On the occasion of the state visit of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,
the Knesset held a special session in her honor. This afforded the prime
minister the opportunity to express Israel's deep sentiments of gratitude
to Holland, for the role it played in providing haven to persecuted Jews
as early as the fifteenth century, in sheltering Jews during the Nazi
occupation and for the role it played in helping Israel during the dark
days of the Yom Kippur War. Text of Mr. Rabin's address follows:
Your Majesty,
Your Highness, the Prince
Mister Speaker,
Honorable Members of the Knesset,
It is an honor and a pleasure for me and for all of us, to welcome you
today to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Israel and the
heart of the Jewish people. Welcome.
Your Majesty,
You and your delegation have been here with us for two days and we are
certain that you have confirmed what you have always known: the State of
Israel embraces you with love.
There are a thousand and one reasons for the special and mutual sentiments
of the Jewish people and the State of Israel towards your country - and of
your country towards us. It extends over generations, over centuries. Any
attempt to pinpoint, to search, to know one main reason, is futile. We can
only guess.
Your Majesty,
Perhaps these sentiments are so very special because your country was one
of the first countries in Europe to shelter members of the tortured Jewish
people, some say already in the 13th century?
Perhaps it is because your country showed kindness to the exiled Jews of
Spain and Portugal and to the refugees of evil decrees in Poland and took
them in when they were persecuted because of their Judaism and gave them a
new life?
And perhaps it is because your country, Your Majesty, was one of the first
to give equal rights to the Jewish community, while other peoples
persecuted them and oppressed them.
Or perhaps it is because we so enjoy yearning for the past, for the
glorious time when Amsterdam was one of the centers of world Jewry in the
seventeenth century, for the time of wisdom and knowledge, of learning,
the time of printing, the days of students and scholars, teachers and
rabbis, when one of the most prominent and boycotted men in Holland was
the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the man of wisdom and enlightenment We
don't know. Perhaps we will never know.
And perhaps, perhaps it is the atmosphere of peace and reconciliation
which your country has inspired among its neighbors and throughout the
world? And perhaps the peace and quiet and contentment which are so
characteristic of your people arouse our envy?
And the borders? The borders between your country and its neighbors? The
free passage, the minefields which are not there, the arrow vents which
are no longer in use and the hatred which for many years you have not
known?
And perhaps it is the sights, the endless water courses, the green
wherever you look. Can it be that man's victory over the forces of nature
in Holland is what stimulates our imagination?
Perhaps it is the bitter memories: the dark days of Hitler and the 4,000
Dutch Righteous Gentiles who extended their hands and rescued those whom
they could from the inferno, when almost all of the Jewish community was
led to the crematoria?
Can it be that this special Israeli sentiment is the result of your coming
to our aid when the Jews on the former Soviet Union were seeking a way
out, a way of escape, knocked on all doors and found that the right
address was the Dutch embassy in Moscow? And the admiration in the Six-Day
War and the concern for our safety in the Yom Kippur War and the battery
of Patriot missiles which you sent us during the Gulf War?
Each one of these reasons by itself and all of them together are perhaps
the whole story - the love story between Holland and Israel, between The
Hague and Jerusalem.
Your Majesty,
While your beautiful country overcomes the forces of nature, our country
is currently making a great effort to overcome human nature and to change
the order of things; we are trying to change hostility into
reconciliation, death into life, war into peace. It is not easy. Every
morning brings new tidings of peace, yet every evening brings
difficulties. While we discuss peace with our Palestinian neighbors and
sit with the Jordanians in order to normalize relations, scheming
terrorists, extremists and fanatics, plot to eradicate the lives of
Israelis and to topple that chance of peace. I can promise you, Your
Majesty, that we will continue on the road to peace and we will fight the
enemies of peace.
On this road we find Holland at our side, supporting and aspiring to that
same peace. Thank you, in the name of the entire State of Israel. Thank
you, Holland.
Your Majesty,
During your visit here, you will discover that with regard to you, your
government, your country, we have no coalition and no opposition. We are
all united. We are united in the desire for peace and in the desire to
always see Holland foremost among our friends - fighting terror and the
darkness of bigotry, ignoring the Arab boycott and assisting us in our
economic needs, supporting us in the European market, extending a hand to
build a stable economy.
This is the second time I have had the honor, as Prime Minister, to
meet you. Yours is the second royal visit in the history of the State of
Israel, the first being that of the King of Spain. How symbolic it is that
your visit, as Queen of a country which opened its gates to the Jewish
exiles of the Iberian peninsula, should follow that of a Spanish
monarch.
Your Majesty,
David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, once said that
Israel suffers from "too much history and too little geography." You have
asked to see the new immigrants and their absorption, our scientific
achievements and our high technology, the blossoming of the desert and
Jerusalem. We hope and believe that you will be impressed with what you
see and with our great accomplishments.
I am sure you will find here a nation which dreams of peace and is making
peace, while fighting terror and the difficulties of everyday life.
Your Majesty,
Thousands of Dutch tulips are blooming today in Jerusalem. If we could, we
would give them all to you.
Welcome to Israel.