Secretary General of the Knesset, Moshe Rosetti, speaks in honor of the Knesset's 4th birthday, 1953

Knesset Speaker Joseph Shprinzak:

I will now allow myself to dedicate a few words to the fourth anniversary of the Knesset’s existence.

Our Knesset’s birthday is on the 15th of Shvat.

The heartwarming holiday of planting was given additional content – a holiday of the great event, to which we have strived for generations, celebrating the foundation of the Hebraic house of legislatures of the independent State of Israel.

The content and context of this event shall be explained from time to time to our children in their schools, those who are designated to continue and carry the civil responsibility in future times.

We, the people of the Knesset, have resolved to celebrate every year the Knesset’s birthday. It is intended for us to meet in an atmosphere of friendship, to rise above the harm that comes from mutual exchanges of insults that can happen during daily parliamentary work, and to renew the exuberance of the event and remember the hopes and directives of the constituent assembly – to the people and its representatives.

It has been four years since the establishment of the Knesset.

Over the short period of time that the Knesset existed, we have created parliamentary manners and procedures, which veteran parliaments have attained after generations of evolution.

We are one with all parliaments during the annual gatherings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It is clear from those gatherings that the same parliamentary problems that have arisen for us in four years, remain the problems of experienced and veteran parliaments.

It is obvious that we have learned from the experience of others, have accumulated our own modifications and additions, but it is clear to us all that we are still facing the path toward the proper renewal and adjustment of the Knesset’s procedures to its objective, which is nothing like that of parliaments of states and nations that have inhabited their lands for a long time.

It is not only the procedures, and not only the amending and refining of that which exists, but the calling of our Knesset is also to assist in the planting of new life and the casting of foundations of peace and security for the people that have just returned from exile and are regrouping in their land.

The invitation to the Knesset's fourth birthday celebration, 1953

This most demanding objective that requires superior efforts and outstanding moral transcendence – its purpose is blurred at times, and lost in the routine of parliamentary existence that has been extensively rooted amongst us.

This routine of parliamentary existence, which has come to us as an accepted heritage from others around the world, might be natural to some extent and must not be avoided. However, we will all agree, at least tonight, that we have over-exaggerated in a way that is not befitting, thereby hurting our status and character among the people.

The fourth year was not an easy one in the Knesset’s young life. The pangs of our national development, our focus on the hardship of achievement, the global feeling of shame, the clouds of anger and danger over the skies of all humankind, and the anxiety towards the fate of the Jewish Diaspora – all of these were intertwined and provided the blood, the fervor, and the fury in the life of the Knesset, which serves as the central stage of the entire Jewish people.

Discussions often become unclear and drawn into repetitive discourse. We have often set extra hours for “educational discourse,” which brought about a reduction in the number of listening legislators and brought about no productive outcomes.

Indeed, I am not delusional in thinking that our fifth year will be an easy one in our lives and work and in the life of the Knesset. The chaos of our working conditions in the building, and the precariousness of our status and the status of the Jewish Diaspora in the eyes of the world, will force us to be continually alert in our observations and reactions. Yet we are all committed to ensure the power and capability of the Knesset, for it could fulfill its main purpose of fundamental legislation and in encouraging all efforts of constructing, rooting, and securing the state.

May the fifth year bring with it the needed arrangement for the discussions over the state budget, the tireless work of the committees on the construction of basic laws, and may we all aspire to realistic and fruitful work.

On this Knesset’s annual celebration we send our greeting to the President of the State, who was a member of the Knesset; we send blessings of salvation to all of the Diaspora, and may we be blessed with actions that strengthen the dignity of the Knesset in the eyes of the people and the younger generation.

I hereby invite all Members of the Knesset to the annual party of the Knesset.

The next sitting will be held tomorrow at 16:00.