Israel is a unitary parliamentary democracy. Due to political tensions,[1] the government has not introduced a formal constitution. However, Israel has passed thirteen "Basic Laws" so far that hold special legal and normative standing, since they are to be the building blocks for the future formal constitution.[2] The 1958 Basic Law: The Knesset established Israel's unicameral elected parliament and laid down the principle for elections to be "general, national, equal, discrete and proportional".[3] The 1964 Basic Law: The President introduced a symbolic non-partisan head of state to represent the Israeli people as a whole. This law gave the presidency its high status after 16 years of operation under regular legislation. Although it describes the president’s position as “the Head of State”, it should not be taken to indicate political leadership. Instead, the president is meant to symbolically unite and lead Israel.[4] For a short period of time (1992-2001) the 1968 Basic Law: The Government was amended to introduce a direct electoral system for the office of the prime minister. Accordingly, three elections (1996, 1999 and the special election in 2001 that was organised solely in order to elect a new prime minister[5]) were conducted by a two ballot system: one for parliament and the other for the office of the prime minister. However, this reform was widely criticised and quickly abolished in 2001. Consequently, the previous one-ballot proportional electoral system was re-introduced with minor corrections. It is still in force to this day.[6]

The State of Israel adopted the British mandate's administrative division of Israel into six regions: North, Haifa, Tel-Aviv, Centre, Jerusalem and South. Despite this division, regions do not function as managerial units; there are no district offices in charge of developing a regional policy perspective, and they usually act as mere administrative zones delimiting national policy plans.[7]
In 2011, Israel had 256 local authorities divided into three different types: 75 municipalities, 126 local councils and 53 regional councils as well as two industrial local councils.[8] The different types of authorities represent the different sizes of populations and characters of the area: municipalities manage urban centres where the population exceeds 20 000 inhabitants; local councils are responsible for towns with populations of between 2 000 and 20 000 inhabitants and regional councils provide the framework for mostly Bedouin villages or communities grouped within a certain radius.

Both municipal and local councils are composed of members elected for five-year terms on the basis of proportional representation. The number of councillors is determined by the size of the population of the local authority. Since 1975 – and first taking place in 1978 – the heads of the local authorities, i.e. mayors and chairpersons of local and regional councils, have been elected through direct elections.[9]

Despite their title, regional councils should not be confused with authorities at the regional level. Instead, regional councils operate at the local level, bringing together mostly Bedouin communities or villages that are in close proximity to one another in order to share policy development. A regional council brings together small Bedouin settlements, each with less than 5 000 inhabitants. Over 970 local committees – which are specific to regional councils – operate under the regional councils to help them to unite local communities and provide local services.[10] Each village or community elects one candidate by a simple majority, who becomes a member of the council.

Local authorities are responsible for providing two main types of services: delivering national services, such as education and health, and managing local services, such as sanitary, water, sewage, garbage disposal, road paving and maintenance, creation and maintenance of public gardens and parks, social services, and establishment of facilities for sports, education, culture and health. Municipal councils may issue by-laws, pending approval by the Minister of the Interior. Similarly, local councils may also issue by-laws under the supervision of the Ministry's regional administrators.[11] Consequently, the central government still has substantial influence over local affairs.

Local authorities have three main sources of income: independent revenues stemming from local taxes or services, government funds for the provision of national services and government grants designed to encourage struggling local authorities or to aid them for specific reasons (such as the implementation of a national agenda).[12]

1.1. Central level

During the British mandate, central government held much power over local government decision making. As noted, much of the current system actually stems from orders designed during British control over Jewish and Arab local authorities. Nowadays, central ministries still hold broad supervision and planning rights over local authorities, while the regional districts function as central government agents. The legal status of this arrangement is based on the 1934 British directive on municipalities and the 1941 directive on local councils..
During recent years, several legislation initiatives have been developed to address the state of local government in Israel. First and foremost, a draft bill to amend the Basic Law: The Local Government was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior in 2013 in order to clarify the status of local authorities and their standing in relation to central government. Although under discussion, it has not made significant progress. Other efforts focused on revising the Municipalities Law Bill. The bill is still under discussion in a committee after it passed the first stage in the statutory process.[13] As noted, the most potentially relevant development is the Planning and Construction Bill currently being discussed.

