PM Netanyahu and his wife participated in the dedication of the Knesset Museum

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife participated in the dedication of the Knesset Museum at Froumine House in Jerusalem

Following the ceremony, the Prime Minister and his wife toured the museum together with the President and his wife, the Knesset Speaker and his partner, and the Mayor of Jerusalem and his wife.

Prime Minister Netanyahu :

“My honored friends,

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and his partner Alon Hadad, and the Mayor of Jerusalem, I must say, Moshe, this is an exciting day for you and certainly for your wife Sarit. This is a very exciting day for my wife and I, for all of you honored guests, among them the ‘youngest’ Knesset member, Moshe Nissim, who served in many Knessets and did very important work as a senior minister in Israeli governments.

Of course, our dear ones, Avishay, David and Eli, who are here representing the dear families of our hostages, and representatives of the bereaved families whose sons have made the ultimate sacrifice – ensuring the eternity of Israel. From here we also send our best wishes for recovery, to our heroic fighters, who bear their wounds with a pride that arouses astonishment, respect and great inspiration.

I am moved to be in this place. As a boy, I saw it from the outside. Here fundamental laws were legislated. Here they were stormy arguments and deliberations. Here Israeli democracy was established – contrary to the will of many in the international community who refused to recognize Jerusalem, the western section of Jerusalem, as the capital of Israel. May are still refusing to do so today, after the unification of our eternal capital.

The international community has always lagged in recognizing the great historic changes that have occurred in the fate of our people. They grew accustomed to seeing us as a perfect victim over the generations. They find it difficult to recognize the change that we have undergone as a people that took its fate in its hands and took up the sword against those who came to destroy us. But this did not stop us, not in the deliberations here, not in those at Givat Ram, and not in the great deeds that we are doing to ensure the eternity of Israel.

I said that I saw this building from the outside because as a boy in Jerusalem in the 1960’s, I would go down King George Street. Across the road here, there were cafes, delicatessens, shops and on the other side of the street – the Knesset. It was self-evident. The Knesset dwells in the heart of the people. It works in the name of the people and on behalf of the people. This place, Froumine House, in the heart of the city, in the center of the city, gave informal expression to a basic principle of democracy: The people are sovereign. The people elect their representatives to the parliament, and through them, the Government that administers the affairs of state.

In those years, the pointed discussion between the authorities that has developed in recent years had yet to break out. Each authority knew its place and its function. There was balance, harmony and considerable mutual respect between the authorities.

Israel was a classic parliamentary democracy and nobody claimed otherwise. It worked through checks and balances between the authorities, which are the foundation of modern democracy. The ancient democratic principle is the will of the majority, and the way to balance between the will of the majority and individual rights is by the checks and balances between the authorities. I hope that we can go back to the understandings of those days. The people yearn for this. It will benefit everyone.

My friends, I am very proud that as Finance Minister, 21 years ago, I was entrusted with working for the financing of the acquisition of the precious asset of Froumine House. This saved it from demolition. A contractor had purchased it and planned to demolish it and build one of these towers here. With all due respect to them, not in this place. This saved it from demolition and made possible its rehabilitation and its perpetuation.

Froumine House is an important part of the heritage of Israeli democracy from the first days of the state and deserves to be preserved and perpetuated. It will serve as the Knesset Museum, open and accessible to the public. It will tell the history of the Knesset. I would like to thank the many people who are here today, and also those who are not here, who worked for this noble goal.

I would like to especially thank you, Knesset Speaker Amor Ohana, and the active and enterprising Director General, Chico Edry, for the special effort they made to bring us to this day.

Twenty-one years have passed since I, as Finance Minister, approved the money, and it could have taken another 21 years in our crazy bureaucracy, but you came in and moved mountains and brought us to this exciting day.

I wish you great success as Director of the Museum, Dr. Moshe Foxman.

I would like to add something: At this time, of great victories over those who sought to destroy us, as we stand before the end of the campaign and are working to overcome the remnants of the Iranian axis and to free all of our hostages – the living and the deceased, we are marking here the fact of our existence and independence in the heart of our eternal capital, Jerusalem.

As the Prophet Haggai (2:9, https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2202.htm) says: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, says the Lord of Hosts.'”