Knesset, The
Knesset, The
The Knesset is the unicameral parliament of the State of Israel, and as such it is the country’s highest legislative body. There are 120 members of Knesset (MK), who are elected to four-year terms in office. In addition to passing legislation, the Knesset also appoints Israel’s president—a largely symbolic position—and the state comptroller. In addition, the Knesset has the authority to dissolve itself by simple majority, which would result in the holding of new elections and the formation of a new government. The Knesset meets in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. When the State of Israel was initially established in May 1948, the Knesset sat in Tel Aviv. It moved to Jerusalem in December 1949 and has remained there ever since.
Because Israel does not have a written constitution, the rules and regulations governing how the Knesset functions—and even its establishment—are laid down in Israel’s Basic Laws. According to “Basic Law: The Knesset,” article 4, elections for the Knesset are to be “general, country-wide, direct, equal, secret, and proportional” (Government of Israel 2004). Israel has universal suffrage for all citizens aged eighteen and over, and all citizens are eligible to vote in these elections. In this respect, elections for the Knesset are viewed as general elections, as opposed to elections for municipal officers. With respect to the elections being “country-wide,” for the purposes of Knesset elections, the entire country is considered one district. There are not separate electoral districts based on geographic region for distribution of Knesset seats.
Numerous parties participate in Israeli politics and are represented in the Knesset. According to the 1992 Parties Law, a party is defined as “a group of persons who joined together in order to promote in a legal way political or social objectives and to express them in the Knesset by their representatives.” Parties can be established by registering the signatures of one hundred adult Israeli citizens who are residents of Israel. However, a party is prohibited from registering or competing in the electoral-legislative process if one of the following four conditions is found to be present in its “objectives or actions”: (1) it rejects the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; (2) it encourages racism; (3) it supports the armed struggle against the State of Israel by either terrorist organizations or enemy states; and (4) it is believed that the party will be used “for illegal activities.”
In order to gain entry to the Knesset, a party must obtain 2 percent of the votes cast in the election. Since the entire country is one “district” for the purpose of Knesset elections, parties must receive 2 percent of all votes cast throughout the country in order to be represented in the Knesset. The division of seats in the Knesset is based on a system of proportional representation. The number of seats that each party receives in the chamber is proportional to the number of votes it receives in the election, once the 2 percent threshold has been passed. Previously, the threshold had been as low as 1 or 1.5 percent, but it was raised to 2 percent in 2003. Individuals are elected to the Knesset based on what are known as closed party lists. In other words, when an Israeli citizen votes in a Knesset election, he or she votes for a particular party, not for an individual representative. Different parties choose their slate of representatives in different ways, but the individual voter does not get to select individual representatives on election day.
As a result of this system, no party has ever received the necessary majority (sixty-one seats) to form a government on its own. In this respect, Israeli governments have always comprised multiple parties, or, in other words, they are coalition governments. Occasionally, parties have been able to form “minority” governments (a coalition of fewer than sixty-one seats) with the support of Arab parties that vote with the government but are not formal members of the coalition. At the same time, the relatively low threshold necessary to gain entry into the Knesset has also resulted in the proliferation of numerous small parties into the Knesset and in the Israeli political system as a whole. There are parties representing all different groups of Israeli society, ranging from religious to secular, right wing to socialist, and parties that specifically represent Arab citizens. Generally, however, Israeli politics has been dominated by large left-leaning parties (e.g., Labor and its predecessors) and right-leaning parties (e.g., Likud and its predecessors), with smaller parties and religious parties floating between the larger parties to create the government coalitions.
As the parliament, the Knesset is responsible for writing and passing legislation. Bills must pass three readings before they are signed into law. There is no process of judicial review. However, existing legislation may be amended or canceled by the passage of a new bill. Additionally, there is no authority that has power to veto legislation that is passed by the Knesset. While the Knesset has supreme legislative authority, in matters concerning “personal status,” such as marriage, divorce, or burial, it is the various religious denominations that set the rules, based on their own religious laws. In other words, the Jewish authorities regulate marriage and divorce for Jewish citizens, the Muslim religious authorities do the same for Muslim citizens, and the Christian religious authorities for Christian citizens.
As a parliamentary system, the prime minister is usually the head of the largest party in the Knesset. However, in an attempt to create more stability in the Knesset and the governments, between May 1996 and March 2001 the prime minister was directly elected separately from the rest of the Knesset. The election did not have the intended consequences, however, and many argued that the “reform” was a resounding failure. The direct election provision was quickly repealed, and the prime minister is again the head of the largest party in the Knesset.
SEE ALSO Parliaments and Parliamentary Systems
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Government of Israel. 2003. The Knesset at Work: Legislation. http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_work_mel2.htm.
Government of Israel. 2004. The Knesset in the Government System: The Electoral System in Israel. http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_mimshal_beh.htm.
Peretz, Don, and Gideon Doron. 1997. The Government and Politics of Israel. 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Rachel Bzostek