ABSTRACT
Israel's government institutions and constitutional system have developed within a structure established formally through parliamentary legislation and government regulations and informally through practices and procedures that have become constitutional law. The Knesset's major function is to pass legislation that becomes Israeli law. At its first session in 1949, the Knesset passed the Transition Law—also called the "small constitution"—which provided the foundations for government and defined the powers of and relations among the president, parliament, and the cabinet. The Law of Return, adopted on July 5, 1950, granted every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel. The powers of the prime minister are not defined by law, and his or her relationships with other cabinet ministers are only loosely described in the Basic Law, which establishes the prime minister as "head of the government". Many institutional precedents were established by Israel's forceful first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the directions in which he led the state during its first precarious years.
