1978 Survey of Israel Hebrew Folding Map of Israel 30 Years after Its Founding

An impressive Hebrew-language map of Israel, published in 1978 by the Survey of Israel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the nation's founding.

A Closer Look

The State of Israel, including Palestinian-inhabited areas, is presented in detail, marking cities and settlements, roads and railways, ports, airports, and other features. These are shaded to indicate whether they existed before 1948 (in grey) or were built after 1948 (in red) to demonstrate the industriousness of the Israeli populace in the wake of the country's founding. A second legend, barely visible below the title box, explains the green shading on the map, representing nature preserves, parks, and forests. Insets are provided of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, Be'er Sheva, Haifa, and Sinai, which Israel occupied at the time (returning it to Egypt soon afterward, in 1982).

Verso Content

The verso includes additional maps and infographics discussing the history of the State of Israel and progress made in various areas, such as education and population growth. The maps include representations of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Operation Kadesh in the Sinai Peninsula during the Second Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis) in 1956, and operations during the 1967 Six-Day War and the recent 1973 Yom Kippur War.

A Possibility of Peace

This map was produced to coincide with and celebrate the 13th anniversary of the founding of Israel. However, as the map itself makes clear, the young country's history was defined by near-constant warfare. The 1973 Yom Kippur War, which was largely a continuation of the 1967 Six-Day War, began with a coordinated, surprise Arab (Egypt and Syria) attack on Israeli-occupied positions in Sinai and the Golan Heights. After initial success, the Arab forces faced a successful Israeli counter-attack that pushed beyond Sinai towards Suez before a stalemate set in and a ceasefire was negotiated. Both sides were exhausted by decades of fighting and faced an uncertain future. This background was the impetus for the Camp David Accords in 1978, whereby Israel returned Sinai to Egypt in exchange for Egypt recognizing the State of Israel. Though Egyptian President Anwar Sadat paid for the agreement with his life, being assassinated in 1981, the agreement stabilized relations between Israel and Egypt, the most powerful Arab state, and set a course for further meetings to try to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict. These proceeded with some success through the 1993 Oslo Accords and a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, but in recent decades, the trend has been backpedaled towards continuous warfare.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared and published by the Measurements Department (אגף המדידות) of the Survey of Israel in 1978. It is included in a catalog listing in the OCLC, but there are no institutions listed as holding it, which is common with items held by the National Library of Israel. The NLI holds two examples, the only known institutional holdings of this map.