Israel’s 25th Knesset
The Knesset is the Israeli House of Representatives, serving as the sole legislative authority and governing body with legislative powers. It supervises the government's work (the executive branch) and performs several quasi-judicial roles. The Knesset elects the President of the State and the State Comptroller. It consists of 120 members and is located in Jerusalem
Knesset members are not directly elected by voters but run as candidates on party lists in general elections. The Knesset is elected for a four-year term but can dissolve itself before its term ends through legislation, which also sets the date for the next elections.
The Knesset's primary role, as the legislative authority, is to enact laws. Legislation can be initiated by the government, by one or more Knesset members, or by a Knesset committee. The legislative process is conducted by the Knesset Plenum and its committees, with the assistance of legal advisors. The Knesset Plenum approves laws by a regular majority unless otherwise specified.
Knesset members represent the people and the parties they were elected from. After elections, they operate within parliamentary groups called "factions," which have the flexibility to split or merge during the Knesset's term. These groups and members represent a wide range of political, financial, social, and other positions, expressed in plenary discussions, committee meetings, and their decisions.
The Knesset's work is governed by Rules of Procedure, complemented by various precedents, such as decisions made by the Speaker and deputies, interpreted by the Interpretations Committee. Any changes to the Rules of Procedure must be approved by the House Committee and the Plenum.
Parliamentary Work
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The Knesset Plenum
The Knesset Plenum is the central and supreme authoritative body of the Knesset.
Decisions are made by voting in the Plenum, consisting of all 120 members. Bills, motions for the agenda, parliamentary questions to government ministers, and no-confidence motions are presented in the Plenum.
It also holds discussions on various topics reflecting political, security, social, and economic events in the country. The Plenum's activities do not require the presence of all members. Decisions are approved by a majority of votes unless a specific larger majority is required by law. Protocols are recorded in the Plenum sessions, including all statements and voting results of the members of Knesset.
The Presidency of the Knesset, consisting of the Chairperson and deputies, sets the Knesset's agenda. The government proposes a large part of the Knesset session agenda. One session per week is dedicated to discussing agenda motions raised by Knesset members and preliminary readings of bills submitted by individual members or groups of members.
The Knesset usually holds one session per year, comprising two assemblies: the winter and summer assemblies, lasting a total of about eight months. During the Knesset recess, the government is authorized to convene the Knesset for sessions outside the regular schedule, and a group of at least 25 members can also convene the Knesset.
The work of the committees
The Knesset conducts a significant part of its work in committees.
Issues requiring professional and in-depth discussion are referred to committees according to their jurisdictions.
The Knesset has 15 permanent committees including the House Committee, Finance Committee, Economic Affairs Committee, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, Education, Culture and Sports Committee, Labor and Welfare Committee, State Control Committee, Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, Science and Technology Committee, Health Committee, National Security Committee, and the Committee on Public Projects.
The roles of the permanent committees include discussing bill proposals referred to them by the Plenum according to their jurisdiction and preparing these proposals for three readings in the Plenum (bills approved in the third reading become laws of the State of Israel), sponsoring legislation, discussing and formulating recommendations on issues raised in the Plenum in agenda motions referred to them and on issues forwarded for fast-track discussion following decisions by the Knesset Chairperson and deputies, discussing regulations requiring committee approval as determined by the government, discussing and formulating recommendations following inquiries from citizens that have been submitted to the Knesset or referred by the government, and acting on any other matter referred to the committee by the Knesset or decided upon by the committee itself.
Legislative work in committees involves consultation with lawyers and economists. The Knesset's Legal Department accompanies the legislative process from the stage of a Knesset member raising a bill idea through the discussions on the subject in the Knesset committees to the submission of the final draft of the bill for voting by the Plenum. The Knesset Research and Information Center provides research and explanatory services to the committees and members for fulfilling their legislative duties, overseeing the executive branch, and discussing issues on the public agenda. Committees also invite experts to their professional discussions and present their positions on current topics. Occasionally, officials are invited to provide information on their actions. By law, committees can compel ministers, even the Prime Minister, to appear before them, a tool given to the Knesset to oversee the government's work.
