Starting next week, Israeli ministers who skip Cabinet meetings will face public "name and shame" on the Prime Minister’s Office website, where their absence will be noted.
The decision was announced Sunday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he was angered last week to find only 12 of 25 ministers present at the government meeting.
At the start of this week’s meeting, Netanyahu asked, “How many ministers are there in the government?” When told “25,” he replied, “I only see 20.”
After announcing his plan to publicly shame absent ministers, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi quipped to Netanyahu, “That’s the stick — what about the carrot?” Netanyahu replied, “Maybe we’ll bring the media back into the room for the next meeting.”
One minister interjected, “That’s also a stick,” to which Netanyahu responded, “Then for now we’ll start only with the stick — the carrot will come later.” Some ministers reportedly claimed that protests outside the building had made it difficult to arrive.
During last week’s meeting, Netanyahu had instructed Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs to impose sanctions on ministers who fail to attend, reiterating a policy he set in June 2023 that would bar those absent more than once per quarter without approval from traveling abroad during the following quarter. So far, that penalty has not been enforced.
Cabinet meetings have been closed to journalists since October 7 and have taken place without media coverage. Under the new measure, ministers who fail to attend will have their names published on the Prime Minister’s Office website and on its social media pages.