Cabinet of Israel

The Cabinet of Israel is a formal body composed of government officials chosen and led by a Prime Minister. Its composition must be approved by a vote in the Knesset. The Prime Minister is able to sack members of the Cabinet, but to satisfy Israeli law he must do this in writing and new appointees must again be approved by the Knesset. Most Ministers are heads of government departments.

Following a general election in March, 2006, the Prime Minister and leader of the Kadima party, Ehud Olmert, formed the 31st government. His coalition government initially included three other parties; the Labour party, the Sephardic Shas party, and Gil, the pensioner's party. His proposed list of Ministers was put before the Knesset and approved on 4 May 2006. The cabinet had 25 members and the parties were represented as follows: Kadima with 12 Ministers, Labour with 7, Shas with 4 and Gil with 2.

The nationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu joined the coalition in November 2006, resulting in a slight reshuffle; along with other changes, this left the distribution of ministers as follows: Kadima with 11, Labour with 6, Shas with 4, Gil with 2 and Yisrael Beiteinu with 2, alongside one independent non-MK, Daniel Friedmann. There is also one Deputy Minster (of Defense). In September 2007 another Labour minister was added to the cabinet. Yisrael Beiteinu left the coalition on 16 January 2008 in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.

Use of terms

The body discussed in this article is referred to in Israeli official documents as the Government of Israel. This is in accordance to the normal translation of its Hebrew name, (Template:Lang-he, memshala). In Israel, the term cabinet (Template:Lang-he) is generally used for the Politics and Security Cabinet (Template:Lang-he), an unofficial group of cabinet members that decides on defense and foreign policy issues.

Cabinet members

As of 12 September 2007, Israel's 31st Cabinet comprises the following Ministers:

Portfolio	Minister	Party
Prime Minister	Ehud Olmert	Kadima
Vice Prime Minister Minister in the PM's Office for State Policy	Haim Ramon	Kadima
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Foreign Affairs	Tzipi Livni	Kadima
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Defence	Ehud Barak	Labour
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour	Eli Yishai	Shas
Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Transportation	Shaul Mofaz	Kadima
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development	Shalom Simhon	Labour
Minister of Communications	Ariel Atias	Shas
Minister of Construction and Housing	Ze'ev Boim	Kadima
Minister of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology	Raleb Majadele	Labour
Minister of Education	Yuli Tamir	Labour
Minister of the Environment	Gideon Ezra	Kadima
Minister of Finance	Roni Bar-On	Kadima
Minister of Health	Yaakov Ben-Yezri	Gil
Minister of Immigrant Absorption Minister of Negev and Galilee Development	Yaakov Edri	Kadima
Minister of the Interior	Meir Sheetrit	Kadima
Minister of Internal Security	Avi Dichter	Kadima
Minister of Justice	Daniel Friedmann	None1
Minister of National Infrastructure	Benjamin Ben-Eliezer	Labour
Minister of Pensioner Affairs	Rafi Eitan	Gil
Minister of Tourism	Vacant
Minister of Welfare and Social Services Minister of the Diaspora, Society, and Fight Against Antisemitism	Isaac Herzog	Labour
Minister without Portfolio (Liaison for the Civil Beit Dinim and other Torah Affairs)	Yitzhak Cohen	Shas
Minister without Portfolio (Responsible for liaison with the Knesset)	Ruhama Avraham	Kadima
Minister without Portfolio	Ami Ayalon	Labour
Minister in the Finance Ministry	Meshulam Nahari	Shas

¹ No party affiliation as Friedmann is not a member of the Knesset.

Deputy Ministers

Portfolio	Minister	Party
Deputy Minister of Defense	Matan Vilnai	Labour
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs	Majalli Wahabi	Kadima

External links

• Current and past cabinets Knesset website Template:En icon
• Basic Law:The Government (2001) Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Template:En icon