The Knesset (Hebrew: הַכְּנֶסֶת‎ [haˈkneset] ( listen); lit. the gathering or assembly; Arabic: الكنيست‎) is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.

The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister (although the latter is ceremonially appointed by the President), approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. In addition, it also recommends a candidate for the State Comptroller to the President, who appoints someone to the post. It also has the power to waive the immunity of its members, remove the President and the State Comptroller from office, remove a Prime Minister convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, and to dissolve itself and call new elections. The Prime Minister may dissolve the Knesset. However, until an election is completed, the Knesset maintains authority in its current composition.

Knesset members annually convene for plenary assemblies, or plenums, for two annual sittings of at least eight months' duration. The two sittings together form a session. The Knesset may be convened at any other time if thirty or more members demand this in writing or if the government requests. As well as approving or rejecting proposed legislation, the plenum also elects the Speaker and one or more Deputy Speakers.

Rabbi Meir Porush (Hebrew: מאיר פרוש‎, born 11 June 1955) is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael faction of United Torah Judaism.

Born in Jerusalem, his father Rabbi Menachem Porush (1916–2010) was one of the longest serving Knesset members. Meir was educated in a yeshiva. Before entering the Knesset, he served as a member of Jerusalem City Council for thirteen years, and was at one stage deputy mayor of Jerusalem.

He was first elected to the Knesset in the 1996 elections as an Agudat Yisrael candidate on the United Torah Judaism list, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Housing in Binyamin Netanyahu's government.

He retained his seat in the 1999 elections and chaired the Knesset inquiry into financial problems of local councils. After Ariel Sharon won a special election for Prime Minister in 2001 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction.

He retained his seat in both the 2003 and 2006 elections, but has not served in the cabinet since 2003. In 2005 he caused controversy by saying that then PM Ariel Sharon reminded him of Benito Mussolini. He has also called for Israel to give up its nuclear weapons.

Haneen Zoabi, also Hanin Zoubi, (Arabic: حنين زعبي‎, born 23 May 1969), is a Palestinian Arab and an Israeli citizen, the first Arab Israeli woman to be elected to the Israeli legislative body on an Arab party's list. Zoabi ran in the 2009 legislative elections on the Balad party.

Haneen Zoabi was born in Nazareth to a Muslim family. Zoabi studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Haifa, earning a Bachelors of Arts, and received a Masters of Arts in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was the first Arab citizen of Israel to graduate in media studies, and established the first media classes in Arab schools. She also worked as a math teacher and worked as a school inspector for the Israeli Ministry of Education.

She is a relative of Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, a former mayor of Nazareth and member of the Knesset between 1949 and 1959, and again from 1965 until 1979, and Abd el-Aziz el-Zoubi, a Deputy Health Minister and the first Arab member of an Israeli government.

Ants Robert Kristian Luuk (born 14 June 1966) is a Swedish comedian and talk show-host of Estonian descent. A graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics, he is currently working for the broadcaster SVT after previous spells at TV4, ZTV and SR public radio. He is in a relationship with television personality Carina Berg.^{[citation needed]}

Luuk has made himself famous, mainly for his talents as an interviewer. After doing prank calls in the radio show Hassan during the early nineties, Luuk started hosting the ZTV-talk show Knesset, where his abilities as a talk show host became obvious. Transferred to Swedish publicly accessed channel TV4, and to a large degree inspired by Conan O'Brien, Luuk's breakthrough show Sen kväll med Luuk featured Luuk interviewing various celebrities of Swedish as well as international origin. Among others, Luuk interviewed John Cleese, Alanis Morissette and Madonna in the show. Luuk is remembered for rounding up every interview by challenging the interviewee in a staring contest.

Martin Schulz (born on 20 December 1955 in Hehlrath) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, since 2004 leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament (formerly called the Party of European Socialists group and since 2009 called the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats). Martin Schulz has a secondary level of education, he attended high school Heilig Geist Gymnasium in Würselen. He is the current President of the European Parliament.

After four years at primary school, from 1962 to 1966, Schulz attended the Heilig-Geist (Holy Spirit) grammar school in Broich (now Würselen), a district of the town of Broichweiden, for nine years, leaving without his Abitur (A-levels). From 1975 to 1976 he then trained to be a bookseller .

Over the next five years he worked for a number of publishing houses and bookshops, and in 1982 he opened his own bookshop in Würselen, which he ran until 1994.

Besides German, he speaks French and English and understands Dutch.