The Knesset Celebrates its 70th Anniversary
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The Exhibition “70 Years of the Knesset – The Knesset Shapes Society”
The Airports Authority is proud to host the exhibition displaying 70 years of work of the Knesset, the symbol of Israeli democracy. The exhibition comprises 50 photographs of historical occurrences at the Knesset, as well as a different perspective on the Knesset’s legislation over the years. The exhibition tells the story of Israel from a slightly different point of view; because there are at least seventy possible ways of observing the seventy years of Israel’s independence, but there is only one crossroad where all those roads meet: at the Knesset.
As the Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, put it: “The Knesset is the place where we ask ourselves the most piercing questions, and where we give our most candid answers. The Knesset is the sounding board for our hopes, for our aspirations, for our dreams – and it’s also the place where those dreams come true. Sometimes you can lose sight of that; sometimes the Knesset gets covered with the dust of arguments, of shouting, of interests. But every day when I get to the Knesset and enter the plenum, there’s one moment when I tell myself: Before everything and after all, here, at the Knesset, after two thousand years of exile and wandering, the Jewish people can once again shape its own destiny itself. That says it all; that’s worth it all.”
Each photograph in the exhibition focuses on one occurrence or law, and everyone is likely to find the photograph that best speaks to them.
The exhibition was realized in collaboration with the Government Press Office and the photographs are divided into two categories:
- Historical occurrences at the Knesset: Seminal and rare moments captured at the House, such as: Sadat’s visit, the First Knesset election vote, Herzl’s coffin outside the old Knesset building in Tel Aviv against the background of the sea’s waves, artist Marc Chagall decorating the massive tapestry in the House’s lounge, Knesset Speaker Sprinzak surveys the Knesset Guard mere hours before his death, a demonstration against the German Reparations, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s coffin laid out in state at the Knesset Plaza, and more.
- A different take on legislation: The Knesset’s photographers and the Government Press Office (GPO) were asked to visually and creatively express various laws enacted by the Knesset over the years. This resulted in exquisite photographs illustrating the Laws of Return (a newly-arrived immigrant kisses the country’s soil at the foot of an airplane ramp), Equal Rights for Women (a woman Air Force pilot against the background of a helicopter) the Flag Law (an Israeli flag being handsewn at an Israeli sewing workshop), Protection of Wildlife (a vulture being released into the wild), Equal Rights for People with Disabilities (employees of various organizations and employees of the Knesset in dress uniform in a group photograph at the Knesset Plenum), the Clean Air Law (the figure of a child against the background of blue skies and clouds), and more.
