Name

Over the past three thousand years, the name “Israel” has meant in common and religious usage both the Land of Israel and the entire Jewish nation.According to the Bible the origin of the name is where Jacob is renamed Israel after successfully wrestling with an angel of God.

The first historical mention of the word “Israel” is in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated the late 13th century BCE), which appears to refer to a people.The modern country was named Medinat Yisrael, or the State of Israel, after other proposed names, including Eretz Israel (“the Land of Israel”), Zion, and Judea, were rejected. In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term “Israeli” to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.