Israel Standard Time (IST) ( he, שעון ישראל ', lit. "Clock of Israel") is the standard

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It is two hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+02:00).

Overview

History

At the beginning of the British Mandate, the time zone of the mandate area (present-day Israel and

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

), was set to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

's time zone, which is two hours ahead of

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the Local mean time, mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, i ...

. The unique "Israel Standard Time" came into effect with the founding of the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948, which gave Israel the authority in determining its own time, specifically to enact daylight saving time.

Differences between other countries

The offset from UTC is equivalent to

Eastern European Time Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer. A number of African countries use UTC+0 ...

( UTC+02:00), during most of the year. Because Israel switches to summer time on Friday, rather than Sunday as most other countries do, the change of time in spring occurs either two days before or five days after the switch to summer time in Europe. The switch on Friday is due to having the

Jewish Sabbath Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

as the common rest day of the week. Prior to 2013, Israel Daylight Time ended earlier in autumn, and the time was identical to

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

for between two and seven weeks during these months. Israel shares the UTC+02:00 time offset with all of its neighbouring countries:

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

and part of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Daylight saving time

Israel observes

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

, locally called

Israel Summer Time Israel Summer Time ( he, שעון קיץ ' "Summer Clock"), also in English, Israel Daylight Time (IDT) is the practice in Israel by which clocks are advanced by one hour, beginning on the Friday before the last Sunday of March, and ending on t ...

( ', sometimes abbreviated in English as IDT). Since July 2013, IDT begins on the Friday before the last Sunday of March, and ends on the last Sunday of October.Knesset votes to extend Daylight Saving Time
(07/08/2013).

References

Time zones Time in Israel {{Israel-stub he:אזור זמן#אזור הזמן של ישראל

Overview

History

Differences between other countries

Daylight saving time

See also

References