Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin receives a model Knesset filled with Israeli fruit from the Plants Production and Marketing Board

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin:
Honorable President, Prime Minister, Ministers, Members of the Knesset. Today is the 17th of Shvat, February 1st 2010. I am honored to open this festive and unique sitting of the Knesset.

President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Head of the Opposition Tzipi Livni, honorable members of the government, Speaker of the Thirteenth Knesset Shevach Weiss, Speaker of the Seventeenth Knesset Dalia Itzik, fellow former and current members of the Knesset, dear teachers, parents and pupils, dear soldiers and officers, and the respectable crowd of people who came to celebrate the Knesset’s birthday. And you, young teenagers, who sit among us in this hall, taking part in this sitting, this time not as spectators, but as full participants in this experience of democracy.

Honored guests. Six years ago, on the Knesset’s 55th birthday, I confessed at the opening of this festive sitting my love for the Knesset, and it is for that reason that I hurt when I see it demeaned at times, losing its strength and status to other authorities, and, needles to say, in the public’s eye.

A first in the Knesset: Teens address the Knesset Plenum in honor of Tu Bishvat, 2010

I expressed my fear that the public contempt of the Knesset causes it to lose its legitimacy and relevance not only for the Knesset and for us, Members of the Knesset, but for parliamentary democracy in its entirety. I had said then that one of our main goals is to bring about a deep change in the Knesset’s image by making a new ethical code that is relevant and up-to-date. It is now six years after that day – the ethical code has been written and is now in the final stages of its approval by a committee headed by MK Chaim Oron, one of our veteran Knesset members.

I now present you with another task, as essential and urgent as my previous one, and it is to bring this house of legislators, its work, its content from within the committees and in our sittings, closer to the public. I believe that if we open the gates of this house wide open, if we enact maximal transparency, if we allow the citizens of Israel to see up close what is happening inside these walls in a direct manner, we will be able to gradually rebuild the status of the Knesset. We will be able to save it from its current image that was created, to the best of my understanding, by the public’s exposure to half-truths and even lies concerning the work being conducted here by excellent, caring, and passionate legislators.

To realize this goal we have taken several initiatives: We launched a new innovative tour adapted to every age group, starting from kindergarten; we have started a process of reorganizing the spokesmanship of the Knesset to provide an authentic picture of its work; the Knesset website is being upgraded and will provide continuous broadcasts from the Knesset committees; these are all significant procedures making the Knesset more visible, authentic, relevant, and closer to the people.

A first in the Knesset: Teens address the Knesset Plenum in honor of Tu Bishvat, 2010

Dear boys and girls, after consulting with dozens of Knesset members and getting approval from the House Committee, we will open the inner sanctum of the Israeli democracy, the Knesset Plenum, before you. I have done so not only because we all see in you a matter of consensus, but mainly because great and deep processes begin with you, the future generation of the State of Israel. You are the parents, educators, leaders, Israelis of tomorrow, and this critical task of strengthening this house and his public image begins with you. You represent a wide spectrum of the Israeli population – Jewish, Muslim and Christian, Haredi, religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, from north, center and south, immigrants and natives – all of you together, and each one by himself, express the importance and great power of democracy in Israel.

And we, the honorable President, Prime Minister, ministers, Knesset members and I, await to hear you speak. We will first listen closely to words from the President, Prime Minister and the head of the opposition.