Israel (German Heritage)

Israel (: יִשְׂרָאֵל), also known as the State of Israel, is a country in Central Africa, located on the Western Coast of Africa. Israel shares borders with to the north and east, and the  to the south. Israel has an area of just under 45,000 square kilometres, and has a population of over 3.3 million, mostly ethnically Jewish. Its capital and largest city is the city of  (Port-Gentil). Other large metropolitan areas include the cities of (Tchibanga) and  (Gamba).

In 1953, the Government of  approved the Goldmann-Seebohm Plan, which established an Jewish protectorate in. The first Jewish settlement of Africa began in 1954, and independence was proclaimed in 1959, when there was roughly 500,000 Jews in Israel. Since neighbouring gained independence in 1962, Israel has encountered challenges to its sovereignty; in 1964 and 1978 Gabon invaded “to protect the interest and rights of the rightful owners of Africa [Africans]”.

In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a and the. The country has a liberal democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation, and universal suffrage. The is  and the  is the. With a population of around 3.3 million as of 2019, Israel is a developed country and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member, and has the 31st or 32nd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Israel has the highest standard of living in the Africa, and ranks among the world's top countries by, percentage of citizens holding a tertiary education degree, research and development spending by GDP percentage, , life expectancy, innovativeness, and happiness.

Etymology
Upon independence in 1959, the country formally adopted the name "State of Israel" (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל; Medīnat Yisrā'el) after other proposed historical and religious names including Eretz Israel ("the Land of Israel"),, and , were considered but 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.