Our House of Representatives

Because I have been living in Israel for a long time and have managed to be in the right place at the right time, I happen to have been present at the official inauguration of some of Israel’s major institutions and architectural gems. These include: the Israel Museum (Jerusalem, May 1965), as my uncle and aunt who were the official recipients gave me their invitation and flew off on their travels abroad; the Knesset building (Jerusalem, August 1966), and the Supreme Court building (Jerusalem, November 1992), the last two due to my late father’s association with the Rothschild Foundation. All the ceremonies consisted maiinly of speeches in Hebrew by various dignitaries and which were largely incomprehensible to me at the time, followed by drinks and canapés of various kinds. Because of my linguistic limitations I was unable to benefit from mingling with the cream of Israel’s cultural, political and legal elites at the time, and limited myself to enjoying the food and drink.

Later on, in my career as a free-lance translator, I found myself involved in the translation of five of the six volumes of Major Knesset Debates, 1948–1981, edited by former Clerk of the Knesset, Netanel Lorch. This project, which occupied me for several years, gave me a unique insight into the workings of the Knesset and the nature of the debates held there as well as of the various individuals (i.e., politicians) who participated in those debates.

Most of those individuals are no longer alive, and are considered by now to have been among the movers and shakers who established Israel as an independent state and moulded its character. Whether their legacy of relatively civilized debate and high-minded consideration of the issues confronting the nascent State has endured is debatable. Most of the speakers whose words I had the privilege of converting into the English language were men (and a few women) of intelligence, honesty, sincerity and integrity whose principal concern was to preserve the ideals and values which formed the basis of Israel’s existence.

There were undoubted differences between them on political and ideological grounds, but they almost always sought to express them in terms that were devoid of censure and vituperation. Thus, for example, in the debate held on 8th March 1949 on the formation of the cabinet and its programme, Uri Zvi Greenberg, representing Herut, said that while he would have liked to be able “to regard the House as the supreme legislature of the nation,” he regretted the fact that some of the speakers seemed merely to be repeating internal squabbles that had been prevalent in the days of the Mandate. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion concluded the debate by saying “I would like to express my satisfaction – and I think we all share that feeling – at the way the members of the Knesset conducted the debate during these three days, and at the patience and mutual respect displayed by everyone… We heard the Arab delegates, Amin Jarjoura and Tewfik Toubi. Whether we agree with everything they said or not, we are proud that this is the manner in which we communicate.”

The fact that all the debates of the Knesset were conducted in Hebrew, the ancient language that had only recently been revived, is also worth noting. Altogether, the establishment of the State of Israel, the first Jewish state for two thousand years, is an event that we take for granted today but represents a milestone in the life of the nation.

The direction in which the political leadership is taking the country today, with debates in the Knesset that reflect the paucity of intellect and inferior level of expression of the participants, does not augur well for the future of the country and betrays the high ideals and concerns of our founding fathers.