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discussions: through which media will visitors experience the power of the events that
took place in this building? How will the place impart to visitors the values of the Scroll of
Independence? What sort of representation would be appropriate and fitting to commemorate
Tzina and Meir Dizengoff? And so on.
P eople involved in preservation of sites in Israel often quote Yigael Alon, who once said:
"A nation ignorant of its past has a shallow present and an uncertain future." The opening of
Independence Hall in the near future will correct a long-standing injustice to Meir and Tzina
Dizengoff, the owners of the building; to the city of Tel Aviv, and to the ceremony where the
state was declared.
Et-mol, published by Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 2012; pp. 30-33 (expanded version)
T he Moment Before the State Appeared
A view of the establishment of the state, 50 years later (1998),
by S. Yizhar.
S . Yizhar
Only very occasionally will it happen that an entire
population is gathered around a single point. A point
that is everything; a point from which everything will
henceforth change for the better, everything unsolved will
henceforth be solved, and all that is closed will henceforth
be open, in an instant, into a long-awaited beginning.
P erhaps we might imagine a giant triangle, where the broad
base holds all the darkness, the problems, the concerns, the
fears and the despair, the "no way out" and being stuck with the
resounding question "What will be?", while at the top, at the very tip of the triangle, a light has
now been turned on; the source from which change will surely emerge, and from which there
will be an emerging into open space, bringing security, and the solution, and redemption.
That is what the Yishuv in Palestine looked like on the eve of the establishment
of the state. Everything was difficult and awful, but the entire reality was oriented
towards this light above, at the tip: now the state would arise, and everything would
be solved – for the individual, for the public, and for history; a life of liberty would
Other Perspectives 203
took place in this building? How will the place impart to visitors the values of the Scroll of
Independence? What sort of representation would be appropriate and fitting to commemorate
Tzina and Meir Dizengoff? And so on.
P eople involved in preservation of sites in Israel often quote Yigael Alon, who once said:
"A nation ignorant of its past has a shallow present and an uncertain future." The opening of
Independence Hall in the near future will correct a long-standing injustice to Meir and Tzina
Dizengoff, the owners of the building; to the city of Tel Aviv, and to the ceremony where the
state was declared.
Et-mol, published by Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 2012; pp. 30-33 (expanded version)
T he Moment Before the State Appeared
A view of the establishment of the state, 50 years later (1998),
by S. Yizhar.
S . Yizhar
Only very occasionally will it happen that an entire
population is gathered around a single point. A point
that is everything; a point from which everything will
henceforth change for the better, everything unsolved will
henceforth be solved, and all that is closed will henceforth
be open, in an instant, into a long-awaited beginning.
P erhaps we might imagine a giant triangle, where the broad
base holds all the darkness, the problems, the concerns, the
fears and the despair, the "no way out" and being stuck with the
resounding question "What will be?", while at the top, at the very tip of the triangle, a light has
now been turned on; the source from which change will surely emerge, and from which there
will be an emerging into open space, bringing security, and the solution, and redemption.
That is what the Yishuv in Palestine looked like on the eve of the establishment
of the state. Everything was difficult and awful, but the entire reality was oriented
towards this light above, at the tip: now the state would arise, and everything would
be solved – for the individual, for the public, and for history; a life of liberty would
Other Perspectives 203
