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Going abroad? Meeting foreigners on a visit? Be ambassadors for Israel!

Many of us, whether we’re traveling or living abroad for an extended period of time, get involved in discussions with locals during which they bring up misconceptions and false information regarding Israel, without our having the tools and the correct information for coping with the questions or the barbs of criticism put to us.
At such moments, we’re seized with an urge to make the other person open their mind and especially their heart, and see us—see Israel—differently.

This website, established by the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, will make it possible for each one of us to arm ourselves with information and pride in Israel’s global contributions and history and to present a more realistic image of Israel to the world.
Surfing this site will help you amass a wealth of tips and suggestions for good advocacy when you converse with people overseas, because in every encounter outside the State of Israel, we are our country’s ambassadors!
Together, let’s show the world our beautiful Israel!
 
 
 

Did you know...
  • Israel has a 190 km-long shoreline. 70% of the country’s residents live along the coastal strip.
  • Drip irrigation is an Israeli invention that accounts for significant water conservation all over the world.
  • Israel developed astounding hydrological methods that enable growing crops in the most arid areas.
    Israel has exported this knowhow to many other nations throughout the world; even the Hopi Native Americans in Arizona enjoy the irrigation methods developed in Israel.
  • Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with an upward trend in the number of trees growing and being planted.
  • An Israeli invention for an electric hair removal device makes women happy all over the world.
  • Relative to its size, Israel has the highest rate of immigrant absorption in the world.
  • Israel has more museums per capita than any other country in the world.
  • Two Israelis hold the world record for cotton crop yield per dunam – 245 kg. The world average is only 70 kg.
  • Israel is the world leader in the percentage of scientists and technicians in its total workforce.
  • Israel is the world-record holder in the number of personal computers per person.
  • Israel has the second highest book-publishing rate worldwide, in proportion to its population.
  • Did you know? The DiskOnKey is an Israeli invention.
  • Israelis invented the solar water heater.
  • The first “instant messenger” was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
  • The only development center that Microsoft maintains outside the U.S. is in Israel.
  • The Galilee and the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) are considered the “Israeli Tuscany,” and offer a wide variety of tourism opportunities – from the tombs of the great rabbis through challenge sports, all in a landscape as charming and diverse as Europe’s.
  • Ein Gedi is the name of a spring, a nature reserve and an ancient city, located off the western shore of the Dead Sea.
  • The Dead Sea is a candidate for the distinguished title of the New7Seven Wonders of Nature, up against 27 other contenders, including the Amazon river, the Galápagos Islands, the Grand Canyon and the Maldives Islands.
  • 24% of the Israeli workforce is composed of people with professional or academic degrees, placing Israel in 3rd place worldwide in this category, after the U.S. and Holland.
  • The population of Israel resembles that of developing countries in Europe, such as Denmark, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, and others numbering 5-8 million people.
  • The Middle East is known as a place where palm trees grow. Israeli trees yield an average of 182 kilograms of dates per year.
  • Jerusalem is the most special city in the world. Its Old City, occupying just one square kilometer and the main focal point for tours, includes: The four quarters: Jewish (where the Western Wall is located), Muslim, Christian and Armenian. The surrounding walls, the markets, synagogues, churches and mosques.
  • The Israel Museum, located in Jerusalem, is one of the ten largest museums in the world.
  • Nestled in the southwestern outskirts of Jerusalem is the picturesque neighborhood of Ein Kerem, according to tradition the birthplace of John the Baptist.
  • Motorola’s largest and most profitable development center is situated in Israel.
  • Tel Aviv, the city that never stops, the lively cultural heart of Israel, is celebrating its centennial year.
  • Over one and a half million foreign tourists a year visit Eilat and the Arava, Israel’s southern resort area.
  • The Negev boasts five erosion craters, a unique natural phenomenon of which there are only seven in the whole world; the other two are in the Sinai Peninsula.
