Knesset

For Beit Knesset, a Jewish place of worship, see Synagogue.

The Knesset הכנסת الكنيست‎ HaKnesset
18th Knesset
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Reuven Rivlin, Likud since March 30, 2009
Leader of the Opposition	Shaul Mofaz, Kadima since July 17, 2012
Structure
Seats	120
Political groups	Coalition members: Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Independence, Shas, The Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism Opposition: Kadima, Labor, National Union, New Movement – Meretz, Hadash, United Arab List, Balad, Ta'al
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method
Meeting place
Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel
Website
www.knesset.gov.il

The Knesset (Hebrew: הַכְּנֶסֶת [haˈkneset] ( listen); lit. the gathering or assembly; Arabic: الكنيست‎ Al-Kinīsat) is the unicameral legislature of Israel. The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister (although the latter is ceremonially appointed by the President), approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. In addition, it also recommends a candidate for the State Comptroller to the President, who appoints someone to the post. It also has the power to waive the immunity of its members, remove the President and the State Comptroller from office, remove a Prime Minister convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, and to dissolve itself and call new elections. The Prime Minister may dissolve the Knesset. However, until an election is completed, the Knesset maintains authority in its current composition. The Knesset is located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.

Role in Israeli government

Knesset members annually convene for plenary assemblies, or plenums, for two annual sittings of at least eight months' duration. The two sittings together form a session. The Knesset may be convened at any other time if thirty or more members demand this in writing or if the government requests. As well as approving or rejecting proposed legislation, the plenum also elects the Speaker and one or more Deputy Speakers.

The Knesset has de jure parliamentary supremacy, and can pass any law by a simple majority, even one that might arguably conflict with the Basic Laws of Israel, unless the Basic Law includes specific conditions for its modification; in accordance with a plan adopted in 1950, the Basic Laws can be adopted and amended by the Knesset, acting in its capacity as a Constituent Assembly.

While the government is the sponsor of most legislation, bills can also be proposed by committees or individual members or a group of members (such a bill is known as a "private members' bill"). One meeting is set aside each week for the consideration of private members' bills. The Speaker and the Speaker's deputies decide whether to place the bills on the Knesset agenda, and have the power to block any bills that for example, are either deemed discriminatory or that reject the basic existence of Israel as a Jewish state and ancestral homeland. Bills go through three stages, beginning with a first reading, consisting of a general debate in the plenum, presided over by the Speaker or a Deputy Speaker. At this stage, the bill can be accepted, removed from the Knesset table, or returned to the government. If the bill is accepted, it is referred to the appropriate committee for amendments. The bill is then returned to the plenum for a second reading, where the deliberations and voting take place on each section separately. In the third and final reading, the bill is presented in its final form, as adopted in the second reading. The plenum then votes on the bill. While most votes are by a show of hands, certain cases are voted on by secret ballot or roll-call votes. If the bill passes, it is signed by the presiding Speaker, Prime Minister, President, Knesset Speaker, and the minister responsible for the law's implementation. The Minister of Justice then places the state seal on it.

In addition to the absence of a formal constitution, and with no Basic Law thus far being adopted which formally grants a power of judicial review to the judiciary, the Supreme Court of Israel has in recent years asserted its authority, when sitting as the High Court of Justice, to invalidate provisions of Knesset laws it has found to be inconsistent with a Basic Law.

Under Israeli law, any bill whose annual budgetary cost is over NIS 5 million, and is not supported by the government, can only be adopted with the votes of at least 50 Knesset members, at every stage of the legislation.

Committees

The Knesset is divided into committees, which amend bills on the appropriate subjects. Committee chairpersons are chosen by their members, on recommendation of the House Committee, and their factional composition represents that of the Knesset itself. Committees may elect sub-committees and delegate powers to them, or establish joint committees for issues concerning more than one committee. To further their deliberations, they invite government ministers, senior officials, and experts in the matter being discussed. Committees may request explanation and information from any relevant ministers in any matter within their competence, and the ministers or persons appointed by them must provide the explanation or information requested.

There are four types of committees in the Knesset. Permanent committees amend proposed legislation dealing with their area of expertise, and may initiate legislation. However, such legislation may only deal with Basic Laws and laws dealing with the Knesset, elections to the Knesset, Knesset members, or the State Comptroller. Special committees function in a similar manner to permanent committees, but are appointed to deal with particular manners at hand, and can be dissolved or turned into permanent committees. Parliamentary inquiry committees are appointed by the plenum to deal with issues viewed as having special national importance. In addition, there are two types of committees that convene only when needed: the Interpretations Committee, made up of the Speaker and eight members chosen by the House Committee, deals with appeals against the interpretation given by the Speaker during a sitting of the plenum to the Knesset rules of procedure or precedents, and Public Committees, established to deal with issues that are connected to the Knesset.

