It happened in the fall of 2002, soon after the Knesset decided to dissolve itself and hold new elections. Avraham Hirschson, then a Likud Knesset member, rushed to submit his “Job Act.”

It was nothing more than a power grab. By attempting to pass this significant law during the transition period between two governments, Hirschson was trying to ease the restrictions imposed on the appointment of new directors at government-owned agencies because of their political affiliation. By lifting existing restrictions, he would send a signal to Likud members that they could find a job with him if he received a high spot on the party’s new Knesset list.

There have been many versions of that law proposed since then, all of them by Likud Knesset members. In effect, it has become one of the leading symbols of corruption and shamelessness in governance. Hirschson failed to get his law passed, but he still won a spot on the party’s Knesset list. He was later appointed finance minister by his close friend Ehud Olmert, who served as prime minister and head of the Kadima Party. Then Hirschson was convicted in one of the biggest corruption scandals ever seen in Israel and sent to prison.

Every few years, when the Likud is in power, some member of the party or other tries to pass a version of Hirschson’s Job Act. Usually a new Knesset member at the start of his or her political career proposes the law, hoping that it will score points with his or her constituents. Culture Minister Miri Regev did it in 2012, toward the end of the second Netanyahu government’s term, as part of her campaign in the Likud primaries. Her proposed law would have permitted ministers to appoint people identified with them to key positions in their ministry, replacing staffers who served there before the minister took office.