65 Years of the State of Israel

The State of Israel was formed on 15 May 1948. Later in the year this magazine commenting on the 'Progress in Palestine', recorded that there were 750,000 Jews and 700,000 Arabs living there. Moshe Shapiro, a member of the Israeli cabinet, said at an Israeli State Council in 1948, that he expected about 225,000 immigrants a year would come to Israel. The magazine predicted that in a few years the population would be 3 to 4 million.

The total population of Israel on 31 March 2013 was recorded at 8,012,400, of which 6,037,700 were Jews. This means the population is over 8 times the number as recorded in 1948.

The economy there is doing well. It was forecasted that the Israeli economy would grow by 3.6%, despite the problems in Syria, as opposed to 1.6% in the US. The CBI forecasted growth as 1.2% in the UK.

NAC