The Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved on Monday an amendment to the Basic Law that cancels the option to form "rotation governments," in which two leaders take turns being prime minister.
The rotation system will also be removed from other related laws, not just the main one.
The vote came after a few weeks of discussions. In the end, the coalition and opposition agreed. The biggest disagreement was about when the change would start.
They decided it won’t start right away—it will only take effect when the 26th Knesset (the next one after elections) begins.
The legislation in question is part of the Basic Law: The Government, and was the legal basis for both the Netanyahu-Gantz COVID-19 emergency government in 2020 and the Lapid-Bennett government of 2021-2022.
The purpose of a "rotation government"
The purpose of a "rotation government" is to create a "two-headed" government, with a prime minister and "alternate prime minister" who switch midway through their tenure.
One of the reform’s chief proponents, Knesset Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), was one of the sponsors of the bill, alongside stark opponents of the judicial reforms, such as Democrats MK Efrat Rayten.
Rothman said during the session: “Both when it was enacted and when it was amended, the law had immediate applicability. The issue was also challenged in the High Court of Justice, which stated the obvious—that didn’t even need to be said—that the Knesset is authorized to amend Basic Laws with immediate effect. In principle, there was no reason not to apply the corrective amendment immediately as well.”
Simcha Rothman explained that although he initially supported the immediate implementation of the amendment, he agreed to delay it until the 26th Knesset to ensure joint support from both the coalition and opposition, prioritizing unity over immediacy.
According to MK Efrat Rayten and Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharrar, the rotational government “distorts political considerations and the incentives of elected officials."
"The system blurs intragovernmental hierarchy, damages the status of the prime minister, and also enables the possibility of leveraging the relative power of politicians who did not win the majority of the public’s votes. These ultimately lead to damage to the government’s work and to the public,” Rayten and Elharrar explained.
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.