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The work of the special committees
The work of the special committees is similar to that of the permanent committees, but the former are appointed only for the Knesset term that appointed them. The special committees in the 25th Knesset include the Special Committee for the Rights of the Child, Special Committee for Foreign Workers, Special Committee for the Proposed Law to Amend the Police Ordinance (Powers), 2022, Special Committee for Public Petitions, Special Committee for Combating Drugs and Alcohol, Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee, Special Committee for Bridging Social Gaps in the Periphery, Special Committee for the Treatment of Holocaust Survivors, and the Special Committee for Young Israelis. Additionally, the Committee for Oversight of the Israeli Citizens' Fund was re-established in this Knesset under the relevant law.
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Parliamentary inquiry committee
Section 22 of the Basic Law: The Knesset states that the Knesset also has constitutional authority to appoint parliamentary inquiry committees to examine matters it deems of special national importance; the Knesset can also appoint one of its permanent committees to serve such a role. The Knesset determines the powers and duties of a parliamentary inquiry committee, and its members are appointed according to the relative sizes of the factions in the Knesset.
Most Knesset committee meetings are broadcast in Hebrew on the Knesset website.
Knesset Committees
These are the Permanent Committees and their Spheres of interest:
Link to the committee site
House Committee
The Committee deals with the following issues: the Knesset Rules of Procedure, and matters deriving from them; immunity of Knesset Members and requests to apply or lift it; orders of the House; recommendations concerning the make-up of the Permanent Committees and the Committees for Specific Matters, and their Chairpersons; delimitation and coordination of the Committees’ business; referral of petitions presented to the Knesset by the public to the Speaker of the Knesset, or to the appropriate committees; consideration of complaints against Members of the Knesset; payments to Members of the Knesset; deliberation of requests and matters that do not concern any committee, or that have not been included in the duties of another committee.
Link to the committee site
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee: The State Budget; taxes of all types; customs duties and excise; loans; currency and foreign currency matters; banking and banknotes; State revenue and expenditure.
Economic Affairs Committee
Link to the committee site
The Economics Affairs Committee: industry and trade; consumption; supply and budgeting; agriculture and fisheries; all branches of transportation; cooperative association; economic planning and coordination; development; state concessions and custodianship of property; property of the absentee Arabs; property of Jews in enemy countries; property of deceased Jews...
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
Link to the committee site
The Committee deals with the following issues: the foreign affairs of the state, its armed forces and its security.
Internal Affairs and Environment Committee
Link to the committee site
Internal Affairs and Environment Committee: local government; town development; entry into Israel, and population registry; citizenship; press and intelligence; ethnic communities; Jewish and non-Jewish religious organization; environment, including recycling; housing and construction, including urban renewal and the Israel Land Authority; preparedness for earthquakes; land; rental; infrastructures of special national importance, including the metro.
Link to the committee site
Constitution, Law and Justice Committee
The Committee deals with the following issues: the State Constitution; Basic Laws; laws and the administration of justice.
Link to the committee site
Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs
The Committee deals with the following issues: immigration; immigrant absorption; treatment of emigrants; Jewish and Zionist education in the Diaspora; all related issues within the terms of reference of the Board for Coordination between the Government of Israel and the World Zionist Organization, and between the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency.
Link to the committee site
Education, Culture and Sports Committee
The Committee deals with the following issues: education; culture; science; art; broadcasting; cinema; sports.
Link to the committee site
Labor and Welfare Committee
The Committee deals with the following issues: : labor; social security, including the system of income support; the National Insurance Institute; welfare; rehabilitation; disabled persons and their rehabilitation, including disabled veterans, families of war casualties, and other casualties; juvenile delinquents; pensions and benefits; payments system to soldiers and their families
State Control Committee
Link to the committee site
The Committee deals with the contact with State Comptroller and Ombudsman; powers based on the State Comptroller Law and other laws; the status and powers of internal auditors.
Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality
Link to the committee site
The Committee deals with: the advancement of the status of women toward equality in representation, in education, in marital status, and to prevent discrimination based on gender or sexual inclination in all spheres; reducing gaps in the economy and labor market; the struggle against violence towards women.
