President Peres visits Kibbutz Alumot, where he was raised, Tu Bishvat 2008

For the celebrations of the 15th of Shvat in 2008, the Members of the Knesset visited schools across the State and spoke to students. Later they assembled in the Plenum and shared their experiences. Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik mentions her visit of that day to a school in the city of Sderot and summarizes the project:

Speaker Dalia Itzik: My fellow Members of the Knesset, as we have been asked – first of all, happy birthday – we will move on to vote and then discuss today’s experiences. Voting. Mr. Minister, hello to you. I will be given shortly the registration of the Knesset secretariat. Where did you teach today? What have you learnt in kindergarten today?

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Speaker Dalia Itzik: With your permission, I would like to take a few minutes to share with you. I was in Sderot today. I must say I have seen a gloomy city. Not desperate, but definitely a gloomy city. I intentionally, of course, selected this city. I have wanted to be there for a long time. There is also a dilemma for public figures – when they go someplace people say: Well, they have come to be photographed. When they do not go there they say: They do not come, they abandon us. It is always the kind of dilemma one has to face, for it is after all a gloomy place – what can one say, seven years. One of the students there has said to me something that touched me deeply. She said: There may not be a solution, and you all come here and tell us that we are brave and strong. We know that we are brave; we do not need your approval. We feel it at all times.

We do not know if there is a solution or not. We know one thing: We must not be silent; we understand one thing: There must finally be a reaction. I am joining this call too.

Member of Knesset Dov Khenin, you are an attorney, and I am certain that you do not approve what I am saying. But you are an attorney. When one hires an attorney, sometimes he loses a “case.” However, when you know that he has fought over your “case.” you are moved. The feeling of the citizens of Sderot – by the way, for many years now, it is not only this year – is ---

Dov Khenin (Hadash): Madam Speaker, as an attorney I would like to tell you that the aptitude of an attorney is first and foremost to know when not to take up a client.

Speaker Dalia Itzik: The government does not have much choice in this matter, as you know. It does not choose its problems. All governments did not have a choice.

Interjection: Sderot is not a client.

Speaker Dalia Itzik: Yes, exactly. It will say: Sderot is not my client.

Dov Khenin (Hadash): Undoubtedly, but ---

Speaker Dalia Itzik: I am not certain that the government has taken Sderot into war. I am certain that many governments, including the current one, did not respond enough when a response was needed. You know, on this matter we have differences of opinion, and do not blame me for being categorized, not as a right-wing or a left-wing or in this matter. I truly feel that our restraint is being used. If my call on this matter can make a slight difference, this is my contribution to this matter. I truly feel that there is a limit to the ability of restraint. Innocent civilians cannot be hurt. Nevertheless, they should also pressure the local authority.

But what I would like to say is in connection to what you, MK Gideon Sa’ar and others have said. There is power among this critical mass that went out today. It is true that Members of the Knesset – even I do it from time to time, meet here with students and go to schools, but there is a statement here. One of things I am bothered with, and I am sure that former speaker MK Ruby Rivlin also received many opinion polls that say – and you feel it in the status of the Knesset, status of Knesset members, popularity of Knesset members, popularity of the Knesset Speaker – there is a great decline among the younger generation. They have many reasons, but it is not only that they are busy, apathetic, or estranged. All of these things have a reason that we must be concerned with and be aware of. Yuli Edelstein said correctly: We will bring it up for discussion in our parliamentary group. I feel this is not an issue for a faction, but one for the Knesset. We may very well need to think – I wouldn’t say once a month, I do not know how MK Rivlin handled it – but it may be very much needed to make something more permanent.

Reuven Rivlin (Likud): There are schools that ask and invite Members of the Knesset to come to them.

Tu Bishvat 2008: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits the school he attended as a child - the Eshkolot primary school in Binyamina. He is teaching a third-grade class.

Speaker Dalia Itzik: I know that. I am saying that there is a greater power for this critical mass that everyone went.

Reuven Rivlin (Likud): Maybe you should notify all the schools that if they wish, once in a while – on Sundays or Thursdays, these are days that the Knesset members -

Speaker Dalia Itzik: No, the power is in the organization of this whole thing.