Permanent committees:

• House Committee
• Finance Committee
• Economic Affairs Committee
• Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee
• Interior and Environment Committee
• Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee
• Education, Culture, and Sports Committee
• Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee
• Labour, Welfare, and Health Committee
• Science and Technology Committee
• State Control Committee
• Committee on the Status of Women

Special committees:

• Committee on Drug Abuse
• Committee on the Rights of the Child
• Committee on Foreign Workers
• Public Petitions Committee

The other committees are the Arrangements Committee and the Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee is responsible for jurisdiction over Knesset members who violate the rules of ethics of the Knesset, or involved in illegal activities outside the Knesset. Within the framework of responsibility, the Ethics Committee may place various sanctions on a member, but is not allowed to restrict a members' right to vote. The Arrangements Committee proposes the makeup of the permanent committees following each election, as well as suggesting committee chairs, lays down the sitting arrangements of political parties in the Knesset, and the distribution of rooms in the Knesset building to members and parties.

Size

Knesset chamber, celebrating 61 years of the Knesset

The size of the Knesset, currently at 120 members, has often been a source of cause for proposed reforms. In 1996, then-Justice Minister Yossi Beilin backed the ultimately unsuccessful institution of the so-called "Norwegian law", which would require appointed members of the cabinet to resign their seats in the Knesset and allow other members of their parties to take their positions while they serve in the cabinet; this would have resulted in more active members of the legislature being present in regular sessions and committee meetings. This proposed law has also been favoured by other politicians, including Yitzhak Levy (who has backed the raising of total seats to 150) and current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Elections

Main article: Elections in Israel

The 120 members of the Knesset (MKs) are directly elected to four-year terms, subject to calls for early elections (which are quite common). All Israeli citizens 18 years or older may vote in legislative elections, which are conducted by secret ballot.

Knesset seats are allocated among the various parties using the D'Hondt method of party list proportional representation. Israel requires a party to meet an election threshold of 2% of the overall vote to be allocated a Knesset seat. Parties select their candidates using a closed list. Thus, voters select the party of their choice, not any specific candidate.

In practice, the Knesset's ability to legislate has often been limited due to the consequences of Israel's low 2% threshold of eligibility for a party to obtain a seat (one of the world's lowest; though it was previously at 1%, then 1.5%). As a result, no party has ever gained a majority on its own (the most being 56 seats), and thus the government is formed on the basis of a coalition. The inherent instability of the coalitions (the average life span of an Israeli government is 25 months) results in numerous successful no-confidence motions, which automatically dissolve the Knesset and necessitates an early election call.

History

The Knesset first convened on February 14, 1949, following the 20 January elections, replacing the Provisional State Council which acted as Israel's official legislature from its date of independence on May 14, 1948 and succeeding the Assembly of Representatives that had functioned as the Jewish community's representative body during the Mandate era.

The term "Knesset" is derived from the ancient Great Assembly or Great Synagogue (Hebrew: כְּנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה Knesset HaGedolah) which according to Jewish tradition was an assembly of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets, in the period from the end of the Biblical prophets to the time of the development of Rabbinic Judaism – about two centuries ending c. 70 CE. There is, however, no organisational continuity and – aside from the number of members – little similarity, as the ancient Knesset was an essentially religious, completely unelected body.

The Knesset in winter

The Knesset compound sits on a hilltop in western Jerusalem in a district known as Sheikh Badr before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, now Givat Ram. The main building was financed by James A. de Rothschild as a gift to the State of Israel in his will and was completed in 1966. It was built on land leased from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Over the years, significant additions to the structure were constructed, however, these were built at levels below and behind the main 1966 structure as not to detract from the original assembly building's appearance.

Before the construction of its permanent home, the Knesset met in the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem, the Kessem Cinema building in Tel Aviv and the Froumine building in Jerusalem.