  • Milestones in Jewish history are found in Samaria, such as the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Cave of Machpelah) located in eastern Hebron, which according to Jewish tradition and the ancient texts is the burial place of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the matriarchs Sara, Rebecca and Leah (Rachel was buried in Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem). It is therefore considered one of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam.
  • Israel will not cease its efforts to return Gilad Shalit who was abducted by Hamas in 2006 and is still being held captive in the Gaza Strip.
  • Israel sent 120 physicians to the Tsunami stricken areas of Asia in 2004, as well as 82 tons of medical equipment and humanitarian aid. It was one of the first countries to rush to provide help following the disaster.
  • Israel’s economy is bigger than those of all its neighbors put together.
  • Israel is one of only eight countries in the world capable of launching a satellite into space.
  • Israel’s health system is one of the most advanced in the world.
  • Israel is among the leading countries in the West in the number of cancer patients who survived the disease and have been cured of it.
  • Two of the three multiple sclerosis medications on the market were developed in Israel.
  • Successes in midwifery and the fertility rate in Israel are among the highest in the world.
  • Seven sites in Israel were proclaimed World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
  • 50 million Krembos were sold in the season beginning October and ending in February – an average of nine Krembos per citizen…
  • The Western Wall is the most highly-visited tourist site in Israel.
  • Prof. Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009, is the first Israeli woman ever to win the prize and the first woman since 1964.
  • Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world. India is 150 times larger, Alaska 70 times, Germany 16, Italy 13, England six, and Hungary four times larger.
  • The number of women in Israel is higher than the number of men. 49.5% of Israeli residents are men, and 50.6% are women.
  • The New York Times once compared Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua to William Faulkner, one of the greatest 20th-century American authors. Yehoshua’s novel A Woman in Jerusalem (The Human Resources Supervisor's Mission) was included in the Times’ and Publishers Weekly’s list of the 100 best books of the year in 2006.
  • The relative number of Druze serving as officers and NCOs in the IDF is significantly higher than their percentage of the population.
  • The most common variety of cherry tomato was developed in Israel by two researchers from the Faculty of Agriculture.
  • 70% of Israelis surf the Internet, and 80% of those surfers maintain a profile on a social network.
  • The “Green Line” is called that because during the ceasefire talks held following the War of Independence, it was drawn on the map in green pencil.
  • 85% of the garbage in Israel undergoes treatment to make it friendly to the environment.
  • The percentage of Israelis holding registered patents is the highest in the world.
  • More than four million Israelis, a little over half the population, attend the theater at least once a year.
  • 91% of the residents of Israel live in cities. Jerusalem is the largest city in the country, followed in descending order by Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Rishon Lezion.
  • Due to its location on the Afro-Syrian Rift, Israel forms a kind of bridge between a desert climate and a south European climate. So despite its small size, it has desert, mountains and even a ski resort.
  • Adolph Eichmann, who was hung in 1962, was the only case in Israeli history of the death sentence being carried out.
  • Ever since Israel declared the Druze religion as being separate from Islam (1957), Druze have performed mandatory military service in the IDF like every Israeli citizen.
  • Ron Arad was captured by the Amal organization in 1986. Israel will not cease its efforts to bring him home.
  • Some 7,650,500 people reside in the State of Israel, about 10% of the population of India, 0.007% (seven thousandth) of China’s and 15% of England’s.
  • Author S.Y. Agnon was the first Israeli to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books have been translated into German, English, Yiddish, Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish and various Scandinavian languages.
  • Each month Israelis consume close to 15 million bags of Bamba; every fourth snack sold in Israel is Bamba, and 1,000 bags of Bamba are manufactured every minute.
  • Muslim terror takes place throughout the world with no connection to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian issue, Israel-US relations or the existence of Israel and its policies. From the viewpoint of Islamic terror, Western values constitute an obstacle to fulfilling aspirations for the spread of Islam and a threat to the dictatorial Muslim regimes.
  • Israel is not included on the maps of the Middle East in Palestinian textbooks: Haifa is considered a Palestinian port, and the Galilee, Nazareth and Beit Shean are marked as Palestinian areas.