Tu Bishvat party in the Knesset, January 1964

Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz:

Members of the Knesset, I will dedicate my speech to the grand event that took place 15 years ago, on the 15th of Shvat.

Fifteen years have passed since the convergence of the Constituent Assembly, which is the First Knesset. It is not easy to spur amongst us the feelings of that grand event of the first sitting of the house of representatives in the sovereign State of Israel. I will try and depict some details of that event, and read several items.

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the Provisional Council, opened the sitting in the building of the National Institutes in Jerusalem, in a hall now named the “Weizmann Hall.” The city of Jerusalem symbolized the continuity and renewal of the national life of the people of Israel, while the place – the national institutions – and the man himself, symbolized the connection of the occasion of the opening of the high institute of the independent Jewish state with the World Zionist Organization, which is the movement of national renewal.

I will now read several excerpts from the opening speech of Dr. Weizmann:

“It is with a sense of honor and awe that I rise to open the Constituent Assembly of the State of Israel, the first Jewish assembly of our day, in Jerusalem, the eternal city... This occasion is the outcome of the tremendous reawakening of our national consciousness during the last few decades. It began approximately seventy years ago, when the best among us, the unknown and nameless leaders of that generation, arose to fulfill the age-old dream of the return to Zion and the revival of national existence."

Later in his speech Weizmann mentioned the two directions in which the efforts of fulfillment were visible:

"The first was spiritual arousal, the return to the ancient sources of our Jewish heritage, and the revival of the Hebrew language and its literature, focusing the widely-dispersed abilities of our nation on one aim. There were also activities in the spheres of education and the dissemination of information, the open proclamation of our historic right... This path led to the creation of the World Zionist Organization, the workshop in which fulfillment was forged..."

"The second direction was that of concrete action, and was taken by those who had grown weary of waiting for the strength of the Jews in the diaspora to increase and for others to grant them recognition. They sought to hasten matters, and they came to Palestine, attempting to bring redemption to their people by the labor of their hands, the sweat of their brow, and their very lifeblood. They were the first pioneers, the Bilu'im, and all those whose ideals led them to immigrate and lay the foundations of the country. They were followed by later generations of settlers, until this great entity was formed by those whose blood and sweat, heroism and sacrifice, established the State of Israel."

Tu Bishvat party in the Knesset, January 1964

The First Knesset convened in Jerusalem for three days. It elected a Knesset Speaker, Joseph Shprinzak, and two deputy speakers, Dr. Nahum Nir and Dr. Yosef Burg. An organizing committee was elected, headed by today’s President of the State of Israel Zalman Shazar, and its report brought the election of the permanent committees. Then Minister of Justice Felix Rosenbluth, today’s Pinhas Rosen, had delivered the government bill for the Transition Law, which was passed onto the Constitution Committee. Rabbi Mordechai Nurock had brought about the approval of the report of the Mandates Committee; chairman of the Constitution Committee Israel Idelson, who is today’s Minister of Transportation Israel Bar-Yehuda, delivered the Transition Law onto the Knesset for ratification. The two remaining sittings were dedicated to the election of the President of the State and his inauguration.

Dr. Chaim Wezimann was elected as the first President of the State. The birthday of the institution of presidency in the renewed state is therefore also celebrated in proximity to the Knesset’s birthday. I bring before the President of the State and his household our feelings of admiration and our best wishes.

In those three days, Mr. Shprinzak established the first manners for conducting the Knesset sittings: “There is no smoking in the plenum hall”; “Delivery of speeches will not be made from one’s place of sitting; a speaker with permission to speak will speak from the dais”; “Until there are Rules of Procedure, members of the Constituent Assembly will speak for a limited time, as set by the Speaker”; “It is mandatory to respect the assembly and its procedures”; “A Knesset Member’s announcement will be given at the appropriate time and place”.

Unlike the norm of the Provisional State Council, in which every law was read, the Speaker announced: “We have laid the program, the constitution, the order, and any other certificate, on the desk in time, and it will be considered as a first reading.”

During the discussion on the Transition Law, the chairman of the Constitution Committee announced: “Members of the committee, when they list a reservation, are entitled to pass the right of defense on the reservation to another member of the house.”

At times before the Rules of Procedures were set, the Knesset Speaker had to intervene from time to time in the discussion and set it back to its intent. Mr. Shprinzak was graced with the superior sense and much experience that is needed for heading conventions and assemblies, and for outlining the first patterns of parliamentary procedure.

At the closing of the first sitting of the First Knesset, Mr. Shprinzak had said: “We have made progress in Hebraic history, with the inspiration of our fallen sons on the Land of Israel, and with the awakening of the superior will and our increasing skills; we have come today, on the New Year of the Trees, to Jerusalem, our destination. Our children have planted on this day new trees… We too, the elected representatives of Israel, have planted today a new planting. At the command of past generations, and for generations to come, we have planted today the tree of Israel’s independence.”

And on the closing of the last sitting in Jerusalem, Mr. Shprinzak said: “We have taken our first step in the construction of our lives. We will uphold the will for Israel’s salvation, and Israel will be saved in our times”.

The Knesset convened in Tel Aviv three weeks later, and the sittings began with the announcement of Prime Minister David Ben Gurion regarding the government’s makeup and plans. And he said:

“We may be going these days from the period of 'greatness,' the period of braveness and victory in the political and military arenas that have turned the face of the Jewish and Israeli history and renewed it, into a period of smallness, the grey and continuous effort of economic construction and national organization. This period will have no splendor or glamour and dramatic braveness, and will consist of hard and continuous labor; an effort for immigrant absorption and housing, for fertilizing abandoned and forgotten lands, for establishing and expanding factories, for installing transportation over land, air and sea, for upholding services of education, health and national insurance, for recruitment of funds in scales we have not yet known – for defense, immigrant absorption, and for services for the people and state.”

Indeed, for fifteen years the Knesset, government and people have dealt with this “smallness,” in grey and mundane efforts. These years have had stories of bravery and victory, splendor and glamour, alongside the silence of creation.

Members of the Knesset, I bless you, the Knesset employees, and the citizens of Israel, on the Knesset’s fifteenth birthday.

Members of the Knesset, you are hereby invited to a celebration of the 15th of Shvat, tonight at 21:00.

The next sitting will be held tomorrow at 11:00. This sitting is adjourned.