1986 in Israel

Incumbents

• Prime Minister of Israel – Shimon Peres until 20 October, Yitzhak Shamir
• President of Israel – Chaim Herzog
• Chief of General Staff - Moshe Levi
• Government of Israel - 21st Government of Israel until 20 October, 22nd Government of Israel

  Events

• 1 January – The New Israeli shekel replaces the old shekel as Israel's official currency.
• 4 February – Israeli jet fighters intercept a Libyan civil aircraft over Cyprus and force it to land in Israel.
• 11 February – After a period of imprisonment of nine years in a Siberian labor camp, the Soviet-Jewish refusenik and human rights advocate Natan Sharansky and three low-level Western spies are exchanged for Czech spies held in the US, a Soviet spy, a Polish spy and a GDR spy. Sharansky subsequently emigrates to Israel.
• 16 April – Bejski Commission publishes its report.
• 4 June – Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel.
• 30 September – Israeli Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov who befriended Israeli nuclear weapons whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu persuades him to fly to Rome with her on a holiday. Once in Rome, Mossad agents overpower and drug him and carry him to a waiting ship off the coast, which takes him to Israel.
• 5 October – Israeli secret nuclear weapons are revealed by the British newspaper; The Sunday Times, which publishes an interview with Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details of the program.
• 16 October – An Israeli F-4 Phantom, piloted by Yishai Aviram, is inadvertently damaged midair and abandoned, resulting in the capture of flight navigator then-Captain Ron Arad by Amal, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia. To this day, the whereabouts of Arad has not been disclosed by his captors.
• 20 October – The twenty-first government is replaced by the twenty-second government, when Yitzhak Shamir replaces Peres as Prime Minister in accordance with the rotation agreement between the Alignment and Likud.
• 23 October – The beginning of experimental broadcasts of the Israeli Channel 2.
• 19 December: Carmelit metro shut down for intensive renovation to be reopened in 1992.

  Israeli–Palestinian conflict

• 17 April – Hindawi affair: An attempt to bomb an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv is foiled.
• 6–22 September Turkish Jews were killed by Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Abu Nidal Organization while attending service at the Neve Shalom Synagogue.

Unknown dates

• The founding of the community settlement Eshhar.
• The founding of the community settlement Kokhav Ya'ir.

  Notable births

• 7 January – Daphne Leef, Israeli activist who is the initiator of the 2011 housing protests in Israel.
• 24 January – Raviv Ullman, Israeli-born American actor.
• 8 February – Agam Rodberg, Israeli model and actress.
• 3 March – Michael Moshonov, Israeli actor.
• 10 March – Roni Duani, Israeli pop singer, actress, TV host, and model.
• 28 August – Gilad Shalit, Israeli soldier held as a hostage.
• 1 September – Shahar Tzuberi, Israeli windsurfer and Olympic bronze medalist.

  Notable deaths

• 8 February – Yisrael Galili, Russian -born Israeli politician.
• 29 July – Dan Pagis, Romanian -born Israeli poet, lecturer and holocaust survivor.

  Major public holidays