X-Nico

15 unusual facts about Knesset


1966–68 Liga Leumit

The season began with a protests from relegated players, with the uproar reaching as far as the Knesset.

Bank of Israel

The Bank of Israel was founded on August 24, 1954, when the Knesset passed the Bank of Israel Act, which ceded the currency issuing and regulatory functions of the Ministry of Finance to the newly formed Bank.

Daniel Hershkowitz

In 2009 he was elected to the Knesset as the leader of the Jewish Home, and was appointed Minister of Science and Technology after joining Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Gabriel Hallevy

In 2007, Hallevy was granted a special honorary prize by the Knesset (the highest academic prize in Israel) for research into criminal law.

Marina Solodkin

She immigrated to Israel from Russia in the early 1990s and joined the immigrant Yisrael BaAliyah party and entered the Knesset in 1996.

After retaining her seat in the 1999 elections, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Immigrant Absorption, a post she regained during the 16th Knesset after Yisrael BaAliyah had merged into Likud.

Paul Eidelberg

Eidelberg stood number seven on the JNF's list for the Israeli Knesset for the March 28, 2006 election.

Serjeant-at-Arms

The Knesset of Israel has a sergeant-at-arms (officially known in Hebrew as "קצין הכנסת" ("k'tzin ha-Knesset"), (lit. "Officer of the Knesset", but as "sergeant at arms" in English).

Shmuel Hauser

In addition, Hauser served as economic consultant to the Knesset Economics Committee’s investigation committee on bank fees reform, and was also chairman of a public committee whose task was to make recommendations on the criteria for housing benefits in the municipality of Kiryat Ono.

Slobodan Lang

In 2012 Lang critically resented the statements of Croatia President Ivo Josipović, when he addressed the Israel Knesset on February 2012, who apologized for the crimes committed against the Jews in Croatia during World War II.

Solar water heating

Following the energy crisis in the 1970s, in 1980 the Israeli Knesset passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes (except high towers with insufficient roof area).

Tel Aviv Savidor Central Railway Station

It is named after Menachem Savidor, Israel Railways' chairman between 1954–1964 and later the speaker of the Knesset.

Unit 669

Former unit commander (1978-1980) Dr. Efraim Sneh, rose to become a Brigadier General, a Knesset member and government minister (Health; Transportation; deputy Defense Minister).

Views on the Arab–Israeli conflict

Several Arab political parties have elected parliament members in the Knesset.

Zalman Shoval

In the elections that year he narrowly missed out on being elected to the Knesset - Shoval was placed fifth on the party's list, but it won only four seats.


1990s Post-Soviet aliyah

In the Israeli elections of 2009, Yisrael Beiteinu gained 15 Knesset members its highest ever.

Adolf Berman

He was elected to the Knesset on the party's list in 1951 elections, but on 20 February 1952 left the party and formed the Left Faction together with Rostam Bastuni and Moshe Sneh.

Al-Ja'una

At midnight on 5–6 June 1949, the remaining villagers in Al-Ja'una (together with those of Al-Khisas and Qaytiyya) were surrounded by Israeli Defence Force units, who then forced the villagers into trucks "with brutality—with kicks, curses and maltreatment...." (in the words of Knesset member and Al HaMishmar editor Eliezer Peri) and dumped them on a bare hillside near the village of 'Akbara.

Alexander Tzinker

On 20 July 1999, just over a month after the elections, Tsinker and Roman Bronfman left the party to establish a new Knesset faction; six days later it was renamed "Mahar" (a Hebrew acronym for Party for Society and Reforms), and in October adopted the name "Democratic Choice".

Anti-Arabism

Abbas Zakour, an Arab member of the Knesset, was stabbed and lightly wounded by Russian immigrants who shouted anti-Arab chants.

Ben-Sasson

Menachem Ben-Sasson (born 1951), Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for Kadima

Bury Hebrew Congregation

Bury Hebrew Congregation, also known in Hebrew as Bet Knesset Sha'ar HahShamayim (Gate of Heaven Synagogue) is an Orthodox synagogue, serving the Jewish community in the Sunnybank, Unsworth and Hollins area of North Manchester.

Colette Avital

However, she entered the Knesset in November 1999 when Labor MK Matan Vilnai resigned.

Dani Dayan

Dayan was the Secretary-General of the Tehiya political party and was a candidate to the Knesset on its list in the Israeli legislative elections in 1988 and 1992.

Doha Stadium

The decision by the Qataris to build the stadium in Israel came after a meeting between Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi and Secretary-General of the Qatar National Olympic Committee Sheikh Saud Abdulrahman Al Thani after Tibi expressed his concern on the conditions for sport in Sakhnin.

