Israel, established in 1948, is a small country in the Middle East with a population of 8.3 million people, nearly 75% of them Jews and just over 20% Arabs, most of whom are Muslims (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 21 April 2015). Israel is a liberal democracy but also defines itself as a Jewish state, reflecting that the country was created by the United Nations to provide a safe haven for Jews after the Holocaust. This decision was a result of continuing efforts by the Zionist movement, which sought the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people, and which encouraged Jewish settlement in Palestine, primarily during the first half of the 20th Century.

A major source of tension in Israeli society is the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours, which has resulted in an ongoing, generally low level, military conflict since the state was established. The origins of this conflict are the colonisation of pre-state Palestine by Zionist-motivated Jewish immigrants and the existence of an indigenous Arab population in this territory. The decision by the United Nations to divide Palestine between its Jewish and Arab population by establishing two states did not mitigate this conflict. Indeed, on a number of occasions since 1948, this conflict has flared up into full-scale, though short, wars. The prime focus of the Arab‒Israeli conflict since the 1967 Six-Day War has been the fate of the territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) occupied by Israel during that war and that of the Palestinian population living in these territories. The continued occupation and the existence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank are a major source of (sometimes violent) conflict with the Palestinians and the subject of deep political divisions within Israeli society. This situation has also major implications for relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, given that the Arab citizens are Palestinians who remained in Israel after its establishment and thus have Israeli citizenship.

Alongside the predominant ethnic and religious divide between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority, Israel is also characterised by a high level of multi-culturalism particularly within the Jewish population. Mass immigration has been one cause of this. Following independence, Israel absorbed large waves of Jewish immigration from across the globe, in particular from Europe and North Africa.