The Distribution of the Israeli Population

The number of Israeli citizens in 2018 was 8,907 000. The population was complex ethnically, religiously and culturally.

Ethnic distribution of Israel (2018)
Group	Number	Percentage
Jew	6 625 000	74.4%
Arab	1 864 000	20.9%
Other minorities	418 000	4.7%

Ethnic distribution of Israel (2018)
Group	Number	Percentage
Jew	6 625 000	74.4%
Arab	1 864 000	20.9%
Other minorities	418 000	4.7%

 

Israel can be divided into different groups on the basis of their relation to Judaism:

Haredim: Ultra-Orthodox Jews who can be usually recognized by their clothes on the streets of Israel. They are the fastest growing group in Israel as they marry at a young age and have large families. The men study the Jewish holy books day and night, they rarely work and most of the time they do not take part in the army either. They have their own educational system; they do not teach secular subjects which makes it difficult to integrate them into labor market. Some of them are non-Zionists or outright anti-Israel (e.g., Neutrei Karta, Satmar Hasidim). The two main groups of the Ashkenazi Haredim are the Hasidic Jews and the followers of the Lithuanian yeshiva.

Hardalim (Haredi Le’umi, National Haredi): national Ultra-Orthodox movement, a term used for Religious Zionists as well.

Datiim: Modern Orthodox Jews or Religious Zionist Jews. They integrate into society, wear ordinary clothes, go to state schools; thus, they get the same education of secular subjects as other students. Most of them go into higher education and take part in social works and the army.

Masortim: more or less traditionalists, who do not necessarily live their Jewish lives on a daily basis but keep holidays, Jewish religious habits of life, etc.

Hilonim: non-religious, secular Israeli Jews.

The non-orthodox Jewish groups: although they exist in Israel, they have their own synagogues and rabbis, but they do not have state-recognized status thus, they do not have the right e.g., to marry or separate couples.

 

Distribution of Israeli Jews on the basis of their relation to Judaism:

Group	Percentage
Haredim	9%
Datiim	13%
Masortim	29%
Hilonim	49%

The Israeli society has different levels both culturally and religiously. There are several main groups in terms of culture, religious traditions, customs and synagogue liturgy, language, clothing, music, eating and folk customs:

Ashkenazi Jews: Jews resettled from Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. They come to Israel from places where Christian or secular European culture was predominant.

Sephardic Jews: Jews from certain countries in Southern Europe and North Africa. They come mainly from Muslim environments.

Mizrahi Jews: Eastern Jews coming from the oldest diaspora, such as Babylon (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Yemen, the Eastern Mediterranean areas, North Africa and Central Asia. On the basis of their customs, traditions and culture smaller groups can be distinguished, such as Moroccan, Tunisian or Yemeni Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and Asian Jews.

Arabs also make up a significant part of the Israeli population, accounting for about 20-25 percent of the society. Israeli Arabs are those who remained within the borders of Israel and their descendants during the war of 1947-49. 80% of Israeli Arabs are Muslim, 10% are Christian, and 10% are Druze. They have parties and representatives in the Israeli Parliament.

Moroccan Jewish lady

Yemeni Jews

The Arab population also includes 250,000 desert Arabs, or Bedouins who live in the Negev.

Bedouin camel breeder

Kosher McDonald’s in Israel

Israel: Democracy or Theocracy?

The State of Israel is a country with Jewish values and Jewish culture. Accordingly, its official holidays are Biblical and Historical Jewish holidays, its official calendar is the Lunisolar Calendar, and its primary official language is Hebrew.
The structure of the state is still profoundly determined by Ben Gurion’s ultra-orthodox agreement of 1947 (status quo), which sets the framework for the relationship between religion and state. Accordingly, Israeli shops and eateries offer kosher foods that meet religious standards, and the state’s official weekly rest-day is Saturday. Marriages, divorces, and funerals take place within religious boundaries, while the state is officially secular and the only democracy in the Middle East, but the country still lacks a constitution due to the irreconcilable state and religious concepts of the state.

