25th Knesset

A blood-soaked child's bed in Kibbutz Kfar Aza seen in a photo shared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on October 11, 2023, in the aftermath of the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7. (X/Netanyahu)

November 7, 2023, 8:33 pm

Mental health professionals implore Netanyahu not to show atrocities film to public

Group focused on helping suffering Israelis warns against re-traumatizing a nation still in shock from October 7 and grappling with ongoing war against Hamas

By Renee Ghert-Zand

MK Simcha Rothman, chair of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, leads a committee meeting at the Knesset on June 20, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

July 14, 2023, 10:18 am

Rothman to wrap up ‘reasonableness’ bill talks on Sunday, Knesset to vote week after

Committee set to vote on bill during next week, deliver it for final Knesset approval; PM said to tell Herzog he is working on a new version, but won’t return to president’s talks

By ToI Staff and Carrie Keller-Lynn

Shani Illouz, a candidate in Tiberias’s October 2023 mayoral election, tells a Knesset committee she was offered 'jobs' to quit race, on July 3, 2023. (Screenshot: YouTube) (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

July 3, 2023, 11:39 pm

Tiberias mayoral candidate says Likud members tried to get her to quit race

Shani Illouz, herself a Likud member, tells Knesset panel members of the party offered her various jobs in exchange for backing down ahead of October election

By ToI Staff

In this handout photo, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a security cabinet meeting at military headquarters in Tel Aviv on May 9, 2023. (Avi Ohayan/GPO)

May 11, 2023, 1:35 pm

For Netanyahu, the storm before the calm?

Things are looking up for the prime minister. If he can finish the Gaza fighting with public support intact and pass a state budget by month’s end, he will be all but unassailable

By Haviv Rettig Gur

African migrants protest at the Holot detention center near Ketziot, in the Negev Desert, southern Israel, February 17, 2014. (FLASH90)

April 27, 2023, 8:56 am

Overhaul backers turn thrice-struck asylum seeker law into emblem of court activism

Contrasting justices’ rejection of bill jailing African migrants with their approval of Gaza Disengagement Law, Simcha Rothman cuts to very heart of debate dividing Israeli society

By Jeremy Sharon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, March 27, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

April 2, 2023, 2:31 pm

Knesset wraps winter session, shifting judicial battleground to President’s Residence

With parliament on break, focus is fully on overhaul negotiations and protests until legislature returns on April 30; 28 new laws passed in 3 months

By Carrie Keller-Lynn

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) at the Knesset plenum, in Jerusalem, on March 27, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

March 28, 2023, 12:22 pm

Despite pause, government files contentious judicial selection bill for final votes

Coalition sources, Knesset secretary say move is ‘technical,’ but opposition MKs fume and say they’d be coming to overhaul negotiations with ‘a gun to the head’

By ToI Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Knesset session on March 20, 2023 (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

March 26, 2023, 1:15 pm

Knesset to see decisive week for Supreme Court, as cracks appear in coalition

Core judicial overhaul plan to put coalition in control of appointing judges about to become law, amid mini-rebellion in Likud over pushing legislative pace despite societal rifts

By Carrie Keller-Lynn

Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman leads a committee hearing, February 22, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

February 26, 2023, 7:01 am

Amid mass protests, government set to keep advancing legal overhaul at full steam

Knesset panel to discuss bills letting MKs shield legislation from review, limit option of recusing PM; next plenum votes expected Wednesday, when protesters plan ‘day of struggle’

By ToI Staff

Opposition MKs holding Israeli flags during the discussion and vote on the government's judicial overhaul plans in the Knesset, February 20, 2023 (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

February 21, 2023, 1:16 pm

Daily Briefing Feb. 21: Emotions high at Knesset as 1st part of overhaul bill passes

Knesset correspondent Carrie Keller-Lynn and legal affairs reporter Jeremy Sharon discuss impassioned debate as contentious legislation gets its first Knesset okay

By ToI Staff

Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman leads a committee hearing, February 6, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

February 10, 2023, 6:13 am

What Matters Now… to MK Simcha Rothman: ‘The people should appoint the judges’

In this second episode of What Matters Now, we speak with the legislator who has written the bills for the proposed judicial overhaul and hear why he thinks they’re not so radical

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

Israelis protest against the government and its planned judicial overhaul, Tel Aviv, January 28, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

February 7, 2023, 6:39 am

In the Knesset and in the streets, the leaders of the Israeli center-left are MIA

Opponents of the judicial overhaul offer no alternative, no vision and no strategy. These are given to a political movement by its leaders, which the center-left doesn’t have

By Haviv Rettig Gur

Nubian ibex on a mountain above the Dead Sea, 2009 (Courtesy Matanya Tausig/Flash90)

January 26, 2023, 1:42 pm

Daily Briefing Jan. 26: Intense month for Knesset; robot helps ibex cross the road

Zman Yisrael editor Biranit Goren on first 30 days of new government, AI tech for animals, as military reporter Emanuel Fabian discusses spate of East Jerusalem, West Bank attacks

By ToI Staff

Israelis protest against the Israeli government, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on January 7, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

January 11, 2023, 1:44 pm

Battle over High Court exposes frailty of Israel’s piecemeal system of government

The center-left’s fears are reasonable, the right’s arguments authentic; both sides should get past the current shrill debate and restructure a broken system of checks and balances

By Haviv Rettig Gur

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rotיman attends a Knesset Constitution Committee meeting, June 26, 2022. (Olivier FItoussi/Flash90)

January 4, 2023, 7:05 pm

New chair of Knesset law committee: Israel’s Basic Laws are not a constitution

Far-right MK Simcha Rothman, a vocal proponent of curbing judicial authority, argues laws can’t be imbued with quasi-constitutional status without consent of citizens

By Carrie Keller-Lynn