Home > President of Israel

1 Election

The President is elected by a simple majority of the Knesset. A president's full term is seven years. A president cannot be re-elected to a second term. Until recently, the president was elected for a five-year term, and was allowed to serve up to two terms in office.

2 Presidential powers and roles

The president's powers are rather limited in scope compared to heads of state in other countries.

The president:

• signs every law (except those that pertain to the president's powers).
• chooses a member of the Knesset to form the government in consultation with the parties making up the body.
• confirms diplomats and receives foreign diplomats
• signs treaties, approved by the Knesset, with foreign countries
• appoints judges to the Supreme Court
• appoints the governor of the Bank of Israel and other bureaucrats

Furthermore, the president has the authority to pardon criminals and commute sentences. Presidential powers are usually exercised based on the recommendation of appropriate government ministers.

Although the president's role is nonpolitical, Israeli heads of state perform important moral, ceremonial, and educational functions. They also play a part in the formation of a coalition cabinet, or "a government" as the Israelis call it. They are required to consult leaders of all political parties in the Knesset and to designate a member of the legislature to organize a cabinet. If the member so appointed fails, other political parties commanding a plurality in the Knesset may submit their own nominee. The figure called upon to form a cabinet is invariably the leader of the most influential political party or bloc in the Knesset.

3 List of Israeli Presidents

1. Chaim Weizmann ( 1949 - 1952)
2. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (1952 - 1963)
3. Zalman Shazar (1963 - 1973)
4. Ephraim Katzir (1973 - 1978)
5. Yitzhak Navon (1978 - 1983Events January January 1 Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor January 1 the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. January 1 compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK. January 2 The mu)
6. Chaim HerzogChaim Herzog ( September 17, 1918 April 17, 1997) served as the sixth President of Israel ( 1983 1993), following a distinguished career in both the British Army and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Born in Belfast, Ireland, the son of notable Rabbi Yitzh (1983 - 19931993 is a common year starting on Friday and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003 Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.)
7. Ezer WeizmanEzer Weizman Ezer Weizman (born June 15, 1924 in Tel Aviv) was the seventh Israeli president ( 1993- 2000). His predecessor was Chaim Herzog ( 1983-1993) and his successor was Moshe Katsav (2000- ). Ezer Weizman is a nephew of Chaim Weizmann, Israel's fir (1993 - 2000This page is about the year 2000. See 2000 AD for the UK comic book, Number 2000 for other uses. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar), and also the International Year for a Culture of Peace''. Events Y2K passes without the seri)
8. Moshe KatsavMoshe Katsav ( mosheh qa born December 5, 1945) is the current President of Israel (since 2000). Moshe Katsav was born in Yazd, Iran. He moved with his family to Tehran when he was an infant; in August 1951, they emigrated to Israel. He joined the Likud p (2000 - )

All Israeli presidents before Moshe Katsav have been members of, or associated with, the Labor Party and its predecessors, and all have been considered politically moderate. These tendencies were especially significant in the April 1978 election of Labor's Yitzhak Navon, following the inability of the governing Likud coalition to elect its candidate to the presidency. Israeli observers believed that, in counterbalance to Prime Minister Begin's polarizing leadership, Navon, the country's first president of SephardiIn the strictest sense, a Sephardi Standard Hebrew Sfardi Tiberian Hebrew Spard plural Sephardim Standard Hebrew Sfardim Tiberian Hebrew Spardim is a Jew original to the Iberian Peninsula ( Spain and Portugal: Standard Hebrew Sfarad Tiberian Hebrew Spara origin, provided Israel with unifying symbolic leadership at a time of great political controversy and upheaval. In 1983 Navon decided to reenter Labor politics after five years of nonpartisan service as president, and Chaim Herzog (previously head of military intelligence and ambassador to the United Nations ) succeeded him as Israel's sixth president. Likud's Moshe Katsav's defeat over Labor's Shimon PeresShimon Peres (born August 21, 1923), an Israeli politician, is the head of the Israeli Labour Party and served as 8th Prime Minister of Israel from 1984-1986 and 1995-1996 and Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2001-2002. Early life Shimon Peres (or in 2000 was an upset.