1.2. Regional level

Although the 1957 government decision divided Israel into six regions, it did not develop a coherent regional governance level. Instead of an independent and resourceful regional coordinating unit, each government ministry either utilised the regional division to establish its own local branch or abolished it altogether.[14] In 2005, the government established “the Ministry for the Galilee and the Negev Development”, focusing on Israeli peripheral areas. Its objective was to turn over a new leaf in regards to regional planning and budgeting. However, even though the allocation was approved by the Ministry of Finance there has been very little progress since.

1.3. Local level

Local authorities are divided into three different types: municipalities, local councils and regional councils. The different types of authorities represent the different sizes of populations and characters of the area: municipalities manage urban centres where the population exceeds 20 000 inhabitants; local councils are responsible for towns with populations of between 2 000 and 20 000 inhabitants and regional councils provide the framework for villages or communities grouped within a certain radius.
Both municipal and local councils are composed of members elected for five year terms on the basis of proportional representation. The number of councilors is determined by the size of the population of the local authority. Since 1975 – and first taking place in 1978 – the heads of the local authorities, i.e. mayors and chairpersons of local and regional councils, have been elected through direct elections.[15] In regional councils, each village or community elects one candidate by a simple majority who then becomes a member of the council.
Unions of municipalities and voluntary local agreements suffer from similar deficiencies as regional councils, although they hold more powers, allowing them to coordinate on a larger scale.[16] About 53 unions share services such as sanitary, fire-fighting and environmental projects along with some 113 committees for planning and building.
There is a substantial gap between local authorities which act more independently (usually located in the central and western part of the State), and local authorities that are weak (usually located in the periphery[17]).

The central government must be in a position to choose the appropriate strategy to address what can be very different situations. The Municipalities Law Bill was a first attempt to provide the legal basis for adopting different policies towards different municipalities. However, the Planning and Construction Draft Bill appears to offer better solutions.

The legal framework that constitutes the Israeli local authorities system is the 1934 British Directive on Municipalities and the 1941 Directive on Local Councils – 1941 (which is also applicable to regional councils).[18] The former detailed municipalities' responsibilities and authorities and established these units as subordinate to the British governor, while the latter authorised the governor to establish a local council to manage a group of villages.

Nowadays, a local authority provides two main types of services: delivering national services, such as education and health, and managing local services, such as sanitary, water, sewage, garbage disposal, road paving and maintenance, creation and maintenance of public gardens and parks, social services, and establishment of facilities for sports, education, culture and health. Municipal councils may issue by-laws, pending approval by the Minister of the Interior. Similarly, local councils may also issue by-laws under the supervision of the Ministry's regional administrators.[19] In general, the discretion of local authorities is limited due to the higher status of central government planning. This is well illustrated by disputes over urban and transportation planning, obligatory permits for standard actions and so forth. Perhaps the most indicative example is the Ministry of the Interior's legal obligation to appoint a professional committee to investigate the management of local authorities that performed poorly, as provided by a 2004 law. This course of action is extremely common with over 60 such orders issued since.[20]
Local authorities are also financially dependent on central government. Over 40% of their income stems from government grants which are either general grants or designated ones.[21] These grants are intended to encourage struggling local authorities or to aid them for specific reasons (such as the implementation of a national agenda).[22] Moreover, the government transfers funds for the provision of national services to the local authorities. Aside from government allocations for services, grants and financial balancing provisions, local authorities can raise money from property tax and various tolls. Steps were taken by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior to impose fiscal responsibility (see the Internal Inspection Law) and to enhance financial capabilities by uniting small local authorities (see 2003 plan to merge small local authorities).[23] However during the past decade governmental transfers have gone down while local responsibility and expenses went up. This trend resulted in fewer and fewer local authorities maintaining a balanced budget and thus with most local authorities in a constant state of budgetary crisis[DB1] .[24]
Local authorities are brought together under the Union of Local Authorities in Israel (ULAI).[25] This umbrella organisation of 265 Israeli local authorities was established under the British mandate in 1938 under the name of “The League of Local Councils”, to represent the interest of all local authorities. Currently, it represents local authorities in their negotiations vis-à-vis the central national institutions such as the Knesset and the ministerial divisions as well as different international organisations



[1] After Israel’s declaration of independence, a Constituent Assembly was elected in order to approve a new Constitution in 1949. Despite several discussions, the Assembly could not find an agreement on the text of the Constitution, notably because of different views as to the purpose of the state, its identity and because of the opposition of religious Jews to consider the Constitution as a text having a higher authority than religious texts.