Science and Technology Committee
Link to the committee site
The Committee deals with the following issues: civil research and development policy in Israel; advanced technologies; environmental research and development; scientific research in the Israeli Academy of Sciences; scientific research outside institutes of higher education; research institutes; chief scientists of all the Government Ministries; National Council for Research and Development; research funds; information and computerization; all in the civilian domain that is not security related.
Health Committee
Link to the committee site
The committee deals with the following issues: health and medical services; national health insurance; protection of public health; preparedness for the outbreak of pandemics, and dealing with them; medical and health professions; medical ethics; the use of medical technologies.
Link to the committee site
National Security Committee
The committee deals with the following issues: the Internal security in the state; keeping the public order; public and communal security; personal security; prevention of violence, delinquency, and crime; the war against crime and organized crime, and its harms; preparedness for civilian emergency events; police, policemen and national guard; prisons and prisoners, conditions of detention and imprisonment; firefighting and rescue services; firearms.
Committee on Public Projects
Link to the committee site
The committee deals with the following issues: public works
Link to the committee site
Ethics Committee
The committee is responsible for the jurisdiction over Knesset Members who have violated rules of ethics of the Knesset or have been involved in illegal business outside the Knesset.
Special Committee for Combatting Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Link to the committee site
The committee deals with the following issues:
1. Public and educational policies, as well as enforcement measures, aimed at reducing the harmful use of dangerous drugs.
2. Treatment and rehabilitation procedures of addictions to dangerous drugs and alcohol.
3. Examination of the government policy and the various approaches to addictions.
4. Regulation of the cannabis market in Israel, decriminalization and the required medical responses.
Link to the committee site
Special Committee for the Rights of the Child
The Committee deals with the following: The protection of children and youth, with the goal of exercising their rights in in the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, without discrimination of any kind. These rights include the right to equality, the right to develop adequate conditions, the right of children and youths to express their opinions on matters that affect them and the right of children and youths who have been harmed to proper treatment and rehabilitation.
Special Committee for Strengthening and Developing the Negev and Galilee
Link to the committee site
The committee's areas of concern include the development of the settlements of the Negev and the Galilee to encourage their growth and prosperity, promotion of settlement in the Negev and the Galilee and social and economic development of these areas.
Link to the committee site
Special Committee for Bridging Social Gaps in the Periphery
Areas of activity of the committee include accessibility of social and community services in the periphery. As well as encouraging employment and training human capital in the periphery. Reducing social gaps in the fields of education, health, community and leisure in the periphery.
Special Committee on the Treatment of Holocaust Survivors
Link to the committee site
The committee will deal with the treatment of Holocaust survivors, including the services provided to them by the state and by private bodies while placing an emphasis on loneliness among survivors and putting an end to their exploitation.
Link to the committee site
Special Committee on Foreign Workers
The committee deals with the following issues:
1. Examination of the wide-scale phenomenon of foreign workers in Israel.
2. Overseeing the employment of foreign workers.
3. The employment conditions of foreign workers, including wages, national insurance, health insurance, and treatment of employers.
4. Government's conduct with regard to the employment of foreign workers, the work of the immigration police and, the handling of problems related to employment permits.
5. Foreign workers' effect on the job market and employment in Israel.
Special Committee on Young Israelis
Link to the committee site
The committee's fields of activity include: promoting the status of the younger generation, including the youth, students and young families, protecting of civil society in Israel, and responding to young people who are in a social gap.as well as facilitating sustainable development in accordance with the UN SDG goals from the perspective of the younger generation.
Committee for Oversight of the Israeli Citizens' Fund
Link to the committee site
The Israeli Citizens’ Fund Law states that “A Knesset committee will be formed to oversee the fund and the implementation of the provisions of this law, and it will be granted the powers established by this law alone. The members of the committee for oversight of the fund will be elected by the Knesset, at the proposal of the House Committee.
“The number of committee members for oversight of the fund will not exceed nine, and the composition of the committee will be determined with consideration for the factional composition of the Knesset and the size of the parliamentary groups.”
Special Committee for Public Petitions
Link to the committee site
The committee deals with Handling and providing an ongoing response to public petitions received by the committee from citizens and various NGO’s and civil society organizations. The Special Committee conducts discussions on a broad range of issues pertaining to hardships faced by individuals, consumers, and service recipients.