PEOPLE & CULTURE
PEOPLE & CULTURE
Culture
Passengers on Israel’s national airline, El Al, clap for the pilots when the plane lands.
Many Jerusalem apartment leases include the strange stipulation that if and when the Messiah comes, the lease is void and the tenants must move out.
Israel is the first country to place a ban on the use of underweight models on catwalks.
Buses around Israel have signs that quote the biblical passage, “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old.”
Education
Israel has the highest number of university degrees per capita than any other country.
Bus stop mini-libraries, offering books free of charge, were launched in Israel in 2011 and have inspired similar initiatives in other countries.
Israel publishes more books per capita than any other country.
Environment
About 93 percent of Israeli homes use solar energy for water heating - the highest percentage in the world.
Faith
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is increasing.
The World Centre of the Bahai faith is in the Israeli cities of Acre and Haifa.
Relative to its population, Israel has absorbed more immigrants than any other country, with newcomers from more than 100 countries.
People
The life expectancy in Israel is among the highest in the world at 82 years.
