Sports in Israel

What sports are played in Israel?

The frame is statutory. The Sports Law, 5748-1988 — חוק הספורט, תשמ"ח-1988 — defines an "התאחדות" and an "איגוד", the words Israeli practice uses for a national governing body, as "תאגיד שלא למטרות ריווח, המרכז והמייצג ענף או ענפי ספורט בישראל ושמכירים בו הגופים הבין-לאומיים המייצגים והמוכרים באותו ענף ספורט": a non-profit corporation that centres and represents a sport or sports in Israel and that is recognised by the international bodies representing and recognised in that sport. Section 5(a) provides that a sports club, a sports institute, a sports organisation and an התאחדות or איגוד "לא ישתפו ספורטאים בתחרויות ספורט המאורגנות בידם או מטעמם, אלא אם כן הספורטאים נבדקו תחילה בדיקות רפואיות ונמצאו כשירים" — shall not have athletes take part in sports competitions organised by them or on their behalf unless first medically examined and found fit — and section 7(a) requires the same bodies to insure athletes taking part in those competitions.^[8]

Olympedia's by-sport table for Israel records medals in six sports: sailing, judo, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, canoe sprint (canoe-kayak) and taekwondo.^[1] No countable figure for the number of sports federations recognised in Israel could be retrieved from the Olympic committee's or the ministry's own pages. The team sports with national league structures are football and basketball; the football association's about page gives about 40,000 players in close to 1,000 teams,^[6] and the public broadcaster's sport service carries both sports, with the men's and women's basketball premier leagues and the football State Cup and Toto Cup.^[30]

What is the most popular spectator sport in Israel?

Two structural proxies are available and they point at the two league sports. The football proxy is gate attendance. The Israeli Premier League administration reported total attendance of 2,280,759 for the 2025/26 Ligat ha'Al season, against 1,809,420 in 2024/25, and a single-round figure of 83,276 in round 21. The figures were published on 25 May 2026 and are the league administration's own.^[11]

The basketball proxy is competition structure rather than a gate figure: the premier basketball league administration runs a 14-club competition,^[15] and the EuroLeague describes Maccabi Tel Aviv on its own club page as a six-time champion.^[13]

A broadcast proxy exists but is old. Kan 11 recorded a 15.3 per cent rating for Israel against Spain on 9 October 2017, reported the next day as the channel's highest figure since it began; the report describes the data as preliminary, among Jewish households, and inclusive of deferred viewing to 2 a.m.^[28] No more recent audited television audience figure for Israeli sport could be retrieved.

How is sport organised in Israel?

The Sports Administration of the Ministry of Culture and Sport — מינהל הספורט — sets out four functions for itself: policy and strategy; implementation, covering legislation, regulation and budget allocation; supervision of sports institutions and coach-training facilities; and representation of the government in international sports organisations.^[10] Those sit on top of the duties the Sports Law places on federations and clubs.^[8] See national sports law.

The second body is the National Olympic Committee, and its dates need keeping apart. Its Hebrew about page states that "הארגון הוקם ב-1933 כוועד אולימפי הארץ ישראלי" — established in 1933 as the Eretz Yisrael Olympic Committee — that it was reconstituted in 1951, and that "בראשית 1952 הוכר על ידי הוועד האולימפי הבינלאומי", it was recognised by the International Olympic Committee in early 1952.^[2] Its English page adds that the 1933 body was recognised by the IOC one year after its establishment.^[3] Olympedia's narrative instead puts formal recognition in 1951.^[1] An NOC is recognised by the IOC rather than a member of it, and those dates are reported as the sources give them rather than reconciled.

Geography and competitive affiliation are separate facts here. Israel lies in Western Asia. Separately, the European Olympic Committees carry the Olympic Committee of Israel among their member NOCs and name Yael Arad as its president.^[4] The EOC's own history, which records its foundation at the Assembly of Versailles in 1968, does not state the year Israel's committee was admitted.^[5] In football the governing body's own record is dated: UEFA's page for the Israel Football Association states that in 1994 "the Israel Football Association becomes a full member of UEFA, with the national team having been playing regularly in Europe since 1991".^[26] The association's own account is that it operated within the Asian confederation until the late 1970s.^[6] No governing body's own record of the date Israeli teams ceased to compete in Asian competition could be retrieved. Background sits at national Olympic committees.

What are the main domestic leagues and competitions?

