Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has decided to install Israeli flags behind the podium in the Knesset plenum after realizing that one of the most photographed places in the Israeli parliament lacked an Israeli flag.
"It is unthinkable for lawmakers and ministers who are routinely photographed with the Israeli flag behind them to be filmed without a flag in the Knesset, of all places," Edelstein said.
He said the idea came to him while watching a lawmaker deliver a speech on the Knesset podium a few weeks ago. He said he thought, "How weird it is that although we fight to have and proudly wave the Israel flag everywhere, in the Knesset plenum it does not receive proper expression."
As a result, in cooperation and coordination with the professional authorities in the Knesset and Knesset architects, it was decided to add the flags behind the Knesset secretary's seat and behind the podium.
"I am proud of our flag and I'm happy I was able to make this necessary correction to a historic oversight," Edelstein said.
"It should have been done when the Knesset building was built some 50 years ago. I am glad, on the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Knesset, to restore it to its original glory."
The installation of the flags followed months of efforts, during which officials learned that two Israeli flags had been hung across the main wall inside Frumin House, where the Israeli parliament was housed from 1950 until 1966.
When the Knesset disperses ahead of the upcoming elections, additional work will be carried out at the behest of Knesset Secretary General Albert Sacharovich. The work is set to include making the Knesset speaker's seat wheelchair-accessible, and setting up an official waiting area for lawmakers behind the plenum.
The last time any changes were made to the Knesset was when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon requested a dais to be brought into the building.
As expected, lawmakers from the Joint Arab List were not pleased with the idea of the flags.
MK Ahmad Tibi said, "Yuli Edelstein had six years to bolster the Knesset and improve its standing and reverse its racist, extremist and sometimes absurd image; ultimately, he ended up with a blue-and-white gimmick. One flag on top of another and another, but without a flag of liberal democratic values, equality or justice."