Reuven Rivlin (Likud): That is for sure.

Speaker Dalia Itzik: When almost 120 go out and when the Ministry of Education prepares for it, and the schools. It may need to be considered. Even once every two months – once a year is very little, really little – so it will have an influence, and that we will also bring them to here.

Look at your inputs, they are very interesting. I thought that the most of you will return battered and say: Oh my, how they treated us. I am happy to hear other feedback. I too have heard other feedback, and not only criticism, and I was surprised, for I too have three children at home and I know these criticisms from my own home. Nothing is harder than dealing with your own children asking profound questions. Nevertheless, I feel that something must be done in this matter. I admit that I do not exactly know what it is. I am inclined to think that doing this once a month – believe me, I am dreaded to say this – is worth more than the two hours that we ask here, and please excuse me, with all due respect to the things we do here. It is even worth this minute of discussion, or two minutes. It is a true contribution.

I am also inclined to think that when you know people personally, when you know the Knesset members, you see the dilemmas and misgivings – what looks from the exterior as wheeling and dealing, in here it is the essence of democracy. It is compromise and the striving for a consensus. In other places it will immediately seem as trade. Here it is a democracy, a conversation and discussion, consideration and clarification. There are minorities to be considered, for the majority usually gets its way easily. The coalition is given more, while the opposition struggles as a minority, etc. All of these things are taken for granted to outsiders, even to grownups.

The worst, and the most horrible feeling we all know – I remember when Knesset members did not have cars. One day I was signaled by someone, and I thought he must be commenting on my driving.

Yuli Edelstein (Likud): Where is your driver?

Speaker Dalia Itzik: No – is that the car they gave you? Back then, we didn’t even get a car. Everyone stops at traffic lights, good and bad cars alike; that is fate for both the poor and the rich. I open my window and jokingly tell him: Sir, why are you bothering me, what do you want? And he says: Is that the car they gave you? I tell him: Next time I will arrive earlier at the garage and take the better cars. It is unbelievable – you probably get this, and you get that. It is a great heartache, and we need to find a way to treat it.

However, we also need to look at – and I know what Ruby thinks of it, but I think it is worth to try and look at the justice system, what it does. I am now exposed more to information, and when I look at it, I see that five minutes later, it is already on the news, that a Knesset member is being investigated on such and such; the poor guy does not even know, and sometimes has no clue. But eventually, when you create a list, then there is a procession of MKs being interrogated. Go explain then that it is not so. And three, four and five years later – and I say Ruby, since I know he can speak on this from his own experience, on what that has been done to him. This matter should be tended to at higher levels, not through aggression, but definitely through dialogue, face to face; look into their eyes. There are many people, there are many public figures that have done nothing wrong and were disgraced. It is clear that we should not befriend those who have done bad, and were not disgraced, but it stains the whole house, and we are not to blame. Add the media to this, and you will see what comes out of all of this together.

On the other hand – news. A recent poll that I did not publicize – look at the media – the Knesset is on an upscale. Unhappy news – I am of course not happy of this –that the Supreme Court is on a decline. It used to be completely the other way around. I am of course not happy, since the Supreme Court is highly significant and needs to be strengthened. However, the Knesset’s ascent is a development that we need to figure out how to preserve it and what to do with it.

Believe me, Members of the Knesset, with no flattery – I look at the majority of the Knesset members, I pass by them all the time and I tell a reporter: Look at this, and look at this, and see that. This could have been here, and this should have been here, and that could have been here. When you look at the list of most of the Knesset members, you say to yourself: Not only does the Knesset have nothing to be embarrassed of, but it is of true quality. Somehow it does not reflect on the outside. I admit that I do not have conclusive answers. I myself ponder it a lot. I do not really know what to do, and I feel the need to share my indecisions with you.

I thank you for being partners in this successful venture.

Please, Mr. Minister, tell us how it went in Rishon LeZion. Afterwards we will go outside and taste the dried fruits of the 15th of Shvat.