Isozaki \,e-so-'za-ke\ A rata (b. July 23, 1931, Oita, Kyushu, Japan) Japanese avant-garde architect. He studied at the University of Tokyo and opened his own studio in 1963. His first notable building is the Oita Pre- fectural Library (1966), which shows the influence of the Metabolist school. In his later works, which often synthesize Eastern and Western elements, he used bold geometric forms and frequently made historical allusions. Among his innovative structures are the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (1986) and Art Tower (1990) in Mito, Japan.
ISP See Internet service provider
Israel officially State of Israel Country, Middle East, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Area: 8,367 sq mi (21,671 sq km). Popu¬ lation (2005 est.): 6,681,000 (includes population of Golan Heights and east Jerusalem; excludes population of the West Bank). Capitaclass="underline" Jerusalem. Jews constitute some four-fifths of the population and Arabs about one- fifth. Languages: Hebrew, Arabic (both official). Religions: Judaism; also Islam, Christianity. Currency: new Israeli sheqel (NIS). Israel can be divided into four major regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain in the
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--UN Forces deployment a Shemona
SYRIA
Mount Carmel 1,789 ft.
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
Note:
Final Status of Gaza Strip and West Bank to be determined by Israel and the Palestinian Authority
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EGYPT
SINAI
PENINSULA
2002 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
JORDAN
west; a hill region extending from the northern border into central Israel; the Great Rift Valley, containing the Jordan River, in the east; and the arid Negev, occu¬ pying nearly the entire southern half of the
country. Its major drainage system is the interior basin formed by the Jor¬ dan River; Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) provides water to much of the country’s agricultural land. Israel has a mixed economy based largely on services and manufacturing; exports include machinery and electronics, diamonds, chemicals, citrus fruits, vegetables, and textiles. Its population is nine-tenths urban and is concentrated largely in the Mediterranean coastal plain and around Jerusalem. It is a republic with one legislative house, the Knesset; its chief of state is the president, and the head of gov¬ ernment is the prime minister. The record of human habitation in Israel (see Palestine) dates to the Paleolithic Period. Efforts by Jews to establish a national state there began in the late 19th century. Britain supported Zionism and in 1923 assumed political responsibility for what was then called Palestine. Migration of Jews to Palestine, which increased during the period of Nazi persecution, led to deteriorating relations with Arabs. In 1947 the UN voted to partition the region into separate Jewish and Arab states. The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, and Egypt, Transjor¬ dan (later Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq immediately declared war on it. Israel won that war (see Arab-Israeli wars) as well as the 1967 Six-Day War, in which it occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and east Jerusalem. (Subsequent claims of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital have not received wide international recognition.) Another war with its Arab neighbours followed in 1973, but the Camp David Accords led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from that country, and in late 1987 an uprising broke out among Palestinians of the occupied ter¬ ritories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (see intifadah). Peace negotia¬ tions between Israel and the Arab states and Palestinians began in 1991. Israel and the PLO agreed in 1993 to a five-year plan to extend self- government to the Palestinians of the occupied territories. Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Israeli soldiers and a Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, clashed throughout the 1990s. Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down amid violence that claimed hundreds of lives. In an effort to stem the fighting, Israel in 2005 withdrew its soldiers and settlers from parts of the West Bank and from all of the Gaza Strip, which came under Palestinian control.
Israel, tribes of In the Bible, the 12 clans of the ancient Hebrew people, which were named for the sons of Jacob (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Gad, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali) and his wives, Leah and Rachel, and concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. The tribe
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
966 I Israel Labour Party ► Italian Liberal Party
of Levi did not receive land in the settlement of Canaan but instead was given the priestly office. To maintain the traditional number of 12 tribes, the line of Joseph was divided into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. In Israel’s later history, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed a south¬ ern kingdom called Judah with its capital at Jerusalem, while the 10 north¬ ern tribes formed the kingdom of Israel. After being conquered by Assyria in 721 bc, the northern tribes were exiled from the kingdom and were assimilated by other peoples. Disappearing from history, they became known as the 10 lost tribes of Israel and remained part of Jewish folklore and eschatological beliefs. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin survived until Nebuchadrezzar’s conquest of Judah in 586 bc, when many from the kingdom were exiled to Babylon.
Israel Labour Parly Israeli political party founded in 1968 as the union of three socialist-labour parties. The Israel Labour Party and its predecessors led governing coalitions uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1977; since 1977 it has competed with the conservative Likud party. Its princi¬ pal figures have included David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin.
Israeli, Isaac ben Solomon or Isaac the Elder (b. 832/855, Egypt—d. 932/955, Al-Qayrawan, Tun.) Egyptian Jewish physician and philosopher. He began his medical career as an oculist in Cairo and later became court physician to al-Mahdl, founder of the Fajimid dynasty in northern Africa. He wrote several medical treatises in Arabic that were later translated into Latin and circulated in Europe. Schooled in Classical learning, he wrote philosophical works, including his Book of Definitions, which discusses Aristotle’s four types of inquiry and then provides defi¬ nitions of wisdom, intellect, soul, nature, love, and time. His interpreta¬ tion of eschatological matters in light of Neoplatonic mysticism was very influential for later Jewish philosophers.
Israeli law Legal practices and institutions of modem Israel. The ancient people of Israel created the law of the Torah and the Mishna (the latter was later incorporated into the Talmud). Contemporary Israeli law reflects a dual legal heritage: it is based on historic Jewish law and the laws of countries in which the Jews had for generations been living. It is derived from Ottoman and British legislation and precedents, religious court opinion, and Israeli parliamentary enactments. Courts are composed of professional judges only; juries are not used. Jewish law as such con¬ tinues to be applied by the rabbinical courts within their jurisdiction in matters of personal status; it is applied also by the civil courts when called upon to deal with such matters concerning Jews.
Israelite In early Jewish history, a member of the 12 tribes of Israel. After the establishment (930 bc) of two Jewish kingdoms (Israel and Judah) in Palestine, only the ten northern tribes constituting the kingdom of Israel were known as Israelites. When Israel was conquered by the Assyrians (721 bc), its population was absorbed by other peoples, and the term Israelite came to refer to those who were still distinctively Jewish— the descendants of the kingdom of Judah. In liturgical usage, an Israelite is a Jew who is neither a cohen nor a Levite (see Levi).