Einat Wilf

She lost her Knesset seat in January 2013 when the party chose not to contest the elections.

Georgian diaspora

Tzipi Hotovely, an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Likud party.

Haredi burqa sect

According to The Jerusalem Post, a Member of the Knesset, MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) put forward a bill to "prohibit the wearing of a full-body and face covering for women.

Israeli Military Censor

During the 1990s, the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee appointed a subcommittee, chaired by Yossi Sarid, to examine the existence and role of the Military Censor.

Job's Passion

Miriam Glazer-Ta'asa, Israel's Deputy Minister of Education and Culture at the time, claimed before the Knesset that the state should not fund theater where, "a naked man is hanging for twenty minutes with his genitals flailing about."

Kach and Kahane Chai

Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "Hellenists" in Hebrew (a reference from Jewish religious texts describing ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great).

Ken Power

They visited 120 countries and interviewed members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Force 17, the Palestinian Authority, the Knesset, IDF, and US generals, as well as Israeli secret service agents in the Mossad and Shin Bet.

Limor Livnat

She first entered the Knesset on 14 April 1992, shortly before the 1992 elections, as a replacement for Haim Corfu.

Matalon

Moshe Matalon - Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu

Menorah

Knesset Menorah, a bronze monument located at the edge of Gan Havradim (Rose Garden) in front of the Knesset.

Moses Mescheloff

In 1954, Mescheloff moved to Chicago, in time to celebrate Hanukkah with his new congregation in West Rogers Park, Chicago, Congregation K.I.N.S. (Knesset Israel Nusach Sfard) of West Rogers Park.

Naftali Bennett

Following his election to the Knesset, Bennett had to renounce his U.S. citizenship, which he had acquired through his parents.

Ono Academic College

Gila Gamliel, member of the Knesset for Likud and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office

Peretz Naftali

In January 1959 he became Minister of Welfare, but lost his Knesset seat and place in the cabinet in the 1959 elections.

Popolitica

Journalist Tommy Lapid lead the Shinui party with his rhetorical abilities, previously observed on the show, into the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, and was elected on a wave of his popularity from the show to head that party, and then appointed to be a Cabinet Minister.

Pray for the Peace of Jeruslam

In 1964, in the age of 33, Dani Karavan was chosen by Dora Gad, the Knesset interior architect, to create the statue that will consist of the western central wall of the Knesset assembly hall.

Realignment plan

The plan was formulated and introduced to the Israeli public by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a number of media interviews during the election campaign for the 17th Knesset in early 2006.

Same-sex marriage in Israel

Moshe Gafni, a Haredi MK, said that he would consider presenting a bill to the Knesset to attempt to overturn the court ruling.

San Remo conference

Panel participants included Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Danny Danon, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein and international legal expert Jacques Gauthier of Toronto.

Tawfik Toubi

In 1976, he was elected secretary general of the new Hadash party, an alliance of Rakah and several other smaller left-wing and Israeli Arab parties, and was elected to the Knesset on Hadash's list in 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1988, before resigning from the Knesset in July 1990 and being replaced by Tamar Gozansky.

Timeline of the 2011 Israeli social justice protests

Members of the city's Public Committee and a local youth movement participated, as did Arab Knesset members Jamal Zahalka and Mohammed Barakeh.

Yariv Levin

Levin was born in Jerusalem to Gail and Aryeh Levin, an Israel Prize laureate for general linguistics, His mother's uncle, Eliyahu Lankin, was commander of the Altalena ship and member of the first Knesset representing Herut, whilst Menachem Begin was the Sandek at Levin's circumcision ceremony.

Yigal Bibi

During his first term, he served as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (from August 1990 until November 1990) and Deputy Minister of the Environment (from November 1990 until the end of the Knesset term in 1992).

Yitzhak Yitzhaky

Yitzhak Yitzhaky (politician born 1902), an Israeli politician who briefly served as a member of the Knesset for Mapam in 1955.

Yosef Almogi

First elected to the Knesset in the 1955 elections, Almogi was made Minister without Portfolio after the 1961 elections, before taking over the roles of Minister of Housing and Minister of Development in October 1962.

Yuli Tamir

She was elected to the Knesset again in the 2006 elections, and as of 4 May 2006, is the Education Minister in Ehud Olmert's Kadima-led coalition government.

Zalman Shoval

Shortly before the 1973 elections, the State List joined other groups to form the Likud, and Shoval was returned to the Knesset as a Likud MK.