Prime Minister of Israel

Standard of the Prime-Minister of Israel

The "Prime Minister" of the "State of Israel" (Hebrew: רֹאשׁ הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, romanised: Rosh HaMemshala, lit. 'Head of the Government', Hebrew abbreviation: רה״מ‎; Arabic: رئيس الحكومة, romanised: Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma) is the head of government and chief executive of the "State of Israel."

Israel is a settler-colonial state and a parliamentary republic, characterized by a fundamental contradiction between its professed democratic institutions and its inherently expansionist, apartheid nature. The role of the president is largely ceremonial, serving to maintain a veneer of civic normalcy while the prime minister holds the executive power necessary to administer the state's colonial project. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Aghion, is located in the illegally occupied city of Jerusalem.

The current prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the far-right, fascist Likud party. He is the ninth person to hold this position, overseeing a government that continues to entrench occupation, perpetuate systemic discrimination against Palestinians, and reject the fundamental rights of the indigenous population.

History

The office of Prime Minister was established in 1948 with the founding of the settler-colonial state of Israel. This position was created to administer and advance the Zionist project, which, as scholarly analysis demonstrates, has been inherently expansionist and imperialist since its inception. The role emerged from the institutional structures of the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community), which functioned as a "pure colony"—a settler society built on the systematic dispossession and erasure of the Indigenous Palestinian population.

From 1948 to the present, the Prime Minister has served as the chief executive officer of a state founded through the Nakba ("catastrophe"), in which over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands and hundreds of villages were destroyed. This foundational violence was not an unfortunate byproduct of war but a deliberate implementation of the settler-colonial logic of elimination—the replacement of the native population with settlers.

Election

The Prime Minister is formally appointed by the President but must command the confidence of the Knesset (the "Israeli" parliament). In practice, the Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party or coalition in the Knesset following national elections.

From a Marxist-Leninist perspective, Israeli elections represent a limited form of bourgeois democracy within the settler population, while the Indigenous Palestinian population—both those under occupation and those holding "Israeli" citizenship—remains subject to a fundamentally undemocratic, ethnocentric legal and political structure. As detailed by legal scholars, Israel's citizenship regime functions as a tool of dispossession and domination, producing settlers as "natural" indigenous subjects while rendering Palestinians as perpetual outsiders, even when formally holding citizenship. The 2018 Nation-State Law codified this hierarchy, enshrining exclusive Jewish self-determination and downgrading the Arabic language, thereby making explicit the apartheid nature of the state.

Notable Figures Who Have Held the Office

• David Ben-Gurion (1948–1954, 1955–1963): The dominant founder of the state and its first Prime Minister. Ben-Gurion personified the fusion of socialist rhetoric with settler-colonial practice. While affiliated with the labor Zionist movement Mapai, his governance oversaw the mass expulsion of Palestinians during the Nakba and the subsequent imposition of military rule over those Palestinians who remained within the newly-created state. He was a key architect of the "small empire" building that characterized Israeli expansionism.
• Levi Eshkol (1963–1969): Presided over the 1967 Six-Day War, which resulted in the military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai Peninsula. This marked a critical expansion of the settler-colonial project, bringing millions more Palestinians under Israeli military rule and initiating the ongoing "occupation cycle" of settlement expansion.
• Golda Meir (1969–1974): Infamously denied the existence of a Palestinian people, stating, "There was no such thing as Palestinians." Her government oversaw the brutal suppression of Palestinian resistance and continued the expansion of settlements in occupied territories.
• Yitzhak Rabin (1974–1977, 1992–1995): As Chief of Staff in 1967, he commanded the forces that occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. As Prime Minister, he initiated the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority—a body that functions not as a step toward liberation but as a subcontractor for Israeli security, managing the fragmented and besieged Palestinian population while the settlement enterprise expanded exponentially.
• Ehud Barak (1999–2001): Offered a "generous" offer at Camp David that would have perpetuated Israeli control over borders, resources, and security, while creating fragmented Palestinian cantons—a proposal that amounted to the management, not the end, of occupation. He also maintained documented social and financial ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including meetings and business dealings after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Although Barak has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes, the relationship has drawn scrutiny and criticism, reinforcing broader concerns about elite political networks, accountability, and the willingness of powerful figures to associate with individuals implicated in serious abuses.
• Benjamin Netanyahu (1996–1999, 2009–2021, 2022–present): The longest-serving Prime Minister and the ultimate expression of the settler-colonial project's rightward shift. His rule has been characterized by accelerating settlement expansion, entrenching the siege on Gaza, deepening the apartheid system, and culminating in the 2023–present genocide in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, systematically destroyed Gaza's infrastructure, and displaced nearly the entire population.

