Israel Standard Time (IST) ( ', ) 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, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. 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, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

), was set to

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

's time zone, which is two hours ahead of

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the local mean 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, including being ...

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

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1948, which gave Israel the authority in determining its own time, specifically to enact daylight saving time. In 1992, the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

replaced the British Mandate era ''Time Ordinance'' with the ''Law Determining the Time''. This gave authority for setting the exact time with National Physical Laboratory in the Ministry of Economy. The Laboratory of Frequency and Time in the NPL maintains

atomic clock An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betwee ...

s which officially set Israeli 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 two days before 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, UTC+02:00), 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 E ...

for between two and seven weeks during these months. Israel also shares the UTC+02:00 time offset with

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Daylight saving time

Israel observes

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

, locally called Israel Summer Time ( ', 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.

Issues

Due to the differing time policies between the Israeli government and the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

, time zones can change unexpectedly for residents as they travel. Israelis and Palestinians have reported sudden time changes that lead to scheduling errors and conflicts, as well as phones that change the time unexpectedly. In some cases, phones in the same area will show different times depending on whether the phone number is Israeli or Palestinian. Both authorities have at times changed the onset of daylight savings time or standard (winter) time on short notice, exacerbating the issue. As mentioned above, there are also issues that arise from Israel's unusual Friday/Saturday weekend. Israel changes its clock on Thursday night, the start of the weekend, while the Palestinian Authority changes its clock on Sunday night.

References