Israel’s 37th government was sworn in on December 29, 2022, after securing votes of confidence of 63 of the 120 members (majority block) of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) who were elected in the most recent election on November 1, 2022. The vote of confidence in the new coalition government headed by Binyamin Netanyahu took place after the signing of coalition agreements between Netanyahu’s Likud party and six other factions (parliamentary groups). The coalition agreements lay out the respective commitments of each of the coalition’s partners regarding the coalition government but are not legally binding.
To ensure compliance with the preconditions set by the respective coalition partners, the Knesset, on the basis of a majority vote by members of the coalition factions, passed three legal amendments before voting confidence in the new government. The amendments deal with ensuring coalition discipline among factions’ members (coalition block), enabling a person sentenced to a suspended imprisonment term to be appointed as a minister, and increasing the authorities of the minister of national security to determine policies and principles governing police activity, particularly in the field of investigations.
Limiting Knesset Members’ Ability to Vote Independently of a Political Faction
The first amendment passed by the 25th Knesset on December 19, 2022, was the Knesset (Amendment No. 51) Law, 5783-2022. The amendment was designed to support coalition discipline by limiting the ability of Knesset members (KMs) to vote against the coalition agenda in order to compete in the next election (exclusionary sanction).
Under section 6A of Basic Law: the Knesset, a KM who seceded from their faction may not compete in the next general election under conditions enumerated. The basic law defines “secession from a faction” as “including voting in the Knesset plenum not in accordance with the faction’s position regarding the expression of confidence or no confidence in the government.” The basic law provides that “[t]his provision does not apply to the splitting of a faction under the conditions prescribed by law.”
According to the explanatory notes of the Amendment No. 51 bill, secession from a faction “could harm factional cohesion, the ability of the Knesset to function properly … and the public’s trust in its elected representatives.” To prevent this, the amendment excluded one of the options previously available for a group of four KMs, independent of their relative size within their faction, to secede from the faction without being subject to the sanction. Under the amendment, only a group of at least two KMs that constituted at least one-third of the number of members of the faction could secede without penalty.
Eligibility for Office and Increase of the Number of Ministers
The second amendment passed by the 25th Knesset was the Basic Law: the Government (Amendment No. 11). This amendment, adopted on December 27, 2022, authorizes the increase in the number of ministers that may serve in any government office. It further allows the appointment to a ministerial position of a convicted felon whose sentence to imprisonment has been suspended under conditions enumerated. The amendment is limited to ministerial appointments and does not apply to the PM.
Under Basic Law: the Government, the PM must first be elected as a KM under conditions prescribed by Basic Law: the Knesset. Both basic laws nullify eligibility for office of persons convicted by a final judgment and sentenced to imprisonment for at least three months. Ineligibility applies within seven years from termination of the term of imprisonment, unless the chairman of the Central Elections Committee determines that the offense of which the candidate was convicted did not bear “moral turpitude.” The Basic Law: the Knesset, however, required a lower bar by limiting the condition of imprisonment only to “actual imprisonment.” Unlike for Knesset membership, Basic Law: the Government, as applied prior to the amendment, required a higher bar by excluding from minister positions a person sentenced to any type of imprisonment, including to suspended terms of imprisonment, as was the case regarding the appointment of Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas coalition partner. According to the explanatory notes of the Amendment No. 11 bill, the purpose of lowering the bar was intended to remedy this “discrepancy.”
On January 5, 2023, the High Court held a hearing on the legality of the amendment and of the appointment of Deri in particular. Complying with the Shas coalition agreement, Deri was appointed to be vice prime minister, minister of health, and minister of interior for the first two years of the government’s tenure, and will serve as vice prime minister and minister of the treasury for the last two years. According to petitions submitted to the court, on February 1, 2022, Deri received a suspended 12-month prison sentence and a fine based on a plea deal reached following his resignation from the Knesset. According to a Times of Israel article,
In its sentencing, the court noted that any concern that Deri might in the future again “harm the public coffers” was assuaged by the “certainty” that he would have no further dealings with matters of “public economic interest since he will be distanced from the public sphere.” But in a press conference in the Knesset on Wednesday [the following day], Deri said he would lead his Shas party in any future Knesset election. “In the coming elections … I will stand at the head of Shas,” he said. “There is nothing to prevent that.”
Deri previously served 22 months in prison from 2000 to 2002 after being convicted of taking bribes while serving as interior minister. He returned to politics in 2013 and served as interior minister from 2016 until 2021.
The High Court of Justice is expected to issue its decision soon.
Authorizing the Minister of National Security to Establish Police Policies in Investigations
On December 28, 2022, the Knesset passed the Police Ordinance (Amendment No. 37), 5783-2022, approving a private member bill submitted by KM Itamar Ben Gvir, who was appointed as minister of national security the day after the bill’s passage. The amendment provides the minister of national security general authority to outline policies and principles governing police activity, particularly in the field of investigations.
According to the explanatory notes of the police amendment bill, the amendment was intended, among other things, “to allow the minister to guide the police to give priority to the treatment of certain offenses, such as offenses that are within the scope of a ‘state scourge’ [harm that affects everyone in the state], according to his policy.”
Ruth Levush, Law Library of Congress
January 17, 2023
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