NewsTracker Answers for week of July 24, 2023

Q: A sweeping plan to limit the power of Israel’s courts has triggered seven straight months of protests by tens of thousands of Israelis, who claim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies are trying to grab power and are threatening to replace democracy with a “dictatorship.” Where is Israel?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Netanyahu’s government says the legislation would “correct” democracy by allowing lawmakers the freedom to implement policies — including greater benefits for the ultra-Orthodox minority and the operational annexation of the West Bank. Which of Israel’s neighbors previously controlled the area known as the West Bank?

A. Egypt

B. Lebanon

C. Jordan

D. Syria

C. The West Bank was annexed by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and has controlled it ever since. About 2.6 million Arabs and 400,000 Israeli Jews now live in the West Bank. Israeli forces patrol the all the territory, and the Palestinian Authority administers the Arab areas.

Q: Over the weekend, thousands of protesters marched to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, while thousands of military reservists vowed not to serve if the court changes are enacted. Which of its neighbors has been in a state of war with Israel since 1948?

A. Egypt

B. Lebanon

C. Jordan

D. Syria

D. Syria not recognized Israel as a legitimate state since it was established in 1948. Israeli and Syrian forces have fought wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Israel seized the Golan Height territory from Syria in 1967 and effectively annexed it in 1981.

Q: The day after Israel declared its independence in 1948, Arab nations went to war against it. Which of these nations that fought Israel in 1948 was the first to make peace with it?

A. Egypt

B. Iraq

C. Jordan

D. Saudi Arabia

A. The Egypt-Israel peace treaty was signed in 1979. Under the treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which it had taken in the 1967 war. Israel also agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab nation to make peace with Israel.

Q: Israel declared its independence on the day before which nation gave up control of the territory in 1948?

A. Britain

B. France

C. Turkey

D. United States

A. Britain conquered Palestine from the Ottoman Empire in World War I and administered the territory that includes what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip under a League of Nations mandate starting in 1922. In 1947, the United Nations proposed partitioning the territory into Jewish and Arab areas. Arab leaders rejected the plan.