ABSTRACT
Located on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean at the meeting point of Asia and Africa, IsraePs land area is 20,700 square kilometres (8,000 square miles) and its 1988 population was 4.3 million. The State of Israel dates back only to 1948 but the links between the Jewish people and Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) date back to about 2000 BC when Hebrews began to arrive in Canaan, as the land was then called. They became the dominant group in the area from about 1200 BC and remained so until 63 BC. From that date, the area was ruled in turn by Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks and British until 1948. During that period, the Jewish community spread to many parts of the world with the majority settling in Europe. In the late nineteenth Century, under the banner of Zionism, a movement back to Israel began and a Hebrew renaissance developed. Precisely because of these lengthy cultural links with Europe - especially during the modern period - it is more logical to deal with theatre in Israel as part of the European mainstream than as part of the indigenous traditions of its Arab neighbours - Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan in the east and Egypt in the southwest.
