2018 in Israel

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See also:	History of Israel Timeline of Israeli history List of years in Israel

The following lists events in the year 2018 in Israel.

Incumbents

• President – Reuven Rivlin
• Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu
• President of the Supreme Court – Esther Hayut
• Chief of General Staff – Gadi Eizenkot
• Government of Israel – 34th government of Israel

Events

January

• 1 January - An American Jewish rabbi publishes an ad in The Washington Post calling the New Zealand pop singer Lorde a "bigot" after she cancelled her concert in Israel.
• 2 January –
  • President Donald Trump tweets that the U.S. may withhold future payments to the Palestinian authority, over 350 million dollars per year, because they are "no longer willing to talk peace" with Israel, and that Israel "would have had to pay more" in return for his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
  • Israel announces plans to deport African migrants who reside in the country illegally, with 90 days given to either leave the country or face imprisonment.
• 7 January - The Iranian Revolutionary Guards accuse the "Zionist regime of Israel" of inciting the unrest of last week's unrest.
• 11 January - Two 16-year-old Palestinians are shot and killed in separate clashes with the Israeli army.
• 14 January - The Israel Defense Forces announces the complete destruction of an underground tunnel dug by Hamas under the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel shut down the crossing before its jets bombed the tunnel opening in Gaza Saturday night. The crossing remains closed.
• 15 January - Nabil Shaath, the foreign affairs adviser of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, says that the Palestinian Central Council freezes its recognition of the state of Israel until Israel recognizes Palestine as a state. Palestine will freeze the Oslo accords.
• 21 January - King Abdullah II of Jordan tells U.S. Vice President Mike Pence the U.S. has to rebuild "trust and confidence" to achieve a two-state solution in Israel after the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
• 22 January - In a meeting with the President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini assures President Abbas that the European Union supports his ambition to have East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.
• 25 January - U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to stop aid to Palestine if they do not agree to partake in with Israeli peace talks.

February

• 1 February - The Palestine Liberation Organization "rejects and condemns" the United States decision to put Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh on the OFAC SDN terror blacklist.
• 4 January -
  • The Cabinet of Israel decides to legalize a previously unauthorized outpost "deep inside the [occupied] West Bank", Havat Gilad, allegedly in reaction to the recent killing of Israeli rabbi Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old father of six on January 9 in a drive by shooting.
  • Israeli authorities tear down parts of a European Union-funded school in the Palestinian village of Abu Nuwar, on the occupied West Bank, saying it was built illegally. Palestinians say this is the fifth such demolition since 2016, with residents and NGO's each time reconstructing it.
• 5 February – Itamar Ben Gal, an Israeli rabbi is stabbed to death by an Israeli Arab near Ariel, West Bank.
• 6 February -Polish President Andrzej Duda ratifies a controversial Holocaust bill, despite angry protests from Israel and the United States. Duda defends the legislation, which will make it illegal to accuse the Polish state of complicity in the Holocaust during the Nazi occupation.
• 9–25 February – Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics
• 10 February – 2018 Israel–Syria incident

March

• 30 March – Start of the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests

April

• 26 April – Ten military cadets from a cadet academy die after being carried off by a surge in the Tzafit stream west of the Dead Sea amid floodings caused by intense storms that strike southern Israel.
• 30 April – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of not holding up its end of the nuclear deal with the P5+1 countries after presenting a cache over 100,000 documents detailing the extent of Iran's nuclear program. Iran denounced Netanyahu's presentation as "propaganda". Shortly after President Trump withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

May

12 May: Netta Barzilai performs the song Toy, which wins the Eurovision Song Contest.

14 May: The Embassy of the United States is opened in Jerusalem.

• 4–27 May – 2018 Giro d'Italia cycling Grand Tour
• 10 May – Iran's Quds Force on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights fired around 20 projectiles towards Israeli army positions without causing damages or injuries. In response, Israel launched an extensive strike against Iranian targets in Syria.
• 12 May – Netta Barzilai wins first place for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Toy".
• 14 May – The new embassy of the United States opens in Jerusalem.
• 23 May – The Knesset passed a law allowing the Security Cabinet to declare war.

June

• June 21 – Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was charged for an alleged fraud.
• June 25 – Prince William began a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, becoming the first British royal to visit the country in an official capacity.

July

• July 12 – Start of the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship in Netanya
• July 19 – Israel incorporated in its basic laws a declaration of the country as the "nation-state of the Jewish people."

September

• September 17 – Syria missile strikes
• September 25 – Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway is officially inaugurated.

October

• October 7 – 2018 Barkan Industrial Park shooting
• October 30 – Israeli municipal elections

November

• November 11 – November Gaza–Israel clashes

December

• December 4 – The Israeli military launched Operation Northern Shield to destroy cross-border tunnels built by Hezbollah along Israel's border with Lebanon.
• December 21 – Israel announced its departure from UNESCO, citing bias.

Deaths

Aharon Appelfeld

Ephraim Stern

Amos Oz

• 4 January – Aharon Appelfeld, novelist (b. 1932)
• 6 January – Batya Ouziel, handicrafter (b. 1934)
• 13 January – Eliyahu Winograd, Israeli jurist and acting judge on the Supreme Court of Israel, chairman of the Winograd Commission (b. 1926)
• 20 January – Doron Rubin, military officer (b. 1944)
• 31 January – Dan Alon, fencer (b. 1945)
• 18 February – Ya'akov Ben-Yezri, Israeli politician, Minister of Health (b. 1927)
• 24 February – Shmuel Auerbach, Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek (b. 1931)
• 2 March – Haim Hanegbi, journalist and activist (born 1935)
• 5 March – Uri Lubrani, Israeli diplomat (b. 1926)
• 23 March – Ephraim Stern, archaeologist (b. 1934)
• 24 March – Rim Banna, singer, composer and activist (b. 1966)
• 24 March – Frank Meisler, architect and sculptor (b. 1925).
• 1 April – Avichai Rontzki, Israeli military Rabbi and rosh yeshiva (b. 1951)
• 4 May – Abi Ofarim, musician (b. 1937)
• 29 May – Eliezer Rafaeli, director of the University of Haifa (b. 1926)
• 20 August – Uri Avnery, peace activist (b. 1923)
• 30 October – David Azulai, politician (b. 1954)
• 7 December – Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, businessman and politician (b. 1930)
• 17 December – Rona Ramon, activist and NGO founder (b. 1964)
• 28 December – Amos Oz, writer, novelist and journalist (b. 1939)
• 29 December – Zvi Levi, activist and NGO founder (b. 1948)
• 29 December – Yehoshua Glazer, footballer (b. 1927)

See also

• Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics
• Timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2018
• 2018 Gaza-Israel conflict