1.

a.

Article 13a(a) of the Knesset Members’ Immunity, Rights and Duties Law, 1951 (hereafter - the Immunity Law), prohibits the Knesset Member to engage in any business or in any additional occupation, except for a voluntary occupation, and without reward.

b.⁶

Article 13a(b) of the Immunity Law prohibits the Knesset Member to engage in any additional occupation, even without reward, if this occupation includes one of the following:

(1)

...

(2)

The suspicion of abuse or attaining any advantage or personal preference, due to his being a Member of the Knesset;

(3)

The possibility of a conflict of interests between the additional occupation and his position as a Member of the Knesset.

2.

Recently reservations have been raised before the Ethics Committee regarding the service of several Members of the Knesset in public institutions and bodies, with the claim of the existence of a danger of the attainment of an advantage or a preference by those bodies, as well as the prospect of a conflict of interests. In face of these arguments, the Ethics Committee reexamined the issue.

3.

a.

Article 14a of the Immunity Law lays down that “a Member of the Knesset shall not serve in an administrative position, whether paid or unpaid, in an institution, in a company, in an association, or in any other body that receives, whether directly or indirectly, a special financial allocation. “Special financial allocation” is defined as “an allocation for a body that is not a state institution, that is mentioned by name in the budget law, and constitutes over one quarter of the budget of that body.”

b.

The aforementioned article 14a, was legislated when the system of distributing support by means of what was referred to as “earmarked funds” existed. This system vanished from the world upon the legislation of article 3a of the Foundations of the Budget Law, 1985, that lays down that support of public institutions shall be determined in every budget article, with a comprehensive sum for each type of public institution, and this sum shall be distributed among public institutions belonging to that category, on the basis of egalitarian criteria. The above article 3a also laid down that the official responsible for the budget, shall lay down, in consultation with the Attorney General, egalitarian criteria for the distribution of the sum that was decided upon in that budget article, for the purpose of support of public institutions. As to requests by public institutions to receive support, article 3a laid down that the Finance Minister shall decide, in consultation with the Attorney General, a procedure by which such requests shall be submitted and dealt with. And finally: both the procedure and the criteria shall be published in the official gazette, so that they shall be visible to everyone, and known to everyone.

4.

On the basis of everything said, the Ethics Committee felt, that there is no reason why Members of the Knesset should not serve voluntarily, and without return, in administrative roles in public institutions and bodies, and it even gave its approval to this. It does not appear that a danger exists of attaining a personal advantage or preference, and also the possibility of a conflict of interests appears unlikely, given the fact that the attention of the Knesset Members concerned was drawn to the limitations set in the said article 13a(b).

5.

As stated, the Committee was requested to review the issue afresh. The Committee did so, and adopted the following resolutions:

a.

There is no objection to Members of the Knesset serving in administrative positions in public institutions and bodies, voluntarily and without return, even if these bodies and institutions receive support from the state budget, or from the budget of any government authority.

b.

In order that there should be no appearance of a prospect of a conflict of interests, and in order to prevent any malicious talk, the Committee lays down that from now on a Member of the Knesset shall not engage, within the framework of his voluntary work in a public body or institution, in appearance, representation, carrying out of negotiations or lobbying activities, whether orally or in writing, before a government authority.

c.

For this purpose “government authority” - one of the state authorities, a local authority, a legal authority, as well as a state association or institution.

d.

The beginning of the application of this resolution, is from the day on which it was laid on the Knesset’s table,

6.

It did not escape the eyes of the Committee that a Member of the Knesset, who does not serve in a public body or institution, is also liable, by means of his activities in the Knesset Committees and outside of them, to obtain budgets and other assistance for a body, whose goals he wishes to further. At the same time, it appears to the Committee that there is no reason to prohibit these Knesset Members approaching government factors, to obtain assistance for bodies that, in their opinion, are worthy of it. The application of the decision on Members of the Knesset who fill positions in public bodies or institutions comes - as stated above - in order that there should be no appearance of the body managed, or headed by the Knesset Member, receiving more than a similar body, that does not have the privilege of a Knesset Member being a member of its management.

A Member of the Knesset occasionally requires, like every human being, financial assistance, for the financing of his legal defence, or for receiving expensive medical care, that he or members of his family require. On the one hand there is the argument, that the Knesset Member should not exploit his status in order to obtain any sort of contributions, but - on the other hand - why should this detract from the position of the Knesset Member compared that of any person who gets into trouble and requires assistance? This resolution assumes that it is not possible to disregard a reality that forces a Member of the Knesset as well to require, under certain circumstances, contributions, and at the same time it comes to delimit and guide the Knesset Members on this issue, so that Heaven forbid, they should not err.

The resolution does not deal with the receipt of contributions for the purpose of the current activity of the Knesset Member, or to promote his candidacy for various positions, a subject, which is partially dealt with in the Parties Law. The decision also does not presume to replace the Penal Code relating to the prohibition on the receipt of bribery, or instead of the provisions of the Public Service Law (presents), that regulate the issue of the receipt of presents by a public employee “as a public employee”. The breach of these provisions is a matter for the Attorney General to deal with, not for the Knesset. This resolution relates only to the ethical question of the receipt of such contributions by a Member of the Knesset, and this under the assumption that the receipt of such contributions, for the financing of the defence in a criminal trial, or for attaining medical treatment, does not constitute, under its circumstances, an offence against the provisions of any law.

Whenever the word “contributions” will be mentioned heretofore, the allusion will be only to contributions for the purpose of financing legal defence, or medical treatment.

We do not seek to prohibit a Member of the Knesset to receive contributions in a direct manner, but we are of the opinion that the proper way to collect contributions is by means of an association, that will be set up under the Associations Law, and the Knesset Member himself shall not be a member thereof. It is the association that shall engage in the task of collecting contributions, and everything connected therewith, and it shall pay the legal defence expenses or the medical treatment expenses. We should note that the Committee has already dealt with this issue in the past, and the main points were laid down in the 12th Knesset.

The association shall act under the following rules:

(1)

Fund-raising stalls should not be set up, and fund-raisers should not be sent to homes, unless a bank account or accounts are opened, to which the contributors will be asked to send their contributions;

(2)

The appeal to contributors shall be done by means of notices in the press, or personal letters.

(3)

When the required contribution is for the purpose of financing legal defence, there shall be nothing in the wording of the appeals to the contributors to tarnish State authorities, nor shall intentions of persecution against a Knesset Member, or similar accusations be attributed to them.

(4)

The association shall announce in advance, that upon the termination of the legal proceedings it shall disband itself, and the remainder of the funds - if such will remain - shall be handed over for some public goal that shall be indicated. Once the association shall disband itself, it shall published a report to that effect in the press.

As to the Knesset Member himself, he must avoid receiving any sort of contribution, whether directly or by means of the association, with regards to which there is any sort of suspicion that it might involve a conflict of interests. In addition, the Knesset Member must follow the list of contributors and the level of the contributions, and in so far as necessary, request the return of contributions, that do not correspond to the criteria mentioned above, to the contributors.