Israel is a land of paradoxes. In the country, most of which is occupied by deserts, thousands of tons of fruits and vegetables are grown and you can go downhill skiing. Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab states and annexed territories inhabited by militant unfriendly, to put it mildly, Palestinians, and millions of people come to the country for rest or treatment. The country has developed the first antiviruses, voice messengers and several operating systems, but on Saturday you will not be able to buy bread, even if you die of hunger, for this is a religious tradition. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is divided between Christian denominations, and the keys to it are kept in an Arab family. Moreover, another Arab family must give permission for the temple to be opened.
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Location dictates appearance
And yet, for all the contradictions, Israel is a very pretty country. Moreover, it was literally erected on a bare place, in the middle of the desert, and in just some half a century. Of course, the diaspora from all over the world helped and is helping fellow tribesmen with billions of dollars. But nowhere in the world, and Israel is no exception, dollars do not build houses, do not dig canals and do not do science - people do everything. In Israel, they even managed to turn the sea called the Dead into a popular resort.
1. Israel is not just a small country, but a very small one. Its territory is 22,070 km2... Only 45 out of 200 states in the world have a smaller area. True, to the specified area, you can add another 7,000 km2 captured from neighboring Arab states, but this will not fundamentally change the situation. For clarity, at the widest point you can cross Israel by car in 2 hours. The road from south to north takes a maximum of 9 hours.
2. With a population of 8.84 million, the situation is better - 94th in the world. In terms of population density, Israel ranks 18th in the world.
3. The volume of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Israel in 2017 amounted to $ 299 billion. This is the 35th indicator in the world. The closest neighbors on the list are Denmark and Malaysia. In terms of GDP per capita, Israel ranks 24th in the world, bypassing Japan and slightly behind New Zealand. The level of wages is fully consistent with macroeconomic indicators. Israelis earn an average of $ 2080 per month, the country occupying 24th place in the world for this indicator. They earn a little more in France, a little less in Belgium.
4. Despite the size of Israel, in this country you can go downhill skiing and swim in the sea for one day. There is snow on Mount Hermon on the Syrian border during the winter months and a ski resort operates. But in just one day, you can only change the mountains by the sea, and not vice versa - in the morning there is a queue of motorists who want to get to Hermon, and access to the resort stops at 15:00. In general, Israel's climate is quite diverse.
On Mount Hermon
5. The creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed by David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948. The new state was immediately recognized by the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, and categorically did not recognize the Arab states surrounding the territory of Israel. This enmity, flaring up and dying from time to time, continues to this day.
Ben-Gurion announces the creation of Israel
6. Israel has very little fresh water, and it is distributed very unevenly throughout the country. Thanks to a system of canals, pipelines, water towers and pumps called the Israel Waterway, the area of land available for irrigation has increased tenfold.
7. Due to the high level of development of medicine in Israel, the average life expectancy is very high - 80.6 years for men (5th in the world) and 84.3 years for women (9th).
8. In Israel live Jews, Arabs (not counting the Palestinians from the occupied territories, there are about 1.6 million of them, with 140,000 Israeli Arabs professing Christianity), Druze and other small national minorities.
9. While not a single carat of diamonds is mined in Israel, the country exports roughly 5 billion worth of diamonds annually. The Israel Diamond Exchange is one of the largest in the world, and diamond processing technologies are considered the most advanced.
10. “East Jerusalem” is, but “West” is not. The city is divided into two uneven parts: East Jerusalem, which is an Arab city, and Jerusalem, which is similar to European cities. The differences, however, can be understood without visiting the city.
11. The Dead Sea is not a sea, and in fact it is not completely dead. From the point of view of hydrology, the Dead Sea is a drainless lake, and biologists say that there are still some living microorganisms in it. The salinity of water in the Dead Sea reaches 30% (an average of 3.5% in the World Ocean). And the Israelis themselves call it the Salty Sea.
12. Israel has a young city of Mitzvah Ramon. It stands in the middle of the desert on the edge of a giant crater, the largest on the planet. The designers perfectly fit it into the surrounding area. It is hard to believe that this is really a city in which people live, and not just another fantasy of the creators of "Star Wars".
A squad of droids will now appear from around the corner ...
13. In the city of Haifa, there is perhaps the world's only Museum of Secret Immigration. Before the founding of the State of Israel, Great Britain, which ruled Palestine as a territory under the League of Nations' mandate, severely restricted Jewish immigration. However, by hook or by crook, Jews entered Palestine. Haifa was one of the centers of such penetration by sea. The Secret Migration Museum displays the ships on which immigrants penetrated the maritime cordons, documents, weapons and other evidence of those years. With the help of wax figures, several episodes of immigrants' swimming and their stay in a camp in Cyprus are presented.
Reconstructed setting of a migration camp in Cyprus at the Museum of Secret Immigration
14. Despite the fact that in any more or less busy place in Israel you can see several people with firearms, traumatic pistols and pepper spray cans are prohibited in the country. True, it is rather difficult for a civilian to obtain a permit to carry a firearm. But you can go into the army with your own weapon.
Traumatic weapons are prohibited!
15. The McDonald’s chain of eateries, starting work in Israel, was going to work in the same way as in the rest of the world, regardless of local specifics. However, Orthodox Jews have made a big splash, and now all McDonald's are closed on Saturdays. There are 40 kosher eateries in operation, but there are also non-kosher ones. Interestingly, there is also one and only kosher McDonald's outside Israel - in Buenos Aires.
16. Contrary to popular belief, medicine in Israel is not free. Employees pay 3-5% of their earnings to the health insurance funds. Treatment of the unemployed, disabled and pensioners is provided by the state. There are rough edges - the cash registers, for example, do not pay for all types of tests, and sometimes you have to pay extra for medicines - but the general level of medicine is so high that more than 90% of Israelis are satisfied with the healthcare system. And a lot of people come to be treated from foreign countries.
17. Most Israelis are rented. Real estate in the country is very expensive, so renting is often the only way to get a roof over your head. But it is almost impossible to evict a person from the rented apartment, even if he does not pay for it.
18. It is prohibited to keep and breed fighting dogs in the country. If a domestic dog is mistreated, the pet will be taken away from the owner, and the cruel dog breeder will be fined. There are few stray dogs in Israel. Those who do exist are caught in autumn and placed in shelters for the winter.
19. The Israelis themselves say that everything that is necessary in their country is expensive, and that everything that is not necessary is very expensive. For example, in order to save energy, almost all Israelis use solar energy to heat their water. In practice, savings and environmental friendliness mean that you don't have hot water during the cold season. There is no heating in Israel either, and the floors are traditionally lined with ceramic tiles. This is despite the fact that the air temperature in winter can drop to 3 - 7 ° C.
20. Jews are not only Zionism or Orthodox. There is a Jewish group called the City Guards, which strongly opposes the creation and existence of a Jewish state. The “guards” believe that the Zionists, creating Israel, distorted the Torah, which says that He took the state from the Jews and the Jews should not try to restore it. Holocaust "Guardians" consider the punishment for the sins of the Jewish people.
