Israel or State of Israel has always fascinated the mind of travellers as it is such a small country, less than the size of New Jersey but it has large number of tourist attractions including a good number of religious places, museums and beaches.
It has been just 70 years that it has got independence but Israel has become a developed nation with highly skilled workforce and it is counted among the most educated countries of the world.
It is really big achievement for Israel to provide its citizens with the highest standard of living in the Middle East and one of the highest life expectancies in the world considering the fact that it never had peaceful relations with its neighbors and it has to employ a lot of resources to tackle its neighbors all the time.
Let us enlighten you with 20 amazing facts about Israel which will attract you more towards Israel:
Israel can be called as the only country that revived an unspoken language and gave it the status of official language. Yes, Hebrew was almost extinct but Israel revived it and now it is used the most in the country along with Arabic. English is also studied and spoken in Israel to a great extent.
Image Source: youtube.com
Israelis are very conscious about their diet and prefer to have a healthy diet and that is why they include vegetables and fruits in their diet. Israelis are third in the world when it comes to vegetable consumption with 197.6 kilograms/person each year and they are third in sweet consumption as well with 38.8 kg/person each year.
Image Source: www.organicfacts.net
82 years is the life expectancy at birth in Israel which is 2 years more than average given by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Life expectancy is the average time a human being is expected to live. Healthy food, military training and emphasis on the outdoor games are responsible for Israelis having long life expectancy.
Image Source: wikimedia.org
Tel Aviv has more than 100 Sushi restaurants which means that it is the third city in the world, with most sushi restaurants per capita after Japanese city, Tokyo and American city, New York. With such huge number of restaurants in Tel Aviv, it is pretty clear that how much Israelis love eating.
Image Source: gotelaviv.co.il
Israel is the first country in the world to ban too skinny or underweight models from modeling and set the limit of 18.5 Body Mass Index (BMI) if the models want to take part in catwalk or appear in advertisements. The move was made in order to tackle the problem of eating disorders which were faced by the younger generation.
Image Source: www.thefix.com
Tel Aviv is one of the most gay-friendly cities, it is also being said that 25-30 percent population of the city is gay and it has been termed as the Gay capital of the Middle East. It’s pretty hard to find such friendly places for LGBT in the world where they can live their lives as per their own will.
Image Source: www.israel21c.org
There are 137 official beaches in Israel however it has a coastline of just 273 km. These beaches include beaches along the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. The visitors can have a great time at these beaches and enjoy their visit by either getting wet in the water or by getting a tan lying on the beach.
Image Source: traveltriangle.com
The Israeli government has been promoting the use of renewable energy for a long time now and as per an estimate, nearly 93 percent of the Israeli homes use solar energy for water heating. This is the highest percentage in the world as far as use of solar energy is concerned.
Image Source: wisebuy.co.il
There is a good number of museums in Israel in fact; it is heaven for the museum lovers because it has the most museums per capita than any other nation in the world. Israel has different museums for different topics such as science, history, religion etc. So whenever you get a chance to visit Israel, don’t forget to visit the museums.
Image Source: www.gojerusalem.com
The Israeli bank notes have braille markings on them so that the blind people can also identify the denomination of the currency notes. It is highly appreciable on the part of the government to think about the convenience of those, who are partially or completely visually disabled. There are very few countries who have provided this service to the blind.
Image Source: www.emaze.com
The Israeli city of Be’erSheva has more chess grandmasters per capita than any other city of the world. The credit for this achievement goes to Eliyahu Levant, a former Soviet chess official and Leningrad Spartak chess club coach who founded the Be’erSheva Chess Club after getting settled in the city.
Image Source: hswstatic.com
Israel is generally considered a democratic country but it has no written constitution. It is one of the three countries in the world which doesn’t have documented constitution; the other two are Great Britain and New Zealand. Despite the fact, that it doesn’t have any written constitution, it is made sure that the legal rights of Israeli citizens are always provided.
Image Source: bglaw-pa.com
The rate of entrepreneurship in Israel is the third highest in the world and it is highest in the world when it comes to entrepreneurship among women and people over the age of 55. This figure very easily explains the reason as to how it became a developed nation in so much short time.
Image Source: yourstory.com
Diving in the Dead Sea is impossible because of its unusual high salt concentration. Hence people can float on the surface of the sea and can have some great time while floating on the water. This is totally a new experience as at the first instance it feels like you have got some superpower.
Image Source: pinterest.com
Peanuts are added to the diet of children at an early age which reduces the chances of Israeli kids suffering with peanut allergy by 10 times in comparison to the Jew kids in UK. Allergies are a great concern nowadays so it is a welcome move by Israel to deal with one such allergy at an early stage.
Image Source: www.healthline.com
Motorola developed its cell phone in its largest R and D center in Israel. The Israeli engineers developed the original cell-technology and most of the technology that is being used in our phones has its origin in Israeli engineering. So, even if you are not a Motorola user, you need to be thankful to Motorola.
Image Source: shopify.com
There are more than 3000 hi-tech companies and start-ups in Israel which implies that it has the highest concentration of such companies in the world. This high number of companies makes it clear that Israelis have pretty good business acumen and they are constantly working towards the development of their country.
Image Source: nocamels.com
The highest number of books translated from other languages is published in Israel. It clearly shows that people of the country are very much interested in acquiring knowledge from as many sources as possible. This simply makes it clear that Israel is always open to new knowledge from different cultures and backgrounds.
Image Source: www.myjewishlearning.com
Israel is the only country in the world which has made military service compulsory for women. The Israeli women serve in the military for little less than 2 years. The military service is compulsory but there are exemptions for a married woman, woman with kids, physically disabled, mentally weak, religious men and women.
Image Source: .buzzfeed.com
A lot of emphasis is given to the outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. Annual hiking trips are organized by Israeli schools and youth clubs all over the country in order to make sure that their kids start loving such activities from the very early and it will also help them in keeping fit.
Image Source: www.kkl-jnf.org