Israel Standard Time (IST, Hebrew: שעון ישראל, She'on Yisra'el; "Israel Time") is the standard time zone in Israel. It is two hours ahead of UTC (UTC+02:00).
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At the beginning of the British Mandate, the time zone of the mandate area (today's Israel and Jordan), was set to Cairo's time zone (the same as Athens), which is two hours later than Greenwich Mean Time. 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.
The difference from UTC is the same as Eastern European Time (UTC+2), during most of the year, but since the Israeli daylight saving time period ends earlier in autumn, the Israeli time is identical to Central European Time for between 2 and 7 weeks during these months. Also, because Israel switches to summer time on Friday, rather than Sunday as most other countries do, the change of time in spring occurs either 2 days before or 5 days after the switch to summer time in Europe.
Israel shares the UTC+2 timezone with all of its neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Israel observes daylight saving time, locally called Israel Summer Time (Hebrew: שעון קיץ sh'on kayits, sometimes abbreviated in English as IDT).
According to the 2005 rule, at the last Friday before April 2, at 02:00, time is shifted one hour towards 03:00. At the last Sunday before 10th of Tishrei (the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur), at 02:00, time switches back to 01:00.
The earliest date for switching to DST is 26 March while the latest is 1 April. The earliest date for switching back to standard time is 8 September while the latest is 13 October. The total number of days varies between 163 and 198, 180 days in average.
Before this rule was enacted, the minister of the interior had the authority to decide on the start and end dates of Israel Summer Time. The length of summer time depended largely on the political affiliation of the minister in charge. Religious ministers often opted for an earlier switch back to standard time in autumn, claiming that summer time causes hardship for religious observers at this time of year.
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