What religion do Israelis practice? What was Israel called before 1948?

As of 2022, the religious affiliation of the Israeli population is 73.6% Jewish, 18.1% Muslim, 1.9% Christian, and 1.6% Druze. The remaining 4.8% includes faiths such as Samaritanism and Baháʼí, as well as “religiously unclassified”.

Israel was called Palestine before 1948. The name Palestine has been used since ancient times to describe the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The name was officially adopted by the British Mandate in 1922, which governed the region until Israel’s independence in 1948.

Before the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, the region was known as the British Mandate for Palestine. It was under British control from 1920 to 1948. Prior to the British Mandate, the area had been part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 followed the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of Resolution 181, which called for the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, along with an international administration for Jerusalem. This resolution led to the declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. The region has been known as Israel since that time.