s 5.8%,
agriculture, forestry, and fishing 5.5%, electricity and water 1.0% (1983)

*Israel, Government

Names:
conventional long form:
State of Israel
conventional short form:
Israel
local long form:
Medinat Yisra'el
local short form:
Yisra'el
Digraph:
IS
Type:
republic
Capital:
Jerusalem
note:
Israel proclaimed Jerusalem its capital in 1950, but the US, like nearly all
other countries, maintains its Embassy in Tel Aviv
Administrative divisions:
6 districts (mehozot, singular - mehoz); Central, Haifa, Jerusalem,
Northern, Southern, Tel Aviv
Independence:
14 May 1948 (from League of Nations mandate under British administration)
Constitution:
no formal constitution; some of the functions of a constitution are filled
by the Declaration of Establishment (1948), the basic laws of the parliament
(Knesset), and the Israeli citizenship law
Legal system:
mixture of English common law, British Mandate regulations, and, in personal
matters, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal systems; in December 1985,
Israel informed the UN Secretariat that it would no longer accept compulsory
ICJ jurisdiction
National holiday:
Independence Day, 14 May 1948 (Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948,
but the Jewish calendar is lunar and the holiday may occur in April or May)
Political parties and leaders:
members of the government:
Labor Party, Prime Minister Yitzhak RABIN; MERETZ, Minister of Education
Shulamit ALONI; SHAS, Minister of Interior Arieh DERI
opposition parties:
Likud Party, Binyamin NETANYAHU; Tzomet, Rafael EITAN; National Religious
Party, Zevulun HAMMER; United Torah Jewry, Avraham SHAPIRA; Democratic Front
for Peace and Equality (Hadash), Hashim MAHAMID; Moledet, Rehavam ZEEVI;
Arab Democratic Party, Abd al Wahab DARAWSHAH
note:
Israel currently has a coalition government comprising 3 parties that hold
62 seats of the Knesset's 120 seats
Other political or pressure groups:
Gush Emunim, Jewish nationalists advocating Jewish settlement on the West
Bank and Gaza Strip; Peace Now, critical of government's West Bank/Gaza
Strip and Lebanon policies
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
Elections:
President:
last held 24 March 1993 (next to be held NA March 1999); results - Ezer
WEIZMAN elected by Knesset

*Israel, Government

Knesset:
last held June 1992 (next to be held by NA); results - percent of vote by
party NA; s