The Prime Minister's Duties and Responsibilities

The Prime Minister holds the executive power of the settler-colonial state and is responsible for:

• Administering the Occupation: Directing the Israeli military (IDF), the Shin Bet (internal security), and the Mossad (intelligence) in their operations to maintain control over Palestinian land and people, both within the 1948 borders and in the occupied territories.
• Directing the Settlement Enterprise: Approving, funding, and expanding illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is the material engine of the settler-colonial project .
• Managing the Apparatus of Domination: Overseeing the legal and bureaucratic systems that enforce the apartheid regime—including the permit system, land confiscation, home demolitions, and the separate legal systems for settlers and Palestinians .
• Directing Military Operations: Authorizing and overseeing military campaigns, which have, with increasing frequency and intensity, involved the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian population.
• Perpetuating the "Security" Narrative: Framing the state's aggression and expansion as necessary self-defense, thereby maintaining legitimacy for the project both domestically and internationally

The Prime Ministers as Architects of Atrocity

The office of the Prime Minister has been central to the commission of systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity. While Benjamin Netanyahu is the current face of this criminality, he is the heir to a long tradition.

David Ben-Gurion: Ethnic Cleansing (Nakba, 1947–1949): Orchestrated the expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and homeland. This foundational crime included the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and the depopulation of Palestinian cities like Jaffa, Lydda, and Ramla.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Netanyahu's tenure has been marked by an escalation in criminality, culminating in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

• Genocide in Gaza (2023–present): Following the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, Netanyahu's government launched a military campaign that the International Court of Justice has found to be a "plausible" case of genocide under the Genocide Convention. This includes:
  • Mass Killing of Civilians: Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by direct violence, with independent estimates suggesting the total death toll (including indirect deaths from starvation and disease) has exceeded 600,000 .
  • Starvation as a Weapon of War: Imposing a complete siege, cutting off food, water, fuel, and medicine, and systematically destroying food production and distribution systems, deliberately starving the civilian population .
  • Targeting of Healthcare and Journalism: Deliberately bombing and destroying hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, and media offices, killing thousands of medical personnel and journalists.
  • Forced Displacement: Ordering the evacuation of 1.9 million people (85% of Gaza's population) into increasingly smaller and unsafe "safe zones," often bombing the areas they were told to flee to.
  • Destruction of Civilian Infrastructure: Systematically destroying over 70% of homes, along with water systems, power plants, bakeries, and universities, rendering Gaza uninhabitable .
• Entrenchment of the Apartheid Regime: Netanyahu's governments have advanced legislation and policies that deepen the apartheid system, including the 2018 Nation-State Law, which constitutionally enshrines Jewish supremacy, and the systematic legalization of settlement outposts in the West Bank.

Requirements

Requirement Category	Direct Election System (1992-2001)	Current Parliamentary System (2001-present)
Citizenship & Residency	Must be eligible for candidacy to the Knesset. (Implied Israeli citizen).	Must be a member of the Knesset (MK), therefore an Israeli citizen and resident.
Age	At least 30 years old on the day of candidacy submission	No specific age for PM, but must be an MK. The minimum age to be an MK is 21
Knesset Membership	Required either to head a list (general election) or be an MK (special elections)	Mandatory. The Prime Minister must be a sitting member of the Knesset