The Israel Football Association's 80th-anniversary publication records that a founding assembly convened formally in Jerusalem on 14 August 1928 — "ב-14 באוגוסט בשנת 1928, התכנסה רשמית בירושלים אסיפה מייסדת" — establishing התאחדות ארץ ישראלית למשחק כדור-רגל, and that in December 1928 it was admitted to FIFA as a provisional member and became a full member a year later.^[7] The top division is Ligat ha'Al; below it run the National League, the State Cup and the Toto Cup.^[29]

Basketball's top division is run separately: the premier league administration operates a 14-club competition under the sponsor name Winner and records Maccabi Tel Aviv as champion in 2026.^[15] Israeli clubs also enter UEFA club competition: UEFA's fixture page lists Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the UEFA Europa League 2026/27.^[14]

Two decisions of identified bodies bear on the association. FIFA's own media release records that on 19 March 2026 the FIFA Disciplinary Committee fined the Israel Football Association 150,000 Swiss francs, issued a warning, and required a "Football Unites the World – No to Discrimination" banner at its next three A-level home matches in FIFA competition, layouts to be submitted fifteen days before each. Of the fine, 50,000 francs must be invested within sixty days in an anti-discrimination programme and 100,000 francs fall due within thirty days of notification. The stated grounds are breaches of articles 13 and 15 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code — offensive behaviour and violations of the principles of fair play, and discrimination and racist abuse — following a proposal by the Palestinian Football Association at the 74th FIFA Congress. The release records the decision as subject to a potential appeal before the FIFA Appeal Committee; no such appeal could be retrieved as at 20 September 2026.^[23] The release names no club. Al Jazeera's report of 19 March 2026 gave an account of the reasoning in which the committee found the association had failed to act against Beitar Jerusalem, quoting a FIFA report as saying supporters "have engaged in persistent and well-documented racist behaviour"; that account rests on that single secondary source.^[21]

Separately, the FIFA Council decided in March 2026 to take no action over Israeli clubs based in the West Bank, on the stated ground of "the unresolved legal status of the occupied West Bank under public international law". The Palestinian Football Association's vice-president, Susan Shalabi, told Reuters that the association had appealed that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 20 April 2026; CAS had not announced the appeal at the date of that report, and as at 20 September 2026 no award could be retrieved. The appeal is undecided and pending.^[22]

How has Israel performed at the Olympic Games?

The figures here follow Olympedia's Israel (ISR) country entry, whose narrative records that Israel competed first at Helsinki in 1952 and has missed only the 1980 Games since.^[1]

Summing the Medals by Games table restricted to the rows Olympedia itself types as Olympic Games gives 20 medals — 4 gold, 6 silver and 10 bronze. Summing the Medals by sport table independently gives the same split, so the split is published here. The same table also carries rows typed as Youth Olympic Games; those are not Olympic Games rows and are not added. The 2024 row carries seven of the 20 — one gold, five silver and one bronze. By sport: judo 9, sailing 5, artistic gymnastics 2, rhythmic gymnastics 2, canoe sprint 1, taekwondo 1.^[1]

Eleven members of the Israeli delegation at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games were killed on 5 September 1972. Olympedia's Israel entry records that at München on 5 September 1972 terrorists murdered 11 Israeli Olympic team members.^[1] The IOC's commemorative acts are documented in the speech its President gave in Munich on 5 September 2022, on the fiftieth anniversary: it refers to the 11 Israeli victims and the German policeman, records a moment of silence "shared with hundreds of millions of people all over the world during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020", and refers to "dignified commemorations at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020" arranged with the families and with Israel's National Olympic Committee.^[17]

Which athletes and teams are internationally recognised?

The Paris 2024 Games produced seven medals and the results behind them are dated. Tom Reuveny won gold in the iQFoil windsurfing event, a sailing medal on Olympedia's classification.^[20][1] Sharon Kantor won silver in the women's iQFoil event, Artem Dolgopyat silver in the men's floor exercise on 3 August 2024, and the Israeli rhythmic gymnastics group silver in the group competition.^[20]

Judo supplied three of the seven, all on 1 August 2024: Inbar Lanir won silver in the women's event up to 78 kg, Raz Hershko silver in the women's event over 78 kg, and Peter Paltchik bronze in the men's event up to 100 kg.^[20] Olympedia records nine Israeli Olympic judo medals in all.^[1]

Two further recognitions are institutional. The EuroLeague describes Maccabi Tel Aviv as a six-time champion of that competition.^[13] The International Paralympic Committee records Israel beating the United States 47-37 in the men's wheelchair basketball final at Tel Aviv 1968.^[16]

What major international competitions has Israel hosted?

