Israel Summer Time

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Time zone in Israel:
yellow Israel Standard Time (UTC+2)
Israel Summer Time (UTC+3)
Grey colours indicate areas which do not follow either IST or IDT.

Israel Summer Time (Hebrew: שעון קיץ‎, sh'on kayits; "Summer Time"), also in English, Israel Daylight Time (IDT) is the practice in Israel by which clocks are advanced by one hour around Passover to make the most of seasonal daylight. Since 2005, this period extends every year from 2:00 AM on the last Friday before April 2, i.e. on the Friday on or before April 1 (irrespective of when Passover falls) and ending at 2:00 AM on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur (note that weekends in Israel are Friday to Saturday).

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-1992

Before 1992, daylight saving was governed by the Time Act, a law inherited by Israel from the British Mandate of Palestine. Summer Time was introduced in Israel between the years 1948-1957, but the length of Daylight Saving Time has changed significantly depending on the year. In 1951-1952, it was enacted for about seven months, whereas in the years 1953-1954 it was enacted for only three months. In 1958, daylight saving time was canceled. Due to the global energy crisis because of the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, Summer Time was enacted again from 1974-1975.

Up until 1992, daylight savings was operated by an order of the minister of the interior. In 1980 the authority of the minister for this matter was contested in an appeal to the supreme court. The supreme court decided that the minister's authority was indeed more limited than the common practice, as he may only decide on the dates of DST while its operation is unquestionable. Following this decision the Knesset amended the Time Act so the minister will also have the authority to abolish DST in a certain year.

[edit] 1992-2005

The Law Determining the Time (Hebrew: חוק קביעת הזמן‎ Hebrew: Hok Kvi'at Hazman‎) is an Israel law governing Israeli daylight saving time. It was approved by the Knesset in 1992, replacing the British Mandate of Palestine time act inherited by Israel. The 1992 time zone law cancelled the Time Act, and stipulated that DST will be operated for at least 150 days each year, and that the final dates will be decided by the minister of the Interior, subject to the approval of the Knesset committee for internal affairs.

[edit] Post 2005

Until 2005, the start and end of DST each year was established in an ad hoc fashion as the result of haggling between political parties representing various sectors of Israeli society. Parties representing religious groups wanted the start delayed till after Passover and the end to precede Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, while the secular parties would argue for starting it earlier and ending it later. Thus, there was no established rule that could guarantee a predictable changeover in either direction. The debates about a fixed rule for determining the dates of DST went on for years, and resulted in a suggestion that DST will start on the 2nd day of Passover and end on the weekend between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This suggestion was rejected as it stipulated an annual DST period of only 5 months, and yet it served as the basis of the final compromise. After 2005, the annual debate has been effectively ended.

In the past, the unpredictability of DST in Israel became frustrating enough that Microsoft Windows stopped trying to track changes and just made Israeli time be Greenwich Mean Time plus two hours (GMT+2) (and disabled the daylight saving option). This has led to various ad hoc solutions to the problem in Windows systems and other Microsoft software (e.g. Outlook calendar entries are often off by an hour when shared, due to the lack of DST support).

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] 2000 Darwin Award

The Palestinian Territories operate on "Palestinian Standard Time", which oberses DST at slightly different times.

Darwin Awards are given out to "commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives" by "eliminat[ing] themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chance of long-term survival."[1] The 2000 winner was awarded to a group of Palestinian terrorists who neglected to note that Israel had already switched that year from daylight savings time to standard time because of the religious holiday.[1] The bombs had been prepared in a Palestinian-controlled area, and set on Daylight Savings time.[1] The drivers had already switched to standard time, and the cars were still en-route when the explosives detonated killing them but no one else.[1]

[edit] Exact timing in the next several years

Summer Time
Year Summer Time begins Summer Time ends
2007 30 March 16 September
2008 28 March 5 October
2009 27 March 27 September
2010 26 March 12 September
2011 1 April 2 October

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d We're with stupid, Carina Chocano, Salon, January 3, 2000
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Summer_Time"
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