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, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because i ...
in
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 Ri ...
), 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 met ...
's time zone, which is two hours ahead of
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a co ...
. The unique "Israel Standard Time" came into effect with the founding of the
State of Israel 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+ ...
(
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 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 Med ...
,
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 Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
and part of
Syria.
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 (typical ...
, 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).
See also
*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 ...
*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 (typical ...
References
Time zones
Time in Israel
{{Israel-stub
he:אזור זמן#אזור הזמן של ישראל