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I am pleased to be here today to congratulate the graduates of the Kibbutz Movement’s year of service – and to thank you for everything you did for Israeli society during this year.
Trumpeldor once spoke of the concept of service – and of the people which this country needs. These are people who say: “A wheel is missing? I am the wheel. Digging must be done? I will dig. Soldiers are needed? I am a soldier. A doctor? Teachers? Water pumps? Please. I will do everything. I am ready for anything. I am not tied to anything. I have only one directive – to build.”
It is wonderful to see that the Kibbutz Movement – which for the decades of its existence produced tens of thousands of diggers and soldiers, and alongside them senior commanders, leaders, thinkers and shapers – continues to personify, through you, this pure ideal of service, which in each generation wears a different face, in accordance with the changing challenges of the period.
The founders of the movement determined the borders of the country through the pioneering deeds of settling in isolated areas, which they transformed through tenacious labor into flourishing frontier regions. Your forefathers copied pioneering in the military and security spheres, and were first to join the prime units of the IDF.
Today’s challenges are different. Today there is no need to dry the malarial swamps, but there is a need – an urgent need – to dry the swamps of neglect and distress.
We are a nation of contradictions. Israeli society has achieved and continues to achieve incredible accomplishments in the fields of culture, science and technology – and over the past two years, also in the economy. Even in the social field, we have incredible achievement. The absorption of millions of immigrants into a population of slightly less than six million – within a decade – is something which is unique in the world. On the other hand, there are intolerable phenomena in our society, gaps which cannot be accepted, shameful poverty and increasing violence.
We are rushing ahead, aspiring to reach a place which we feel we deserve as a society which is part of the developed countries in the world – and we have entire sectors of the population which suffer from great hardship.
I do not need to tell you about the weak points in Israeli society. You know them as well as I do, and perhaps even better, because the year of service you contributed to us, to society, you did at these points – in poor and distressed neighborhoods around the country, in boarding schools for at-risk youth and in youth villages operated by the Ministry of Welfare.
The social mission which you completed this year, in the underprivileged centers in which you operated – was incredibly important. The fact of your presence there transmitted a message of great value – no less than the practical help which you provided.
That message announced to people in the neighborhoods, to children at risk, to all those who are alone and who suffer, that they are not forgotten, that Israeli society thinks about them and remembers them. Even if they have not been relieved of their hardship and suffering, they are not alone.
They are part of us, part of this nation.
Your mobilization for the people in the neighborhoods and development towns also constitute a final answer to all those who spoke for years about the existing alienation between those who worked the land and their neighbors, the city-dwellers.
You have proven that the tradition of “all of Israel are friends” and “all Jews are responsible for one another” which has been part of the unity of our people for generations, is maintained today as well, here in the State of Israel.
My young friends,
You face conscription, and stand at the threshold of a new period of service – military service. I am certain that also in this framework of service, which is mandatory, you will exhibit the same volunteering spirit which characterized your actions over the past year.
Wherever you serve, your contribution will be unique, and the military framework will benefit from it and will give you a feeling of satisfaction.
Go in peace and return in peace. We need you for many more important missions.
Thank you.
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