BICOM

Israel will enjoy a two-day holiday on Monday and Tuesday, with the Jewish New Year beginning on Sunday evening.

Sunday will be one of the busiest travel days of the year, with Israelis typically travelling across the country to spend the festival with family. On Monday and Tuesday, work places, schools and most shops will be closed.

The Jewish New Year begins a month of Jewish holidays, a period which is often a time of increased security tensions. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that “the security forces are on heightened alert… in order to ensure that we will be ready to defend our people during this sensitive period”.

Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that in Jerusalem, often a focal point for security concerns during the holidays, Border Police, special patrol and undercover units “will focus on security in all public areas, with a main emphasis on the first days of the Jewish festival to ensure all visitors are safe at all times, and will respond to any incident on any level immediately”.

Meanwhile, ahead of the Jewish New Year, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published its annual report, “Israel in Figures”. The report reveals that Israel’s population currently stands at 8.585m people, a 2 per cent growth from last year. The population is comprised of 74.8 per cent Jews and 20.8 per cent Arabs.

In the report, the CBS predicts that by 2040, Israel’s population will reach 13.3m people and that only 58.8 per cent of Israeli residents will be secular Jews, compared to 68 per cent today.

The report also said that 89 per cent of Israelis described themselves as being happy with their lives, and 84 per cent are happy with where they live. However, 36 per cent of Israelis, some 1.3m people, said they found it difficult to cover their monthly expenditures, and 24 per cent said they felt under pressure constantly or frequently.