1985 in Israel

Incumbents

• Prime Minister of Israel – Shimon Peres
• President of Israel – Chaim Herzog
• Chief of General Staff - Moshe Levi
• Government of Israel - 21st Government of Israel

  Events

• 7 January - The Israeli government establishes the Bejski Commission, a committee of inquiry charged with investigating the 1983 Israel bank stock crisis.
• 16 February – Israel begins withdrawing troops from Lebanon.
• 10 March – Twelve IDF soldiers are killed in a suicide car attack near Metulla.
• 22 April - Israel signs a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
• 11 June – HaBonim disaster: 22 people, including 19 children, are killed when a train collides into a school bus at a railway crossing near HaBonim.
• 1 July - The Israeli government introduces the Economic Stabilization Plan to counter the dire economic situation and rapidly growing inflation.
• July – The 1985 Maccabiah Games are held.
• 4 September – The Israeli new shekel is introduced. It does not replace the old shekel as Israel's official currency until 1 January 1986.
• 5 October – Ras Burqa massacre: An Egyptian soldier shoots and kills seven Israeli vacationers at Ras Burqa, a beach resort in the Sinai peninsula.
• 21 November – Jonathan Pollard, a US naval intelligence analyst who spied for Israeli intelligence, is arrested by the FBI at the gates of the Israeli Embassy in Washington while trying to seek asylum there.

  Israeli–Palestinian conflict

• 9 April – A Palestinian Arab suicide car bomber drives an explosive-laden vehicle into an Israeli army patrol, killing 2 soldiers.
• 21 May - The Jibril Agreement - Israel releases 1,150 security prisoners being held in Israeli prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured during the 1982 Lebanon War.
• 25 September – An Arab terrorist cell takes over an Israeli yacht off the coast of Larnaca, Cyprus and kills its three Israeli occupants. An elite section of the PLO known as Force 17 claims responsibility for the attack.
• 7 October – The Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro is hijacked in the Mediterranean Sea by Palestinian Arab militants. The hijackers' original aim was to use the ship to slip into Israel. However, crew members discover them cleaning weapons, and the group then seizes control of the ship; holding the passengers and crew hostage, they direct the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demand the release of 50 Palestinian Arabs then in Israeli prisons. During the incident, the militants kill the passenger Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old wheelchair-bound Jewish American, and throw him overboard.
• 27 December – Palestinian Arab militants from Abu Nidal's militant group open fire at the counters of El Al in the airports of Rome and Vienna. 18 Israelis were killed and 40 were injured.

• 4 August – Defence Minister Rabin launches an Iron Fist policy in West Bank.
• 1 October – Operation Wooden Leg: Following the attack in Cyprus, the Israeli Air Force bombs PLO Headquarters near Tunis.

  Unknown dates

• The founding of the West Bank settlement of Oranit.
• The founding of the community settlement Shaharut.

  Notable births

• 1 April – Shay Doron, Israeli basketball player.
• 4 April – Dudi Sela, Israeli tennis player.
• 30 April – Gal Gadot, Israeli actress and model.
• 4 June – Bar Refaeli, Israeli model.

  Notable deaths

• 18 January – Mordechai Bentov, Russian -born Israeli journalist and politician.
• 31 January – Menachem Bader, Austro-Hungarian -born Haganah member and Israeli politician.
• 24 April – Yitzhak Kahan, Austro-Hungarian -born Israeli jurist, sixth President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
• 29 September – Yona Wallach, Israeli poet.
• 6 October – Noah Moses, publisher and editor of Yedioth Ahronoth.
• 7 December – Shlomo Rosen, Austro-Hungarian -born Israeli politician and minister.
• 30 November – Joseph Zaritsky, Russian -born Israeli painter.
• Full date unknown
• * Benjamin Akzin, Russian -born early Zionist activist and Israeli university professor.
• * Moshe Rudolf Bloch, German-born Israeli scientist.
• * Moshe Rachmilewitz, Russian -born leading Israeli doctor.
• * Eliezer Smoli, Russian -born Israeli writer, famous for his children's books.

  Major public holidays