Israel Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: State of Israel

Type: republic

Capital: Jerusalem; not recognized by US, which maintains the Embassy in Tel Aviv

Political subdivisions: six administrative districts

Legal system: mixture of English common law, British Mandatory regulations, and, in personal area, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal systems; commercial matters regulated substantially by codes adopted since 1948; no formal constitution; some of the functions of a constitution are filled by the Declaration of Establishment (1948), the basic laws of the

Knesset (legislature)—relating to the Knesset, Israeli lands, the president, the government—and the Israel citizenship law; no judicial review of legislative acts, legal education at Hebrew University of Jerusalem; in December 1985 Israel informed the UN Secretariat that it would no longer accept compulsory 1CJ jurisdiction

National holidays: Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948; because the Jewish calendar is lunar, however, the holiday varies from year to year; all major Jewish religious holidays are also observed as na tional holidays

Branches: president has largely ceremonial functions, except for the authority to decide which political leader should try to form a ruling coalition following an election or the fall of a previous government; executive power vested in Cabinet; unicameral parliament (Knesset) of 120 members elected under a system of proportional representation; legislation provides fundamental laws in absence of a written constitution; two distinct court systems (secular and religious)

Government leaders:; Chaim HERZOG, President (since May 1983); Shimon PERES, Prime Minister (since September 1984); in October 1986 Vice Prime Minister and For eign Minister Yitzhak SH AMIR and Peres are to trade government positions

Suffrage: universal over age 18

Elections held every four years unless required by dissolution of Knesset, last election held in July 1984; next scheduled for November 1988

Political parties and leaders: Israel currently has a national unity government comprising 8 parties that hold 97 of the Knesset’s 120 seats members of the unity government—I ,abor Alignment, Prime Minister Shimon Peres; Likud Bloc, Yitzhak Shamir; Shinui Party, Minister of Communications Amnon Rubenstein, National Religious Party, Minister of Religious Affairs Yosef Burg; SH AS, Minister of Interior Yitzhak Peretz; Agudat Israel, Menachem Porush, Morasha, Chaim Druckman;

Ometz, Yigael Hurwitz; opposition parties—

Tehiya-Tzomet, Yuval Ne’eman, MAPAM, Eliezer Granot, Citizens’ Rights Movement, Shulamit Aloni; RAKAH (Communist party), Meir Wilner, Progressive List for Peace, Muhammad Mi’ari; TAMI, Aharon Abuhatzeira, Kakh, Meir Kahane

Voting strength- Labor Alignment, 10 seats; Likud, 11 seats; MAPAM, 6 seats; Tehiya-Tzomet, 5 seats; Citizens’ Rights Movement, 4 seats RAK AH, 4 seats, SHAS, 4 seats; National Religious Party, 4 seats; Shinui Party, 3 seats; Morasha, 2 seats; \gudat Yisrael, 2 seats; Progressive List for Peace, 2 seats;

Ometz, 1 seat; Kakh, 1 seat; T AMI, 1 seat

Communists: RAKAH (predominantly Arab but with Jews in its leadership) has some 1,500 members

Other political or pressure groups: Black Panthers a loosely organized youth group seeking more benefits for oriental Jews; Gush Emunim, Jewish rightwing nationalists pushing for freedom for Jews to settle anywhere on the West Bank; Peace Now critical of government’s West Bank/Gaza Strip and Lebanon policies

Member of: FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAC, ICAO, IDA, IDB—Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOOC, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IPU, ITU, IWC—International Wheat Council. OAS (observer), UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WSG, WTO

NOTE: The information regarding Israel on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Israel 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Israel 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.