1961 in Israel

Incumbents

• Prime Minister of Israel – David Ben-Gurion
• President of Israel – Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
• Chief of General Staff – Haim Laskov until 1 January, Tzvi Tzur
• Government of Israel – 9th Government of Israel until 2 November, 10th Government of Israel

  Events

• 1 January – Tzvi Tzur is appointed as the 6th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.
• 11 January – The Pisces, a yacht carrying Moroccan Jews to Israel, capsized off the coast of Algericas, Spain, drowning the 40 passengers and all but 3 of the crew. The ship's captain survived.
• 5 July – The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2, is launched.
• 11 April – Adolf Eichmann's trial begins before an Israeli court in Jerusalem. Eichmann is indicted on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership in an outlawed organization. The trial is the subject of a great deal of international controversy and creates huge international interest.
• 22 May – Population Census: 2,179,491 inhabitants in Israel.
• 20 June – Ten weeks into his war crimes trial, the prosecution having rested, Adolf Eichmann took the witness stand in his own defense, but refused to swear on the Bible.
• July – The 1961 Maccabiah Games are held.
• 5 July – The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2, was launched. At 4:41 am, the rocket was launched "from a secret installation on the Mediterranean".
• 14 August – The trial of Adolf Eichmann adjourned in Israel after 73 days, and the three judge panel began deliberating the evidence.
• 15 August – elections were held for the 120 seats in the fifth Knesset. The Mapai Party, led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, lost five seats, retaining 42, with the Herut Party second with 17.;
• 2 November – Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion received approval to form a new coalition government, with the Knesset approving a vote of confidence, 63–46.
• 28 November – After Morocco's King Hasssan II agreed to allow the Arab nation's Jewish minority to leave, the first group 105 Jews was allowed to fly out to Israel. By the end of the year, 11,478 had left, and over the next two years, the 85,000 members of the community had emigrated.
• 1 December – Israel announced plans to establish "the world's first chain of industrial co-operative towns" in the Negev Desert, starting with the community of Mitzpe Ramon.
• 11 December – Adolf Eichmann is convicted of crimes against humanity by a panel of three Israeli judges.
• 15 December – An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolf Eichmann to death for his part in The Holocaust.

  Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Notable births

• 3 March – Ze'ev Nechama, Israeli singer, songwriter and composer.
• 3 May – Ya'akov Eilon, Israeli journalist and news anchorman.
• 10 June – Sey Heiman, Israeli singer.
• 11 July – Ophir Pines-Paz, Israeli politician.
• 27 July – Erez Tal, Israeli media personality.
• 10 December – Oded Schramm, Israeli mathematician.

  Notable deaths

• 22 March – Gideon Mer, Russian -born Israeli physician, scientist and malaria researcher.
• 30 April – Peretz Naftali, German-born Zionist activist and Israeli politician.
• 30 May – Binyamin Mintz, Russian -born Israeli politician.
• 25 June – Ezra Ichilov, Israeli politician.
• 8 October – Moshe Smoira, first President of the Supreme Court of Israel

  Major public holidays