Inside the Knesset

A tour of the legislature is a great opportunity to take a better look at the heart of Israel’s democracy.

By NAAMA BARAK
The Knesset (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Knesset
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Ever wondered what the Knesset looks like from the inside? Or where MKs eat lunch? Or perhaps you’re interested to find out how your favorite legislator voted in a matter close to your heart.
All these queries are surprisingly easy to answer with a free, one-hour tour of the Knesset. The Knesset offers a wide range of tours, for schoolchildren, soldiers and adults. Some give a general outline of the Knesset, while others focus on women in democracy, art, architecture or the Green Knesset, the legislature’s environmental protection project. A good introduction to the Knesset is the general tour – available in a number of languages – which takes visitors through important sections and provides a good explanation of how the Israeli parliament works.
On a recent Sunday, about 20 people from various countries gathered in the Knesset for an English-language tour. Upon our arrival, tour guide Yehudit Weinberger handed out headphones so the group could hear her clearly. After a brief introduction, the group took off.
Our first stop was the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, where we sat around the table that committee members usually occupy. After an introductory film that included a welcome message from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and a recap of historic events at the Knesset, Weinberger began to explain the structure of the Knesset and the committees.
There are 12 permanent Knesset committees, such as the Economic Affairs Committee and Foreign Affairs and the Defense Committee, alongside special committees that have a mandate for a single term and can be renewed, for example on the topics of drugs or refugees. Special committees can turn into permanent ones as has happened with the Committee on the Status of Women.
Each Knesset member sits on two to four committees, which takes up a considerable amount of the legislators’ work. Since the Knesset acts as the watchdog of the government in the “separation of balance” governance system, alongside the judicial system, government ministers are not allowed to sit on committees.
Citizens can also have a say in the committees’ work.
“It’s quite easy to be part of the democratic legislature,” says Weinberger, pointing out that people can appeal and contribute to the committees.
People who want to observe the committees’ meetings can easily do so, whether they want to be part of the audience in the room or follow them on the Knesset Channel on TV or its website. All committee meetings that are not classified are live streamed so that concerned citizens can follow procedures in the comfort of their own homes.
The issue of transparency is a big one for the Knesset, and it comes across in different ways, be it in the emphasis on transparency during the tour, in the architecture of the building or in the parliament’s efforts to provide information on its work for the public.
Our next stop was the Knesset’s attendance board, where one can see which MKs are in the building at any given moment. This, too, is meant to allow for better transparency and enables people to follow the work of their representatives. The board comprises the pictures of all 120 MKs, including the prime minister. If an MK is in the building, his or her picture lights up.
On the day of our tour there was rather poor attendance – fewer than 10 MKs were in the building.
According to Weinberg, that was because of the Knesset’s election recess and because there are no plenary sessions on Sundays.
“You can see all the faces of Israeli society” in the Knesset, she said. There are 12 non-Jewish MKs, who are either Muslim, Christian or Druse. The current Knesset holds some records, such as including the youngest MK ever – Stav Shaffir (Labor) who was elected at age 27 – and the first Jewish Ethiopian female MK, Pnina Tamnu-Shata (Yesh Atid).
MKs are required to attend at least two-thirds of plenum meetings. If they don’t and are unable to give a good reason for their absence, they are fined and have money deducted from their salary. It was interesting to learn that the reason behind the high salaries of MKs (starting-level salaries stand at NIS 38,000) is that they aren’t tempted to make more money elsewhere, which is forbidden. The only case in which MKs are permitted to receive additional income is royalties from a book they had written before entering parliament.
From the attendance board, we walked past the cafeteria, apparently the real hub of activity in the Knesset. We reached the plenum and were ushered into the dignitaries’ gallery.
Sitting in the gallery overlooking the plenum, we learned a little about the room. It is made up of the visitors’ gallery, where members of the public who want to attend a session can do so; the dignitaries’ gallery, reserved for foreign officials and guests; and the plenary floor, where only MKs and ushers are permitted.
The plenary floor is meant to resemble a menora, but it’s “not quite a kosher one,” Weinberger quipped, as it doesn’t have the required number of branches.
The coalition sits on the right-hand side, and the opposition on the left. This arrangement, our guide assured us, is permanent and has nothing to do with the political situation. The government sits in the middle, and the prime minister’s seat is just like the others’. Farther up are the Knesset Speaker’s seat and the podium. Alongside the regular podium is another, accessible, one for any wheelchair-bound speakers.
Weinberger explained the voting process and the majority that is required for various types of laws to be passed. We also heard about the discussions that take place in the plenary and learned that Monday is “oneminute speeches day,” when MKs can deliver a oneminute speech about any topic.
“If they wanted to speak about cheese, they could,” she said.
In order to vote, MKs press a touch screen, and their vote is automatically shown on screens overhead.
This is important both for party discipline, to see that MKs are voting according to their parties’ wishes, and for viewers, who can see it from the galleries or from home, as Knesset votes are also live streamed.
There was time for questions at the end of the tour, and Weinberg knowledgeably answered a wide range of them. We covered topics such as a politician’s having to give up foreign citizenship in order to become an MK, as American-born Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) did, and how the public can suggest topics for legislation.
The participants of the tour all seemed very interested and were evidently satisfied with the tour.
As for the tour guide, the issue of transparency was the one she found the most important to convey.
“People are impressed with the Knesset’s accessibility to the public and with the citizens’ opportunities to have influence here,” she said.
Regarding future visitors, she said that everyone was “very welcome. It’s very easy to get here, and there are lots of tours in lots of languages.”
It is easy to join a tour – no booking is required for individuals, and all information is available on the Knesset’s website. 
For more information, visit: knesset.gov.il/tour/eng/ evisit.htm