Birth of a nation

By John Johnston
And Dale M. King
MANAGING EDITOR AND CITY EDITOR

It was 4 p.m. on May 14, 1948, and Norm Kasser, now a resident of Boca Raton, was in the auditorium of the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. There was a crowd, Kasser recalled, but he wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

A short, thick, intense man was in the midst of the tumult. The man was David Ben-Gurion.  The event: the declaration of independence for the new state of Israel.

Kasser, 84, this week recalled his attendance that day – as Israelis around the world celebrate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.

Charles Krauthammer - The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998, wrote the following:

"Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store."

And since 1948, four major things have shaped the average Americans’ awareness of and about the State of Israel:

• The Six Day War in 1967.
• The Yom Kippur War in 1973.
• The Camp David accords in 1978.
• And in general, Israel’s struggle to survive a variety of literal and psychological attacks on its existence.

And what has the State of Israel become 60 years hence?
According to Israel’s National Bureau of Statistics, on its 60th birthday, the State of Israel looks like this: 

Population

• The population of Israel presently numbers 7,282,000.  At the establishment of the State, the population of Israel was only 806,000.
• Approximately 5,499,000 residents are Jews, making up 75.5 percent of the entire population. 
• The Arab population numbers approximately 1,461,000, and comprises 20.1 percent of the entire population of Israel.
• Other ethnic groups number 311,000, or 4.4 percent of the population.
• As of today, approximately 69 percent of the total Jewish population consists of native born “sabras” as opposed to only 35 percent in 1948.
• During the past year 156,400 babies were born, approximately 18,000 immigrants came to Israel, and Israel’s population increased by approximately 130,000 residents, an increase of 1.8 percent. Most of the growth (88.8 percent) stemmed from natural population growth. 
• As a result of population growth, the population density in the country has increased from 43 people per square kilometer in 1948 to 310 per square kilometer in 2006.  The area with the greatest population density is the Tel Aviv region (with approximately 7,000 people per square kilometer) and the most sparsely populated area is the southern region (72 people per square kilometer).
• In 2006, Israel's population was more evenly distributed than in 1948. In 1948, the populations in the southern and northern regions were 19 percent of the total population, and until 2006 their portion increased to 31 percent of the total population.  The portion of the population in the Tel Aviv region and the center decreased during that time from 71 percent to 53 percent.
• In 1948 there was only one city in Israel with more than 100,000 residents -- Tel Aviv Yaffo (population 248,000) -- while in 2006 there were 14 cities of that size. 

Education Level

• The level of education of the Israeli population has risen continuously.  The amount of adults who were totally uneducated has decreased from 16 percent in 1961 to 3 percent in 2007, and the amount of people who have completed 13 years of education or more increased from 9 percent to 42 percent.
• In 1948, 208 people received academic degrees at the Hebrew University and the Technion.  In 2006 close to 53,000 people received academic degrees from 62 academic institutions. 

The Economy

• During the years 1950-2007 the gross national product in Israel increased at a consistent average rate of 5 percent-6 percent per year.  The product per capita increased by an average of 3 percent each year, and in 2007 the product per capita was six times that of 1950. 

Foreign Trade

• Between 1950-2007 the portion of imported consumer goods decreased from 26 percent to 13 percent.
• During the 1970s export to Europe made up 70 percent of all Israeli exports due to the large portion of agricultural exports within the general exported products. In 2007, exports to Europe only made up 36 percent of total Israeli exports, while exports to America and Asia has increased continuously from 25 percent to 68 percent and from 1 percent to 18 percent, respectively.

Industry

• Many industries were established from 1948 until the mid 1960s.  In 1950, there were 20,000 industries, out of which 14 percent were defined as large industries (with over 10 employees).  In 1965, the number rose to 25,000, of which 15 percent were defined as large industries.
• During the years 1960-2007 industrial production increased by an annual average of 5.7 percent, while working hours for industrial labor increased by an annual average of 2 percent.
• In 1950, Israeli exports totaled $35 million, of which 49 percent was agricultural export, 25 percent diamonds, and approximately 26 percent industrial export including food products, textiles, and clothing. In 2007, exports totaled $46 billion, out of which 3 percent was agricultural produce, 47 percent was industrial export and 23 percent was polished and unpolished diamonds. 

Agriculture

• From the beginning of the 1950s until the end of the 1980s, 60 percent of all agricultural areas were devoted to field crops.  From 1990 this area decreased to 50 percent.
• The area of vegetable cultivation increased drastically during the first four years of the State from 70,000 to 300,000 dunam (1 dunam = 4 acres).  Between 1954 and 1988 the area increased from 300,000 to 400,000 dunam.  From 1989 to 2005 it increased by 60 percent and reached 650,000 dunam.
• In 2006, the amount of vegetables that were exported reached a peak of 260,000 tons. The export of flowers, which began on a small level in the 1950s, increased from the end of the 1980s and reached its peak of 224,000 tons in 1988. 

• Since the establishment of the State 57 million tourists have visited Israel.  Tourism increased from an annual average of 47,000 in the 1950s to 2.7 million in 2000.

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