ocument has been issued by a Rabbi. Israel recognizes the conflicting laws and is very tolerable of differing religious beliefs.Although there has been a long dispute over property rights with the Palestinians, personal property rights are very clear and similar to those of Western law and culture. There are, of course, many exceptions to the laws when religion comes in to play and Kibbutzim. The laws regarding property rights will usually not be forced on a specific culture (like in a Kibbutz) where the beliefs state that all will be shared with all in the community.It has been difficult to enforce Common Law and property rights in Israel due to the fact that there are many conflicting religious beliefs and the nation has been in a continuous state of near warfare for many years. Now that there is more of an element of peace throughout the country, the laws are becoming more heavily enforced, but are still very tolerant of opposing religious beliefs.The type of currency that Israel uses is called the shekel. The current exchange rate to the United States dollar is 4.028 to 1 (Pacific 1). The shekel continued to strengthen against the dollar, in the continuation of a trend that started at the end of the last quarter. But as of recently there has not been much of change, the most recent change is only about plus .0042 (Pacific 1). Israel’s economy seems to be strengthening, even thought there has been little change in the strength of the shekel.The economic growth of Israel has slowed greatly since 1996 as the government imposed tighter fiscal and monetary policies and the immigration of Jewish immigrants from the former USSR has slowed. The Gross Domestic Product real growth rate is now estimated at 1.9% (Odci 7). That is a change of 2% over the previous year (CBS 1). Private consumption has begun to rise once again in recent months following a long period of declining domestic demand (Bank 1). Retail rates are growing ...
