In blitz, Knesset passes laws to rebuild the south, revoke benefits for terrorists

In a packed plenum session ahead of the beginning of the Knesset’s April recess, lawmakers advanced a flurry of last-minute legislation on Monday, ranging from bills banning teachers with Palestinian degrees to the establishment of the new National Authority to Combat Poverty.

The advanced legislation also compels governments to devise a clearly defined national security strategy and revokes national insurance benefits for terror convicts.

Rebuilding the south

As protesters demonstrated against the government in front of the Knesset and across Jerusalem, MKs voted 37-0 to approve the third and final reading of a law providing for the extensive rehabilitation of all communities within seven kilometers (4.3 miles) of the Gaza border, defining the region as an area of special focus for activities aimed at the “rapid” return to normal life for the localities affected by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

According to the law, over the next seven years, the government will be obligated “to act for the extensive rehabilitation of the [region] in an accelerated manner” and legally establish the role and authority of the Tekuma Directorate — a government body established after October 7 and tasked with the region’s rehabilitation.

According to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s spokesman, the directorate’s powers are being expanded “beyond reconstruction” and will now encompass “extensive regional development,” with local authorities set to receive NIS 5 billion ($1.3 billion) for economic, infrastructure, and social development — including NIS 1 billion (nearly $270 million) for cities outside the immediate border area, like Ofakim, Netivot, and Ashkelon, which were affected by the attack.

Combating poverty

Lawmakers also voted 39-0 to approve the third and final reading of a law mandating the establishment of the National Authority to Combat Poverty.

Sponsored by lawmakers belonging to the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the left-wing The Democrats party, the law calls for the foundation of an agency under the aegis of the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry tasked with coordinating government-wide efforts in reducing poverty over the long term — including by preventing families on the verge from falling into poverty in the first place.

The new authority will, among other things, formulate both a multi-year national plan and annual plans to combat and prevent poverty and oversee their implementation, as well as establish a National Center for Information and Research in the field of poverty and its management. It will also be empowered to assist families under the poverty line who have not yet received help through traditional welfare channels.

Under the law, the Social Affairs Minister, currently Shas’s Yaakov Margi, will appoint a 29-member council, made up of representatives of the public and various government agencies, to outline the authority’s policies.

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri celebrated the law’s passage as a “historic day of good news for the State of Israel,” stating that the new authority will deal with issues ranging from early childhood poverty to employment and welfare and “will lead long-term programs to improve the situation of the weaker sectors” of Israeli society.

“There is a public in the State of Israel today that wakes up in the morning and does not ask itself who the new head of the Shin Bet is or who was appointed to this or that position,” he declared — referring both to the effects of poverty and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial effort to replace the head of the Shin Bet security agency while it investigates his senior aides.

The law was also welcomed by Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee chairman Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism), who said it would “prevent many families from falling into poverty,” and by Hadash-Ta’al MK and co-sponsor Aida Touma-Sliman, who described her legislation’s passage as “a significant achievement in the struggle for social justice.”

“While the government is cutting welfare budgets and deepening disparities by funding a destructive war, we have succeeded in passing a law that rightly stands on the side of the poor and the disadvantaged – not as those in need of mercy, but as those with the right to live with dignity,” Touma-Sliman said.

Some critics have expressed concern that the bill would help circumvent financial sanctions on members of the ultra-Orthodox community who evade the military draft.

Revoking national insurance benefits for security criminals

Lawmakers also cut government benefits for those convicted of crimes against the state — voting 38-1 to pass a law permanently revoking national insurance benefits from people convicted of a “serious terrorist offense.” That includes murder or attempted murder for terrorist purposes, as well as those who engaged in treason or serious espionage and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“It’s over – terrorists will not see another shekel from the State of Israel,” declared the bill’s sponsor, Likud MK Ofir Katz.

“Today, we are correcting a huge absurdity. This law comes to put an end to one of the moral failures in the State of Israel. Terrorists receive money from us – from the State of Israel,” he said.

“These people made a conscious decision to murder Jews. They harmed the State of Israel. When you are an enemy – you will not receive a budget from the country that you are trying to destroy. In what other country would you hear such a thing? This is outrageous, it is absurd, and today it ends.”

Upon the deaths of those subject to this law, their dependents would be ineligible for survivor benefits. However, exceptions for child benefits would be made for those receiving child allowances under certain circumstances.

In November, the Knesset passed two other bills cutting national insurance benefits for terror convicts.

The first law cut child allowances paid to parents of minors imprisoned for security or stone-throwing offenses, while the second revoked National Insurance Institute benefits paid to anyone living abroad who “has been convicted of an offense pronounced by the court to be an act of terrorism.”

Regulating the Meron pilgrimage

Just under six weeks after lawmakers voted to approve its first reading, lawmakers on Wednesday voted 9-0 to pass into law a temporary measure regulating the celebration of the annual Lag B’Omer pilgrimage at Mount Meron, which is traditionally marked with multiple large bonfires that massive crowds dance around.

The bill allows for just one central lighting event consisting of two bonfires to be held at the northern Israel site. Additional bonfires will only be allowed with the permission of Jerusalem Minister Meir Porush, after it has been determined that certain conditions have been met. The law also requires the issuance of permits to enter the site during the pilgrimage and establishes fines for those engaged in unsanctioned bonfires.