Israel has not hosted the Olympic Games. It has hosted the Paralympic Games once: the International Paralympic Committee gives Tel Aviv 1968 as running from 4 to 13 November 1968, taken on after the Mexican government withdrew over technical difficulties, with 775 athletes from 28 countries in 10 sports across 188 medal events.^[16]

The recurring hosting fact is the Maccabiah. Maccabi World Union scheduled the 22nd Maccabiah in Israel from 30 June to 14 July 2026 across Junior, Open, Masters and Paralympic competitions; its own pages also refer to the edition as the 2025 Maccabiah.^[18] The Media Line put the opening ceremony at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem on 1 July 2026 and the closing at 13 July 2026, and gave two participation figures: roughly 5,000 athletes from about 35 countries in the opening procession, against organisers' expectation of 8,000 to 10,000 from 55 countries across the Games.^[19] See hosting and bidding.

One decision limits what can be staged in Israel. The UEFA Executive Committee decided on 19 October 2023, in UEFA's own words, "that no Uefa competition matches shall be played in Israel until further notice due to the current security situation", and UEFA confirmed in February 2026 that it still stood.^[24] It remained in effect as at 20 September 2026: Israel's designated home fixture against the Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Nations League was set for Hungary. On 19 September 2026 UEFA also rejected a request from that association that the two not be drawn against each other, stating that "decisions to avoid certain teams being drawn against each other are made taking into consideration several factors, especially conditions between the two countries leading to structural risks for security".^[25]

What are Israel's main sporting rivalries?

The named domestic fixture is the Tel Aviv derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv in football. Walla Sport, previewing round 4 of the 2026/27 season on 13 September 2026, gave the league record as "מאזן הדרבים בליגה: 64 ניצחונות למכבי תל אביב, 47 להפועל תל אביב ועוד 60 תוצאות תיקו" — 64 wins for Maccabi Tel Aviv, 47 for Hapoel Tel Aviv and 60 draws. Those three figures total 171 league meetings. The record covers league matches only and is a single secondary source rather than a federation publication.^[12]

The same report records that Hapoel Tel Aviv ended a run of twelve years without a derby win the previous season and that the two clubs last met as joint league leaders in April 2003, a match that finished 0-0.^[12]

Where athletes move between national teams, the rules are at sporting nationality and dual nationality and transfers of allegiance.

What is the role of school and university sport?

The statutory obligations are addressed to bodies rather than to age groups: sections 5(a) and 7(a) of the Sports Law bind those bodies in respect of the competitions they organise, whoever competes in them.^[8] The wider framework is at youth and junior sport.

The pathway institution is the Wingate Institute. Its own account says it opened in 1957 as the country's central institution for physical education and that the Law establishing the National Institute for Excellence in Sport (Wingate Institute), 5777-2017 made it a government corporation under the Ministry of Culture and Sport. It describes itself as housing an elite sport unit, a school for coaches and instructors and a centre for sports medicine and research.^[9] The Sports Administration's own statement of functions includes supervision of coach-training facilities.^[10]

Academic provision runs through the Levinsky-Wingate Academic College, which awards a B.Ed in physical education and a B.Sc in sport and movement sciences.^[31] Its own site gives no founding or merger date, and no national figure for school-sport participation could be retrieved from a government source.

Were any sports invented in Israel?

The claim most often attached to Israel is krav maga, a self-defence method rather than a competitive sport. The International Krav Maga Federation's account is that Imi Lichtenfeld set out "ליצור שיטת לחימה והגנה עצמית פשוטה ויעילה" — to create a simple and effective fighting and self-defence method — and that the federation "הוקם בשנת 1995 ביחד עם מייסד שיטת הקרב מגע", was established in 1995 together with the method's founder.^[27] That is the federation's account of its own subject. No source retrieved here shows krav maga recognised as a competitive sport by an Israeli body under the Sports Law.^[8]

Inventing a sport and codifying one are different claims, and no source retrieved here carries an Israeli claim of origin for any sport in which Olympedia records an Israeli Olympic medal.^[1] Judo in particular is Kanō's synthesis of existing Japanese schools, which judo sets out.

What Israel has is an event of its own rather than a sport of its own: the Maccabiah.^[18]