Location and construction timeline

• February 14, 1949: First meeting of the Constituent Assembly, Jewish Agency, Jerusalem
• March 8, 1949 – December 14, 1949: Kessem Cinema in Tel Aviv (Migdal HaOpera is situated there today)
• December 26, 1949 – March 8, 1950: Jewish Agency, Jerusalem
• March 13, 1950: Froumine Building, King George Street, Jerusalem.
• 1950–1955: Israeli government holds architectural competitions for the permanent Knesset building
• 1955: Government approves plans to build the Knesset in its current location
• 1957: James A. de Rothschild informs Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of his desire to finance the construction of the building
• October 14, 1958: Cornerstone-laying for new Knesset building
• August 31, 1966: Dedication of new building (in the days of the Sixth Knesset)
• 1981: Construction of new wing begins
• 1992: New wing opens
• 2001: Construction starts on a large new wing that essentially doubles the overall floorspace of the Knesset compound. It opens in 2007.

Knesset assemblies

Each Knesset session is known by its election number. Thus the Knesset elected by Israel's first election in 1949 is known as the First Knesset. The current Knesset, elected in 2009, is the Eighteenth Knesset.

First Knesset (1949 – 1951) Second Knesset (1951 – 1955) Third Knesset (1955 – 1959) Fourth Knesset (1959 – 1961) Fifth Knesset (1961 – 1965) Sixth Knesset (1965 – 1969) Seventh Knesset (1969 – 1973)

Eighth Knesset (1973 – 1977) Ninth Knesset (1977 – 1981) Tenth Knesset (1981 – 1984) Eleventh Knesset (1984 – 1988) Twelfth Knesset (1988 – 1992) Thirteenth Knesset (1992 – 1996) Fourteenth Knesset (1996 – 1999)

Fifteenth Knesset (1999 – 2003) Sixteenth Knesset (2003 – 2006) Seventeenth Knesset (2006 – 2009) Eighteenth Knesset (2009 – 2013) Nineteenth Knesset (2013 – present)

Knesset 2009 to very early 2013

Historic engraving on the Frumin House, King George St., Jerusalem.

The composition of this, the eighteenth, Knesset was determined by the 2009 election. There were 18 parties represented in the Knesset on 12 lists (some parties run for election together on joint lists), and Labor has split since the eighteenth Knesset convened, creating the Independence party.

The parties in the eighteenth Knesset are shown in the table below.

Party and constituents	Leader	Seats
Likud	Binyamin Netanyahu	27
Kadima	Shaul Mofaz	21
Yisrael Beiteinu	Avigdor Lieberman	15
Shas	Eli Yishai	11
Labor Party	Shelly Yachimovich	8
Hatnuah	Tzipi Livni	7
Independence	Ehud Barak	5
United Torah Judaism Agudat Yisrael Degel HaTorah	Yaakov Litzman	5
United Arab List-Ta'al United Arab List (2) Ta'al (1)	Ibrahim Sarsur	3
National Union Moledet (1) Tkuma (1)	Ya'akov Katz	2
Hadash Maki	Mohammad Barakeh	4
New Movement-Meretz	Zahava Gal-On	3
The Jewish Home	Daniel Hershkowitz	3
Balad	Jamal Zahalka	3
Otzma LeYisrael	Aryeh Eldad	2
Am Shalem	Haim Amsalem	1
Arab Democratic Party	Taleb el-Sana	1

February 2009 elections

Main article: Israeli legislative election, 2009

The Knesset was reconstituted following elections in February 2009, which resulted 28 seats for Kadima, 27 for Likud, 15 for Yisrael Beiteinu, 13 for Labour, 12 for three small religious parties (5 for United Torah Judaism, 4 for National Union and 3 for Jewish Home), 11 for Shas, 7 for two Arab parties (4 for Ta'al, 3 for Balad), 4 for the non-Zionist Hadash, and 3 for the left-wing Jewish party Meretz.

Although the Central Elections Committee attempted to ban the participation of the two Arab parties United Arab List-Ta'al and Balad for alleged disloyalty to the state and support of Israel's enemies, the ban was, by a vote of 8 to 1, overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, allowing the parties to participate.

Tourism

The Knesset holds morning tours in Hebrew, English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German and Russian, on Sunday and Thursday and there are also live session viewing times on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

Security

A member of the Knesset Guard

The Knesset is protected by the Knesset Guard, a protective security unit responsible for the security of the Knesset building and Knesset members. Guards are stationed outside the building to provide armed protection, and ushers are stationed inside to maintain order. The Knesset Guard also plays a ceremonial role, participating in state ceremonies which includes greeting dignitaries on Mount Herzl on the eve of Israeli Independence Day.

See also

• Elections in Israel
• Knesset Guard
• List of Arab members of the Knesset
• List of Knesset members
• List of Knesset speakers

External links

• Official website (English)
• Parliament building envisioned by Herzl, Boris Schatz and Richard Kaufmann
• Planning and Construction History in Photographs