Land of Israel

The Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl, Eretz Yisrael) is a name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant (also known in English as Canaan, Palestine, the Promised Land, or simply the Holy Land). The Jewish religious belief that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people is based on the Torah, especially the books of Genesis and Exodus, as well as the Prophets. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. A literal reading of the text suggests that the land promise is (or was at one time) one of the Biblical covenants between God and the Israelites. This belief is not shared by most Christians for whom the entitlement of any one ethnic or religious group to territory in the Middle East is not supported by Scripture. With the exception of Christian Zionists, it is the position of most Christians that the land promises of the Old Covenant were expanded in the New Testament to show the universal dominion of Jesus Christ.

The definition of the limits of this territory varies between biblical passages, specifically Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Elsewhere in the Bible, this land is often referred as "from Dan to Beersheba". The Land of Canaan is another biblical name for this region. A reference to the land of Israel is also made in the New Testament at Matthew 2:19–21.

The boundaries of the Land of Israel are different from the borders of historical Israelite kingdoms. The Bar Kokhba state, the Herodian Kingdom, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and possibly the United Kingdom of Israel ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries. The current State of Israel also has similar but not identical boundaries.

The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the Palestinian territories.