town in Israel, the place where Jesus Christ was raised up, is somehow an attraction for visitors from outside.

Dark retreat

All spiritual traditions have used Darkness Techniques in the pursuit of enlightenment: in Europe, the dark room appeared as a network of tunnels, in Egypt as the Pyramides, in Rome as the catacombs, by the Essenes in Israel and Taoists in China as caves.

David Ha'ivri

He contracted Ron Bowman Director of Dale Carnegie Training in Israel provide a 13 week course for the local activists.

David Meir Frisch

•Leiter, Rabbi Moshe “The Gaon Rabbi David Meir Frisch, of Blessed Memory”, HaDarom (rabbinic periodical), Israel, 1968–1969, 28-29 (Hebrew).

Dorothy Norman

During the 1930s and 1940s Norman was active in various liberal causes, particularly civil rights, education, and independence for India and for Israel.

Economic Cooperation Foundation

The ‘Architects of Oslo’, then developed the ‘Beilin–Abu Mazen Understanding’, the first jointly developed detailed concept of a comprehensive Permanent Status Understanding between Israel and a Palestinian State.

Edward Israel

Israel and the rest of the crew spent two years at a camp they called Fort Conger.

Ehud Banai

In 2008, "On the Move", a documentary film directed by Avida Livny and produced by Gidi Avivi, Yael Biron and Dror Nahum, about Banai and the Refugees, participated in the official competition of the Jerusalem Film Festival, in EPOS -the international art & culture film festival in Israel and has been screened in cinemateques around Israel.

Elisha Ben Yitzhak

His parents immigrated to Israel in 1936 after being in a Zionist movement.

Eric Moonman

From 1980 it was funded instead by the World Zionist Organization and from 1985 also by the Israel Foreign Ministry.

Every Spy a Prince

Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community is a 1990 book by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman on the history of the Israeli intelligence community.

Eyal Gabbai

This period was characterized by vigorous privatization of state companies, including El Al, Bezeq, Israel's Oil Refineries and Zim, selling shares in a total value of 14b NIS in an unprecedented privatization spree.

Francisca Subirana

In 1961, the couple moved to Israel where Ricardo was assigned the Cuban ambassador by Fidel Castro.

Hamuchtar

Accompanied by an accordionist, he toured Israel amidst scud rocket attacks and re-introduced chansons and burlesque to Bauhaus Tel-Aviv.

Hannibal Directive

Israel has with several notable exceptions adhered to the principle of not negotiating with what it considers terrorists and this especially in hostage situations.

Hasideans

Several modern scholars (Schürer, Kautzsch, and others) have agreed to this view, which had already been adopted in part by Georg Heinrich August von Ewald (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv. 401).

History of Egypt under Anwar Sadat

The October War of 1973 launched against Israel began when the coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which occurred that year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Israel Putnam House

Putnam Cottage, where he had a close escape, owned by the Israel Putnam House Association

Israel–Kenya relations

Following the Kenyan presidential election, 2007, there was rioting, and Israel came to the aid of Kenyans by donating medicine to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

Israeli lira

Israel inherited the Palestinian pound but, shortly after the establishment of the state, new banknotes were issued by the London-based Anglo-Palestine bank of the Zionist movement.

Kevin Hamilton

Overseas, he has also served at Canada's embassies in Tel Aviv (Israel) and Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina).

Lawrence Bergman

He also received several honors for his service among the Jewish Community while he was a council member of the Montreal Jewish Community, an honorary president of the Montreal's Jewish community centres and the director of Magen David Adom for Israel.

Lebanon in the Eurovision Song Contest

The country's broadcasting organization, Télé Liban, was set to make the country's debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud, but withdrew due to Lebanon's laws barring the broadcast of Israeli content.

Marcus Goldstein

Following his retirement, Goldstein, and his wife, Lea, immigrated to Israel, where he joined Tel Aviv University and played an important role in developing research in the newly formed Department of Anatomy and Anthropology.

Mario Pergolini

The Israel TV version (anchored by Avri Gilad) did not catch with Israeli audiences and was discontinued after half a season.