 

The Knesset building

Menorah in front of the Knesset

The Israeli Politics

Israel is led by the Knesset (Parliament) with 120 people. Elections are held in every fourth year, unless there is an extraordinary situation. Since the birth of the state in 2018, there have been twenty parliamentary terms. In addition to secular parties, there are several religious parties in the political palette. Orthodox Zionists are represented by the National Religious Party (Mafdal) and Bayit Yehudi, the pacifist national religious people by Meimad, the Ashkenazi ultra-orthodoxies – that are the Hasid and the followers of the Lithuanian yeshivas – by the United Torah Judaism while the Eastern and Sephardic ultra-orthodoxies by the Shas (The Sephardi Torah Guardians).

The last time when there were elections was in 2015, now the Right is strong in Israel.

Israeli parties / lists’ political attitude, 2015
Right	Left	Arabs	Religious Jews	Center
Likud	Zionist Union (Labor Party and Hatenua)	Joint List (Ra’am, Ta’al, Hadash and Balad)	Bayit Yehudi	Yesh Atid
Yisrael Beiteinu	Meretz		Shas	Kulanu
			United Torah Judaism

The current distribution of the parties / lists regarding the number of their leaders and mandates in the Knesset:

Party/list	Leader	Number of mandates
Likudx	Benjamin Netanyahu	30
Zionist Union	Yitzhak Herzog	24
Joint list	Ajman Odeh	13
Yesh Atid	Yair Lapid	11
Kulanux	Moshe Kahlon	10
Bayit Yehudix	Naftali Bennett	8
Shasx	Aryeh Deri	7
United Torah Judaism (UTJ)x	Menachem Moses	6
Yisrael Beiteinu	Avigdor Liberman	6
Meretz	Zehava Gal-On	5
Altogether:		120

x The starred parties are those in the government.

Did Zionism achieve its purpose?

For decades, the idea of Zionism gave power to the Jewish people to establish the State of Israel and to address the challenges of war, terrorism, and economic problems. However, in recent decades, the Zionist idea has been in crisis. The representatives of the so-called Post-Zionist ideology have been stepping up attacks on the Zionist intellectual heritage since the Oslo I Accord in 1993 and they demand an ideological and cultural “de-Jewishization” of the State of Israel. The roots of the ideology go back to the assimilated German Jewish intellectuals who expected a perfect assimilation with the birth of the State of Israel. Even at the time of the proclamation of the state, representatives of the ideology began to attack the Jewish state. Their students who have become academics and university professors also attempt to back up the Post-Zionist ideology with “science” (e.g. the philosopher, Eliezer Schweid), many writers (e.g. the writers Yichar Smilansky and Amos Oz, the poet Yehuda Amihai), artists, public figures are delegates of the ideology.

Neo-Zionism offers a solution in many forms to Post-Zionism. There are youth groups establishing Neo-Zionist groups in universities who believe in a “second Zionist revolution”, in that emptying the goal of political Zionism is only temporary, the State of Israel does not end with only existing, it must exist in the future as well. To this end, they seek to enter all segments of society, even by volunteering. They hope and refer to a Jewish state that will continue to build up spiritually, quoting Herzl: “If you will, it’s not a fairy tale…”

Jerusalem, Wailing Wall

Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

Dilemmas of Jewish identity also include the contrast between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In fact, the two cities symbolize two poles of the Israeli society. In general, Tel Aviv is the embodiment of Israeli – and at the same time the “cultural Jew” – while Jerusalem is the embodiment of the Jewish – religious Jew – identity. Tel Aviv is one of the most expensive cities in the world, being an economic, business, high-tech, arts and fashion center. Regarding its spirituality, the secular city is Post-Zionist, cosmopolitan and liberal, while the religious Jerusalem is Neo-Zionist, national-religious where Shabbat is not about unbridled partying and debauchery but about searching for the Almighty, being with friends and family, it is about peace.

