The speaker of the Knesset (; ) is the presiding officer of the Knesset, the unicameral legislature of Israel. The Speaker also acts as President of Israel when the President is incapacitated. The current speaker is Amir Ohana, who was elected on 29 December 2022.
Position The Speaker and their deputies are elected by members of the Knesset. Until a Speaker is elected, the previous Knesset's speaker serves as acting speaker; however, if the previous Knesset's speaker has not been re-elected, the oldest Knesset member who is not the prime minister, the prime minister-elect, a minister or deputy minister serves as acting speaker instead.How Israel's parliament, the Knesset, works
The Speaker is responsible for conducting the affairs of the Knesset and representing the Knesset. They are also charged with preserving the dignity of the Knesset, the decorum of its sittings and observance of Knesset rules of procedure.The Knesset Speaker
The Speaker is assisted by a number of Deputy Speakers. Together, the Speaker and Deputy Speakers constitute the Presidium of the Knesset. The Presidium sets the Knesset agenda.
Ahdut HaAvoda's Nahum Nir and Blue & White's Benny Gantz are the only Speakers not to have come from the ruling party, though in two cases (Avraham Burg and Reuven Rivlin) the party of the speaker (One Israel and Likud respectively) lost power during their term.
The Speaker is expected to act in a non-partisan nature, but may occasionally take part in debates, and is allowed to vote.
List of Knesset speakers A total of twenty people have served as Speaker of the Knesset, two of whom, Reuven Rivlin and Yariv Levin, have served two non-consecutive terms.
SpeakerKnesset PortraitNameTerm of office Political party 1 Yosef Sprinzak 14 February 1949 28 January 1959 Mapai 1, 2, 3 2 Nahum Nir 2 March 1959 30 November 1959 Ahdut HaAvoda 3 3 Kadish Luz 30 November 1959 17 November 1969 Mapai, Alignment 4, 5, 6 4 Reuven Barkat 17 November 1969 5 April 1972 Alignment 7 5 Yisrael Yeshayahu 9 May 1972 13 June 1977 Alignment 7, 8 6 Yitzhak Shamir 13 June 1977 10 March 1980 Likud 9 7 Yitzhak Berman 12 March 1980 20 July 1981 Likud 9 8 Menachem Savidor 20 July 1981 13 August 1984 Likud 10 9 Shlomo Hillel 11 September 1984 20 November 1988 Alignment 1110Dov Shilansky 21 November 1988 13 July 1992 Likud 12 11 Shevah Weiss 13 July 1992 24 June 1996 Labor 13 12 Dan Tichon 24 June 1996 7 June 1999 Likud 14 13 Avraham Burg 6 July 1999 17 February 2003 One Israel, Labor 15 14 Reuven Rivlin 19 February 2003 4 May 2006 Likud 16 15 Dalia Itzik 4 May 2006 30 March 2009 Kadima 17 Reuven Rivlin 30 March 2009 5 February 2013 Likud 18 16 Yuli Edelstein 18 March 2013 25 March 2020 Likud 19, 20, 21, 22 17 Benny Gantz 26 March 2020 17 May 2020 Blue & White 23 18 Yariv Levin 17 May 2020 13 June 2021 Likud 23 19 Mickey Levy 13 June 2021 13 December 2022 Yesh Atid 24 Yariv Levin 13 December 2022 29 December 2022 Likud 25 20Amir Ohana29 December 2022IncumbentLikud25
References
External links
Speaker of the Knesset and the list of all Knesset Speakers since the first Knesset Knesset website Israeli ministries, etc – Rulers.org
de:Knesset#Parlamentspräsident