Psychology & Psychiatry

Cigarette smoke damages mental health, too

For decades, doctors have warned about the health risks of smoking. However, their warnings focused on the physical risks that cigarettes pose to health, such as lung cancer, heart disease, low birth weight and high blood ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Researchers discover generic 'white' odor Laurax

(Medical Xpress)—Researchers working at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have discovered that there exists an odor analog of the color white and the sound of white noise. They've been conducting studies on the ...

Attention deficit disorders

ADHD tied to higher fracture risk in children

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have higher risk of fractures than matched children without ADHD, according to a study published April 1 in the European Journal of Pediatrics.

Health

On Israel's cancelation of its sweetened beverage tax

Referring to the cancelation of Israel's sweetened beverage tax, as "a grievous blow to public health," a group of senior health academics have published a letter in the medical journal, The Lancet, seeking to overturn the ...

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Israel

The State of Israel (Hebrew:  מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (help·info), Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l]; Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎ Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]) is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and democratic state in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.

Following the 1947 United Nations decision to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared Israel a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel but the border with the neighboring West Bank is still not formally defined. Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian have so far not resulted in peace.

The population of Israel, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics to include all citizens or nationals, but not foreign workers, within Israel itself and in the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, was estimated in June 2011 to be 7,751,000 people, of whom 5,818,200 are Jewish. Arabs form the country's second-largest ethnic group, which includes both Muslims and Christians. Other minorities are Druze, Circassians and Samaritans. At the end of 2005, 93% of the Arab population of East Jerusalem had permanent residency and 5% had Israeli citizenship. In the Golan Heights, Druze are entitled to citizenship but most have rejected it in favor of "loyalty to Syria."

Israel is a developed country and a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage. The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as Israel's unicameral legislative body. Israel has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. The economy, based on the nominal gross domestic product, was the 42nd-largest in the world in 2010, and has a very high rating on the Human Development Index. Jerusalem is the country's capital, although it is not recognized internationally as such. In 2010, Israel joined the OECD.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA