Facts of Zion

Achievements

Eurovision Contest: Between 1973 and 2026, Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 48 times. Israel has won the contest four times, in 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018. Israel also won the popular vote by landslide in 2025 and 2026, but the jury mathematically blocked the country from winning by creating a massive point deficit. Israel hosted the contest three times, twice in Jerusalem (1979 and 1999) and once in Tel Aviv (2019), while declining to host it for financial reasons once in 1980. In 1998, Israel made global history by sending the first openly transgender artist, Dana International, who subsequently won the contest and broke immense social boundaries for the transgender community across Europe.

Nobel Prizes: As of 2021, Israel had the 11th-highest number of Nobel laureates per capita in the world, with 13 laureates in just 73 years of statehood. Between 1948 and 2021, Israeli laureates received 11 of the 468 Nobel Prizes awarded, or approximately 2.35% of all Nobel Prizes awarded during that period. Israel was thus greatly overrepresented, as it accounted for only around 0.1% of the world's population in 2021. As of 2025, 221 Jewish individuals from across the world have won over 22% of all Nobel Prizes (and even 40% of those in the field of Economics), despite making up less than 0.2% of the global population.

Minority Protections

Arabic language: From 1948 until 2018, Arabic, spoken by over 20% of the population, was an official language alongside Hebrew. In 2018, under the Nation-State Bill, Arabic was removed as a co-official language and instead designated a “language with special status”, while its existing statutory protections were preserved. These protections include state funding for Arabic-language public schools, the publication of official information and medical forms in Arabic, the right to use Arabic in the courts and the Knesset, and bilingual road signs and public transport information in Arab-majority and mixed localities.

Paid holidays: In Israel, employees are entitled to paid leave for the official holidays of their own recognized religion. While the exact number is subject to the annual holiday schedule, in general Muslims receive 11 paid religious holidays, Druze receive 10, while Jews and Christians each receive 9. These paid religious holidays are separate from employees' annual vacation entitlement.

Military service: Arab citizens of Israel, both Muslims and Christians, are exempt from compulsory military service, although they may volunteer. One of the principal historical reasons for this policy has been to avoid placing them in the position of fighting their ethnic kin during Israel's wars, thereby reducing potential conflicts of loyalty. Druze and Circassian citizens of Israel, however, have been subject to compulsory military service since 1956 and 1958, respectively, following requests by their community leaders, who sought greater integration into Israeli society and equality of civic obligations and rights.

Permanent residency: Upon the Israeli incorporation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and the Golan Heights in 1981, the Arabs and Druze inhabitants, respectively, were granted permanent residency (including Israeli identity cards) as well as the right to apply for Israeli citizenship, although most initially chose not to do so for political reasons. As permanent residents, they may vote in municipal elections but not in Knesset elections unless they become Israeli citizens. As of late 2011, Jerusalem had around 360,880 Arab inhabitants out of a total of 933,133 (38.7%).

LGBTH+ Rights

LGBTH+ Rights: Homosexuality was legally decriminalized in Israel in 1963 and officially legalized in 1988, years before Ireland (1993) and Germany (1994) did. Same-sex couples enjoy virtually the same legal rights as married opposite-sex couples, including unregistered cohabitation (since 1994), second-parent adoption (2005), tax benefits (2013), inheritance rights (2014) and joint adoption (2023). Since 1993, non-heterosexual Israeli citizens have been permitted to serve openly in all units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), making Israel the sixth country in the world (before the UK, the USA or Germany) to allow open military service by gay, lesbian and bi personnel.

Same-Sex Marriage: Although same-sex marriage cannot be performed in Israel because marriage is governed by the country's recognized religious authorities, since 2006 Israel has recognized same-sex marriages lawfully performed abroad (making Cyprus a favorite destination) and registers them in the Population Registry. This made Israel the sixth country in the world to recognize and legalize same-sex marriage, even before the UK, France, Germany and Sweden. Furthermore, since 2022, same-sex couples can marry online via civil services like Utah’s online marriage system from within Israel.

Gay Pride Parade: Since 1993, Tel Aviv hosts Tel Aviv Pride, the biggest LGBT parade in the entire continent of Asia, organized annually in June by the municipality and visited by 250,000 in 2019. In 2011, Tel Aviv was named the "world's best gay city" for 2011 by the website Gay Cities. The festival, as well as the city's highly visible queer population (numbering 25% of the population) has earned Tel Aviv the nickname "gay capital of the Middle East". Other annual gay pride parades are held all over Israel, including in the capital Jerusalem since 2002 with up to 30,000 attendees.

Gender Identity: Since 2015, the Health Ministry of Israel has allowed transgender people to change legal gender without undergoing sex reassignment surgery. In 2024, the Knesset passed a law allowing transgender individuals to remove their deadname from ID cards. Approval for gender-affirming surgery may be granted by a special committee of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, after which the procedure is covered by Israel's national public health insurance system. Discrimination against transgender individuals is forbidden and they are free to serve in the IDF. Famously, transgender woman Dana International represented Israel and won at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, breaking social boundaries for the global transgender community.

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