 

The Settlement movement

One of the most growing groups are the settlers in Israel in the recent decades. Apart from East Jerusalem, the number of settlers is estimated at 350,000. Their story begins in 1967 with the Six-Day-War.

After the war, on the one hand, there is the intention of the Labor-led government to establish settlements essentially for defensive purposes in the areas occupied by Israel. The first settlement is on the southern shore of the West Bank, Kfar Etzion.

On the other hand, this is when the modern religious Zionist, Messianic, national settlement movement was born, its most significant group is Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful), which became an official organization after the Yom Kippur war in 1974. It is led by Zvi Yehuda Kook (1892-1982), son of Rav Kook, the father of religious Zionism. The group sees the recapture of the Old Town of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as an eschatological sign. They believe in a “Greater Israel” and by repurchasing old Jewish territories, building settlements – like Hebron, Shiloh, Ephrata, Tekoa, etc. – they are in favor of Zionism.

According to the Taba Agreement (Oslo II, 1995), the West Bank (ancient Judea and Samaria) is divided into three main parts:

A area – which means that the area is under Palestinian civilian and security control and is populated by Palestinians, this is around 18% of the West Bank.

B area – which is double-controlled, that is, Israeli and Palestinian, mostly inhabited by Arabs, this is around 22% of the West Bank.

C area – which is under Israeli control only, as there are only Israeli settlements, this is around 60% of the West Bank.

The religious distribution of the settlers is mixed: Religious Zionists, Ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews. Regarding their places of origin, in many places the settlers are usually from the United States (e.g. Ephrata, Tekoa). Benjamin Netanyahu’s governments and Donald Trump’s takeover also favor the Settlement movement.

Development and tradition

Israel, the startup nation

Israel is known to be a startup paradise, or even more so: Jewish people are people of innovation. In Israel, one in ten people think about innovation. Technology accounts for more than fifty percent of the country’s exports. Six hundred startups are formed each year, the number of startups per capita is only higher in the Silicon Valley than in Israel.

The reason for creativity is explained by many people in many ways. Some people approach the question from the perspective of the constant danger of life, quick problem-solving ability, low money and few resources. There are those who consider military experience from the age of eighteen, good tolerance for failure, or a willingness to take risks essential. At the same time, there are explanations that reveal the innovative skill in the Jewish religion, Talmudic logic, debate, and constant questioning that goes beyond established thinking patterns.

 

Israeli startup companies

Jews in diaspora

In 2018, not even the half of the Jewish population live in Israel. The Jewish population is 14.7 million worldwide, out of which 45% live in Israel and 39% in the United States. There are 98 countries on Earth that currently have at least 100 or more Jews. There are currently 27,000 Jews in Muslim states, including 15,000 in Turkey, 8500 in Iraq, and 2000 in Morocco.

Country or area	Population	Percentage of the total number of Jews
The total number of Jews worldwide	14 511 000	100%
Israel	6 589 000	45.4%
United States of America	5 700 000	39.28%
France	465 000	3.2%
Canada	385 000	2.65%
United Kingdom	269 568	1.86%
Russia	186 000	1.28%
Argentina	181 300	1.25%
Germany	99 695	0.69%
Australia	112 500	0.78%
Brazil	95 000	0.65%
Republic of South-Africa	70 000	0.48%
Ukraine	63 000	0.43%
Hungary	47 900	0.33%

 

The number of tourists visiting Israel

In 2018, not even the half of the Jewish population live in Israel. The Jewish population is 14.7 million worldwide, out of which 45% live in Israel and 39% in the United States. There are 98 countries on Earth that currently have at least 100 or more Jews. There are currently 27,000 Jews in Muslim states, including 15,000 in Turkey, 8500 in Iraq, and 2000 in Morocco.

Year	Number of tourists
1960	110 000
1970	419 000
1980	1 066 000
1996	2 100 600
2017	3 600 000