2025

​In its sitting on Wednesday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in first reading two bills for commemoration of the October 7 events.

 
The first bill approved in first reading was the Commemoration of the October 7 Events Bill, 2025. In the vote, 18 Members of Knesset supported the bill, without opposing votes, and it will be turned over to the Education, Culture and Sports Committee for deliberation.
 
It is proposed to designate the 24th of Tishrei as a national memorial day for marking the October 7 events. On this day, as proposed in the bill, state ceremonies will be held, the flag will be lowered to half-mast in state institutions and a special debate will be held by the Knesset.
 
It is further proposed to establish a commemoration, memorial and heritage authority for the October 7 events, which will work to carry out the actions for commemoration and preservation of the national memory. In addition, a commemoration site and a museum will be set up in the western Negev region.
 
It is further proposed that until creation of the authority, the Prime Minister’s Office will coordinate the memory, documentation and commemoration activities, and that the minister in charge of the bill’s implementation will be the Prime Minister.
 
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “This bill is based on the conception that preservation of memory, documentation and development of heritage are essential to the rehabilitation and development of the localities, and bear great weight in the rehabilitation of Israeli society. The commemoration and memory contribute to strengthening the personal, community, regional and national resilience, and to strengthening national and international solidarity and unity, by forging a meaningful bond between the past and the future, connecting the citizens to the shared national story and enabling the members of bereaved families to find a supportive community.”
 
Also approved in first reading was the Marking the Memory of the Massacre and Commemorating the Heroism of October 7 Bill, 2025, sponsored by MK Etty Hava Atia (Likud) and a group of MKs, to which a bill sponsored by MK Naama Lazimi (Labor) was attached. In the vote, 18 Members of Knesset supported the bill, without opposing votes, and it will be returned to the Education, Culture and Sports Committee for deliberation.
 
This bill proposes to establish a national memorial day on the 24th of Tishrei, in order to preserve the October 7 events in the national consciousness for generations. The day will be marked, among other things, by a state memorial ceremony, a special debate in the Knesset and ceremonies and activities in educational institutions. It is proposed that the national flag will be lowered to half-mast and that broadcast programming will express the special character of the day. It is also proposed to establish a memorial authority that will be a statutory corporation and will operate to fulfill the purposes of the bill.
 
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “The purpose of the bill is to ensure that the October 7 events will be remembered for generations, including the acts of massacre and terrorism and the kidnapping of civilians and members of the security forces; to honor and commemorate the fallen and those who were killed; to document the stories of the massacre’s survivors and the resilience displayed by the people of Israel.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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​In its sitting on Wednesday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in preliminary reading the Independence, Status and Powers of the Legal Advisor of a Government Ministry Bill, 2025, sponsored by MK Avichay Buaron (Likud). In the vote, 58 Members of Knesset supported the bill, versus 50 who opposed it, and it will be turned over to the House Committee to determine the committee in which the bill will be deliberated.

 
It is proposed to establish an arrangement on the subordination and independent discretion of legal advisors of government ministries. The bill proposes that the legal advisor of a government ministry will be subordinated to the ministry’s director general, and not to the Attorney General; the opinion of the legal advisor of a government ministry will be binding for all workers of that ministry; the ministries’ legal advisors will serve as the exclusive authority for determining the ministry’s position in legal proceedings and will be in charge of drafting memorandums of law as directed by the minister.
 
MK Buaron: “This bill is not an attack on the Attorney General’s Office, it is an attempt to save it. For many years, a dangerous distortion evolved in Israel. The Attorney General ceased to be an advisor that protects and paves the way of the decision-maker, but [became] more and more the policymaker. For example, the legal advisor of the Ministry of Defense gave an opinion that Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) could be closed down. The Attorney General came along and contradicted her opinion. How can we have productive legal counsel within the ministries, when the [advisor’s] opinion is trampled by the Attorney General?”
 
Minister of Justice MK Yariv Levin (Likud): “This bill is conceptually correct, and is vital to the work of the Government. It is correct professionally and also in terms of the status of the legal advisors of the government ministries. It will provide a solution to the unreasonable situation that is currently taking place, and it will give a correct structure for the future, even when other people will sit in the Attorney General’s Office who will do their job and not other things.”
 
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “The purpose of the bill is to strengthen the status and the independence of the legal advisors of the government ministries. The legal advisors are those who have the greatest legal expertise in the affairs of the ministry in which they serve, and accordingly they should be independent in the pursuit of their duties, so that they will be able to advise and act independently in keeping with their professional judgment. Strengthening their status will lead to increasing the legal certainty within the ministry, and to improving the quality of the legal and administrative decision-making.”
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​In its sitting on Wednesday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in preliminary reading the civil service Bill (Appointments) (Amendment—Appointing Commissioner and Assigning a Temporary Post), 2025, sponsored by MKs Amit Halevi and Ofir Katz (Likud). In the vote, 60 Members of Knesset supported the bill, versus 46 opposing votes, and it will be turned over to the House Committee to determine the committee in which the bill will be deliberated.

 
It is proposed to stipulate that the appointment of the Civil Service Commissioner will not require holding a tender or any other competitive procedure. It is further proposed to establish provisions on the appointment of a substitute Civil Service Commissioner.
 
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “The proposed amendment is designed to restore the power to the appointing authority—the Government—in accordance with the original will of the legislator, and to rectify the change created by the [court] ruling. The purpose of the amendment is to clarify unequivocally that the appointment of the Civil Service Commission does not require holding a tender or any other competitive procedure, similarly to other senior posts for which there is no competitive requirement—such as the Israel Police commissioner, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) director, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, directors general of government ministries and more.”​