Mechinat Avnei Eitan

The mechina, the first of its kind for English speakers, was founded in 2004, on Moshav Avnei Eitan in the Golan Heights annexed by Israel in 1981.

Mohel

A review (2013) of cases of neonatal HSV infections in Israel identified ritual circumcision as the source of HSV-1 transmission in 31.8% of cases.

Mostar Round-Trip

A year after 17-year-old Yuval leaves home in Israel to attend the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, filmmaker David Fisher, his father, follows.

Nitzhonot

Nitzhonot (Hebrew: נצחונות, "victories") is a crossover between Goa trance and uplifting trance, emerged during the mid-late 1990s in Israel.

Olympic Committee of Israel

OCI achieved IOC recognition in early 1952, just in time for Israel's Olympic debut at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

Oramir

Oramir was founded in 1992 by Fairchild Corporation, Teuza Venture Capital Fund and Rafael Development Corporation of Israel.

Patricia Harrison

Under Harrison's direction, the State Department initiated the CultureCommect program in which American celebrities such as YoYo Ma, Denyce Graves, Doris Roberts and Frank McCourt acted as "cultural ambassadors" in trips to Pakistan, Russia, Israel and other countries.

Rafael Eitan

On 3 June 1982, Abu Nidal's militant group gravely wounded Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov, in an assassination attempt.

Robert Whittaker

s under Whittaker include Walter Westman, Robert Peet (now at University of North Carolina), Susan Bratton (now at Baylor University), Thomas Wentworth (now at North Carolina State University), Owen Sholes (now at Assumption College), Mark Wilson (now at Oregon State University), Linda Olsvig-Whittaker (now at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority) and Kerry Woods (now at Bennington College).

Rogatchover Gaon

The remainder of his surviving writings appeared in the United States and Israel many years after his death; all are titled Tzofnath Paneach "decipherer of secrets", (a title given to the Biblical Joseph by Pharaoh (Genesis 41:45)).

Syro-Ephraimite War

Isaiah concludes these prophecies concerning his children (Shear-Jashub (meaning 'a remnant returns', Isaiah 7.3), Immanuel (meaning 'God is with us'), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (meaning 'quick to plunder, speedy to spoil') by saying, 'Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.' (Isaiah 8.18 NIV) Interestingly enough, the context continues into chapter 9 which also uses a birth of a child as its object.

The Little Drummer Girl

The story follows the manipulations of Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster who is trying to kill a Palestinian terrorist named Khalil, who is bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe, particularly Germany, and the English actress Charlie, who becomes a double agent working on behalf of the Israelis.

Tzedakah

There are many examples of Tzedakah funds that operate according to Maimonides' principles above (particularly #2), including Hands on Tzedakah (working with non-profits in the USA and in Israel), and Mitzvah Heroes Fund (working mainly with non-profits in Israel).

Weizmann

Weizmann Institute of Science, a world-renowned institute of higher learning and research in Rehovot, Israel

Wilfrid B. Israel

On 26 March 1943 Israel left London for Lisbon, Portugal and spent the next two months distributing certificates of entry to British ruled Palestine, and investigating the situation of Jews on the peninsula; during World War II the fascist regimes in Spain and Portugal sympathized with Nazi Germany but refused to hand over Jews to the Germans.

Women for Israel's Tomorrow

Nadia Matar, the group's co-chair, caused controversy across the Israeli political spectrum in September 2004 when she compared the government's intention to remove Israeli settlers from Gaza to the involvement of the Judenrat ("Jewish Council") in Berlin in 1942, which under orders from the German government organized the expulsion of the Jewish community from that city.

Yehuda Talit

During the past few years, Talit has been responsible in a joint production with the Beit Lesin Theater in Israel, for the hit one man show starring Avi Kushnir, Returning the Cave Man.

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During the 1980s the company produced large concerts and brought international artists to Israel such as Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman, Dire Straits, Sting, Leonard Cohen, Billy Joel, Boy George, Bryan Adams, Joe Cocker, Julio Iglesias, Duran Duran, David Bowie, The Eurythmics and many others.