Democrats Announce Legislative Package for New Knesset

The Democrats faction announced a package of bills it intends to present on Tuesday alongside the new Knesset’s swearing-in. The program combines proposed changes to government institutions with rehabilitation, social-welfare and religion-and-state legislation. The faction said its agenda would reverse changes made by the preceding government and establish legal protections against similar changes in the future. The faction described the package as “an attempt to repair what the government damaged…”. Its governance proposals address the Police Internal Investigations Department, the attorney general, the judicial-selection committee, broadcasting and rules on a prime minister’s incapacity. It also proposes limits on prime-ministerial terms and a ban on serving as prime minister while under criminal indictment. Other institutional measures concern rabbinical courts’ arbitration and maintenance powers, alongside a proposed state commission of inquiry. For northern and Gaza-border communities, the faction proposes putting the Tenufa rehabilitation program into law and increasing the grant for recognized preferred employment in the north. Measures concerning hostage families and returnees include bereaved-family grants, adjustment assistance for families whose income falls, and recognition of families as victims of hostile acts. The package also includes psychological treatment for victims of hostile acts and an authority for combat-trauma care. The social agenda includes a basic law on social rights, changes to old-age allowances, support for young adults without family backing, national long-term-care insurance and kindergarten protection. Other proposed bills would require monopolies to disclose financial reports. The faction’s religion-and-state agenda includes public transportation on Shabbat and civil marriage; it also proposes changes concerning gender separation in higher education.