Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males age 18-49: 53,760
females: 51,293 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$9.45 billion (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
7.7% (2005 est.)
Transnational Issues Israel
Disputes - international:
West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status
subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent
status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel
continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along
parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew
its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip and from four
settlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights is
Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan
Heights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce
Supervision Organization (UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor
ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated
incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the
region
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 150,000-420,000 (Arab villagers displaced from homes in
northern Israel) (2006)
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Israel is a destination country for low-skilled
workers from Eastern Europe and Asia who migrate voluntarily for
contract labor in the construction, agriculture, and health care
industries, some of whom are subsequently subjected to conditions of
involuntary servitude; many labor recruitment agencies in source
countries and in Israel require workers to pay large up-front fees
that often lead to debt bondage and vulnerability to forced labor;
Israel is also a destination country for women trafficked from
Eastern Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Israel is placed on the Tier 2
Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
to address trafficking, namely the conditions of involuntary
servitude allegedly facing thousands of foreign migrant workers
Illicit drugs:
increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse; drugs arrive
in country from Lebanon and, increasingly, from Jordan;
money-laundering center
This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007
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