The Knesset in the Pandemic: A Parliament Amid Weak Institutional Settings and Overlapping Crises

Abstract

Covid-19 challenged parliaments around the globe, and each legislature, with its unique characteristics, institutional and political settings, history and culture, addressed the challenge in its own way. This chapter depicts the story of the Israeli parliament (the Knesset), during the pandemic, against its unique settings: a weak parliament operating in the midst of a pre-existing political crisis, which was coupled with the Covid-19 crisis, and eventually developed into four overlapping crises. Section 1 provides the institutional setting, characterized by a weak parliament, a strong executive and an independent judiciary. Section 2 describes the four overlapping crises and four overlapping emergency regimes. Against this backdrop, section 3 depicts the Knesset’s operation and its performance in its lawmaking and oversight roles, during the pandemic. Section 4 concludes. This chapter aims to contribute to both the general scholarship about the strength and performance of parliaments and to the specific body of scholarship about legislatures in emergencies and pandemics.

Keywords: Parliament, legislature, legislation, lawmaking, oversight, crisis, emergency, covid-19, legislative performance, legislative strength, Knesset, Israel