Israel
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of Israel) Capital: Jerusalem Population projection, 2020: 8·72m. GNI per capita, 2014: (PPP$) 30,676 HDI/world rank, 2014: 0·894/18 Internet domain extension: .il KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS A settled agricultural community by 6000 BC, the oasis of Jericho is possibly the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlement. Canaan—probably derived from ‘Land of Purple’, from the purple sea snail dye—described the Eastern Mediterranean coast and hinterland from the 3rd millennium BC. As part of the Fertile Crescent, it became an important caravan route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. ‘Canaanite’ has come to be associated with the Semitic group of languages and peoples of the pre-Classical Levant. In the reign of Pharaoh Pepi I (c. 2313–2279 BC), Canaan was invaded five times by Egyptian forces. Egyptian authority collapsed in the 17th century, marking the end of the Middle Kingdom. 652
ISRAEL
Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina and forbidding Jewish custom. Simon Bar Kokhba, supported by the Sanhedrin (Jewish sages), led a major revolt in AD 132 and established a Jewish government in Jerusalem. However, Roman armies prevailed in 135, with the death of around half a million Jews. Hadrian reacted to the rebellion by suppressing Judaism, banning Jews from Aelia Capitolina, deporting large numbers as slaves and renaming the province Syria Palaestina; the province was split in three around 390. Christianity Under the Christian Byzantine Empire, Palestine became a centre of Christianity (Jerusalem was recognized as a patriarchate in 451), bringing pilgrims and prosperity. It also received lavish imperial patronage, such as Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre (c. 326). The Samaritans made a bid for independence in 529 but were crushed by Justinian I and the Ghassanid Arabs. Persecuted by Christians, Jews and later by Muslims, Samaritan numbers dwindled over the following centuries. Byzantine administration of Palestine ended temporarily during the Persian occupation of 614–28; Jerusalem was sacked, its churches burned and the city turned over to the Jews. A spectacular campaign in 628, led by Emperor Heraclius, forced the Persians to cede Palestine and Syria. However, Byzantine rule ended permanently after the Arabs conquered the region; Jerusalem was taken in 638. The Arabs retained the existing system of administration in the provinces of Jund Filastine (the south) and Jund Urdunn (the north). Taxes and restrictions on religious practice and officeholding imposed on non-Muslims caused large-scale conversions. The Ummayad caliphs moved the capital to Damascus and built the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the 690s. The Christian and Jewish communities of Palestine were partly administered by their own religious leaders. Under the Ummayads’ successors, the Abbasids, the capital moved to Baghdad in 762, drawing Asian trade away from Palestine. Fragmentation of the Caliphate in the 9th century saw Egyptian independence under the Tulunids, who seized Palestine and Syria in 878. Although Palestine was
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