“This year’s complex will be significantly expanded in a way that will allow thousands of people to celebrate simultaneously from all communities and sectors,” Porush stated.

In 2021, 45 Israelis were trampled to death during the Mount Meron festivities. A state commission of inquiry later determined that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the officials personally responsible for the disaster. Porush, who is tasked with ensuring the safety of the pilgrimage, last year said that he would implement the inquiry commission’s findings.

Disqualifying candidates and banning teachers

Lawmakers additionally advanced a range of bills through the initial stages of the legislative process, including voting 22-0 to approve the first reading of a bill to disqualify a candidate or list of candidates from running in municipal elections on the grounds that they have denied the existence of the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic, or expressed support for terrorism or armed struggle against the State of Israel.

The legislation seeks to bring the Local Authorities Bill in line with an existing law barring individuals who support terror and racism from running for the Knesset.

“We are putting an end to the terrible absurdity in which terror supporters can be elected to local government,” Likud MK Dan Illouz (Likud), the initiator of the legislation, said in a statement to The Times of Israel.

“My bill passed its first reading today – another step in restoring logic to governance. Those who support the murderers of Jews belong not in councils, but in prison. Public officials should serve the state – not collaborate with those who seek to destroy it.”

Another bill, which passed its first reading 16-1, would prohibit people with academic degrees from Palestinian institutions from teaching in Israeli schools.

The legislation — sponsored by Likud MK Amit Halevi, among others —allows the Education Ministry’s director-general to withhold accreditation from teachers with a degree from an institution within the Palestinian Authority, “provided that such a degree is required for his work as an education worker.”

In its explanatory notes, the bill argues that recent years have seen an increase in the numbers of Israeli citizens and residents who have received degrees from Palestinian Authority institutions and have gone on to teach in Israeli schools.

“The studies at these institutions include, in many cases, antisemitic content and indoctrination whose purpose is to deny the existence of the State of Israel and to seriously incite against it,” the bill states — calling it inappropriate for such people to “expose helpless children” to such viewpoints.

Many Arab Israelis have studied in PA universities.

Responding to the bill’s advancement, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi complained that “it has been customary for more than 20 years not to put controversial laws to a vote during the Ramadan Iftar… or during the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays… when there are no Muslim MKs in the plenum.”

In addition, lawmakers voted 23-2 to approve the first reading of a bill to replace the term “West Bank” with “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term for the region, in all Knesset legislation.

The legislation, by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman, stipulates that no other term or designation other than “Judea and Samaria” will be used in legislation and that it will replace any other terminology used in existing legislation.

A national security strategy

In an effort to deal with security threats against Israel on multiple fronts, including the West Bank, lawmakers also voted 34-0 to approve the first reading of a bill obligating every Israeli government to formulate a national security strategy.

The bipartisan bill — sponsored by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) — would require the National Security Council to formulate a national security strategy in consultation with the ministries of foreign affairs and defense, intelligence agencies and other relevant government bureaus.

Edelstein currently serves as the chairman of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Eisenkot is a former IDF chief of staff who previously served as a non-voting observer in Netanyahu’s now-defunct war cabinet.

In its explanatory notes, Edelstein and Eisenkot asserted that a lack of an explicit security doctrine in favor of unwritten rules has damaged the country’s preparations and readiness in the face of threats, paving the way for the events of October 7, 2023.

The proposed strategy document — which would have to be approved by the government within 150 days of its formulation and be updated regularly — would identify Israel’s national security challenges and establish its strategic goals, and provide a “critical assessment” of the country’s existing national security strategy.

Arrests and violence

During the course of lawmakers’ daylong legislative marathon, multiple anti-government demonstrators were arrested by police. In addition, security forces were filmed manhandling MK Naama Lazimi of The Democrats party during a protest outside the Knesset.

Despite people screaming that she was a member of Knesset, officers grabbed, pulled and shoved the opposition lawmaker as she screamed in fear.

Responding to the footage, The Democrats’ chair Yair Golan said that the incident proved that “incitement has seeped in, and restraint has disappeared.”

“I know Naama well. She is a brave fighter who will not shy away from pressure or arrests. And like Naama, the hundreds of thousands of citizens on the streets will not be deterred. Anyone who thinks they can be broken is making a historical mistake,” he tweeted.

Following the attack, Lazimi accused the police of helping the government suppress democracy.

מליציית בן גביר תוקפת את חברת הכנסת נעמה לזימי.
הדמוקרטיה נפלה.
אם לא נתייצב כגוף אחד מולם, איש מאיתנו לא מוגן.
גם לא מי שמחפשים אחדות.
ואפילו לא מי שתומכים בנתניהו.

ותודה לאישה האמיצה הזאת שמגנה בגופה על הדמוקרטיה. או מה שנותר ממנה. .@naamalazimi @guypch2news… pic.twitter.com/vl744p6cMk

— Rotem Sivan (@DrRotemSivan) March 31, 2025

The police are working “for the coup government, a Kahanist criminal and a prime minister suspected of serious security incidents,” she tweeted.

“History will remember who stood up for the state, the democratic regime and its citizens and who served the people of disaster and destruction,” the liberal lawmaker wrote. “We will not give up and will only fight harder and more determined — until Israel wins. Hope will prevail.”