[2] Knesset website, The Constitutional Foundations of the State of Israel, available at: http://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/Legislation/Pages/BasicLawsAndConstitution.aspx  (HE).

[3] Knesset Website, Basic Law: The Knesset, available at: http://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/Legislation/Documents/yesod4.pdf  (HE).

[4] President of Israel Website, The Institution of the Presidency in Israel, available at: http://www.president.gov.il/English/The_Presidency_In_Israel/Pages/PresidencyNew.aspx  (EN).

[5] This special election was organized in 2001 following the resignation of the Prime Minister. It was based on a single ballot and no parliament was elected on this occasion.

[6] O. Kenig and C. Fridberg, ‘The Cancelation of the Direct Vote Revisited ‘, The Israeli Democratic Institute website 2.3.2011, available at: http://www.idi.org.il/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%91%D7%99%D7%98%D7%95%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%91%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A9%D7%AA  (HE).

[7] N. Ben Elia, ‘The Missing Link: Regional Government in Israel’, The Floersheimer Institute For Policy Studies (December 2006), pp. 30-32, available at: http://www.fips.org.il/Fips/Site/System/UpLoadFiles/DGallery/%E1%EF%20%E0%EC%E9%E0,%20%E4%E7%E5%EC%E9%E4%20%E4%E7%F1%F8%E4,%20.pdf  (HE).

[8] ‘Local authorities in Israel – 2011’, Official Government Paper (June 2013), available at: http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications13/local_authorities11_1531/pdf/h_print.pdf  (HE).

[9] ‘Local Government in Israel’, The Knesset Lexicon of Terms, available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/LocalAuthorities_eng.htm  (EN).

[10] ‘Local Government Reform in Israel: Between Centralization and Decentralization, between Traditionalism and Modernity’, p. 41.

[11] Ibid.

[12] A. Rubinstein, ‘Local authorities: main problems and alternative solutions to solve them’, The Knesset Research and Information Center 7.7.2004, pp. 2-3, available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m00900.pdf (HE).

[13] S. Specktor Ben-Ami, ‘Local Authorities in Israel ‘,pp. 17-19.

[14] IDI website, Final Report of the Regional Committee’s Work – the Public Council, 12.6.2002, available at: http://www.idi.org.il/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%93%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%9E%D7%A1%D7%9B%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%95%D7%93%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%96%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%A6%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%AA  (HE).

[15] ‘Local Government in Israel’, The Knesset Lexicon of Terms, available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/LocalAuthorities_eng.htm  (EN).

[16] ‘Final Report of the Regional Committee’s Work – the Public Council ‘.

[17] The term ‘periphery’ refers to a region that is not formally defined and is understood variably. According to Allan F. Benjamin, Lecturer in Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University, ‘Israelis living in the Galilee and the Negev, near the Gaza Strip, in the Golan Heights, and in the West Bank, thus, might be considered to reside in the Israeli geographic/social Periphery.’ For further information, see http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/israeli-center-and-periphery (EN).

[18] S. Specktor Ben-Ami, ‘Local Authorities in Israel ‘, The Knesset research and Information Center, 17.4.2013, p. 2, available at: https://www.knesset.gov.il/committees/heb/material/data/pnim2013-04-22-01.pdf (HE).

[19] Ibid.

[20] ‘Appointed Committees (Va-Hadot Krohot)’, p.1.

[21] ‘Local Government Reform in Israel: Between Centralization and Decentralization, between Traditionalism and Modernity ‘, p. 62.

[22] A. Rubinstein, ‘Local Authorities: Main Problems and Alternative Solutions to Solve Them ‘, The Knesset Research and Information Center 7.7.2004, pp. 2-3, available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m00900.pdf  (HE).

[23] A. Rubinstein, ‘Merger of local authorities – implementation follow up ‘, Knesset Research and Information Center, 30.3.2005, available at: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m01105.pdf  (HE).

[24] ‘Local authorities: Main problems and alternative solutions to solve them ‘, p. 5.

[25] http://www.masham.org.il/English/Pages/default.aspx  (EN).