Israel
1962 Aluminum-Bronze 5 Agorot 17.5mm (2.35 grams)
Small Date
Reference: KM# 25
Pomegranates.
Value.

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Israel,  is a sovereign state in Western Asia. The country is situated in the Middle East at the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. It shares land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories (which are claimed by  the State of Palestine and are partially controlled  by Israel) comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively,  and Egypt to the southwest. It contains  geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel's financial and technology center is Tel Aviv while Jerusalem is both the self-designated capital  and most populous individual city under the  country's governmental administration. Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized.

On  29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended the  adoption and implementation of the Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This UN plan specified  borders for new Arab and Jewish states and also specified an area of Jerusalem and its environs which was to be  administered by the UN under an international regime. The end of the British Mandate for Palestine was set for  midnight on 14 May 1948. That day, David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of  Israel," which would start to function from the termination of the mandate. The  borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration. Neighboring Arab  armies invaded the former Palestinian mandate on the  next day and fought the Israeli forces. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in  the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip  (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement) and the Golan Heights. It extended its laws to the  Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted  in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel's  occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world's longest military occupation in modern times.

The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was  estimated in 2016 to be 8,476,600 people. It is the world's only Jewish-majority state, with 6,345,400 citizens,  or 74.9%, being designated as Jewish. The country's second largest group of  citizens are denoted as Arabs, numbering 1,760,400 people (including  the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs). The great majority of Israeli Arabs  are Sunni Muslims, with smaller but significant numbers  of semi-settled Negev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other far smaller minorities include Maronites, Samaritans, Dom people and Roma, Black Hebrew Israelites, other Sub-Saharan Africans, Armenians, Circassians, Vietnamese boat people, and others. Israel also  hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers  from Africa and Asia.

In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary  system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister serves as head of government and  the Knesset serves as the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic  product as of 2015. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is  among the most educated countries in the world with the one of the highest  percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has  the highest standard of living in the Middle East  and the fourth highest in Asia, and has one of the highest life expectancies in the  world.