Interim President of the Israel and Acting President of Israel are temporary posts established by Israeli Basic Law for the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. These are two different offices, the Interim President in case of presidential vacancy, and

Acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad range of sk ...

President when the President remains in office but temporarily cannot fulfill his or her duties.

Interim President

The Basic Law states that in case of the death, resignation or removal from office of the President, the

Speaker of the Knesset The speaker of the Knesset (, ) is the presiding officer of the Knesset, the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Speaker also acts as President of Israel when the President is incapacitated. The current speaker is Amir Ohana, who ...

shall become Interim President: ''If the place of the President of the State has fallen vacant, and so long as the new President has not yet begun to hold office, the Speaker of the Knesset shall hold office as Interim President of the State'' An Interim President, who retains his post of Knesset Speaker, serves until the Knesset chooses a new President. The following individuals have served as Interim President: #

Yosef Sprinzak Yosef Sprinzak (; ) was a leading Zionist activist in the first half of the 20th century, an Israeli politician, and the first Speaker of the Knesset, a role he held from 1949 until his death in 1959. Biography Yosef Sprinzak was born in Moscow, ...

(November 9 – December 8, 1953) #

Kadish Luz Kadish Luz (; 10 January 1895 – 4 December 1972) was an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Agriculture between 1955 and 1959 and as Speaker of the Knesset from 1959 and 1969.Avraham Burg Abraham "Avrum" Burg (; born 19 January 1955) is an Israeli author, politician and businessman. He was a member of the Knesset, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Speaker of the Knesset, and Interim President of Israel. He was the first ...

(July 13 – August 1, 2000) #

Dalia Itzik Dalia Itzik ( ''Dalya Itsik''; born 20 October 1952) is an Israeli former politician who last served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima. She has previously served in several ministerial positions, and on 4 May 2006 became the first female spe ...

(July 1 – July 15, 2007)

Acting President

''During a period in which the President of the State has temporarily ceased to carry out his functions and exercise his powers, the Speaker of the Knesset shall hold office as Acting President of the State'' Disregarding cases in which the President is outside Israel (and is legally deemed to "cease to carry out his functions and exercise his powers"), the most recent person to serve as Acting President was

, when

Moshe Katzav Moshe Katsav (; born Musa Qassab; 5 December 1945) is an Israeli former politician and was the president of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its cabinet. He was the first Miz ...

was suspended. However, when including those cases, the speaker of the knesset receives the role every time the president goes abroad.

Majalli Wahabi Majalli Wahabi (, , also transcripted as Majalli Wahbee or Majli Wahaba; born ) is a Druze-Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud, Kadima and HaTnuah between 2003 and 2013. He briefly assumed the position of Acting ...

, briefly became Israel's Acting President due to Moshe Katzav's leave of absence and Dalia Itzik's trip abroad in February 2007, making him the first non-Jew (

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

) to act as Israel's head of state.

References

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