Yossi

Legislative Achievements

 

Basic Law: Government 2001

 

In 2001, along with Uzi Landau, Beilin initiated the change of Basic Law: The Government and proposed the abolishment of direct elections of the Prime Minister:

 

Direct elections had been instituted in Israel in 1996. The revision, overturned this 1992 law, and restored the 1968 system with some amendments.

 

Under the direct election law, the vote was split, with a separate ballot for the Knesset members and the Prime Minister. This system had failed to strengthen the office of the Prime Minister as was initially hoped and in fact, even weakened the larger parties.

 

The return to a parliamentary system meant that the Prime Minister will again be chosen by the largest bloc in the legislature.

 

Amendment 8 to Knesset Law 2000

 

Until 2000, the leader of the largest party not-within-the-coalition did not have an official position, but rather a symbolic role. Meetings between the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the largest party not-within-government would take place, but with no official status.

 

In 2000 two bills were submitted to the Knesset regarding amendments to the Leader of the Opposition's status. One was a 'Government bill' submitted by Dr Yossi Beilin and the other was a 'private members bill', submitted by MK Uzi Landau. Together they merged the bills and in July 2000, the Knesset approved Amendment 8 to Knesset Law:

 

The law essentially strengthens the status of Leader of the Opposition as an overseer to government activities. It prescribes his or hers ceremonial role in various official events and obliges the Prime Minister to update the leader on the current state of affairs once a month. In addition law stipulates that the Opposition Leader's salary will be determined by Knesset committee, and shall not be lower than a salary of a Cabinet minister.

 

Law for Negotiations with Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) 1993

 

In 1993 Beilin initiated a private bill, which came to pass without him as a signatory, wavering the prevention of negotiations with the PLO. This allowed for landmark negotiations such as Oslo to commence.