Madam Speaker,
Knesset Members,

There are leaders whose greatness only intensifies with the passing of years and the changing of times.  There are figures whose path and legacy continue to resound and affect generations to come.  There are people whose depth of vision earns them an eternal place in a nation's legacy.

Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl was one of those outstanding individuals.

148 years have passed since one of the most influential Jews in modern history was born in Budapest. 104 years have passed since he died, and in all those years, this unique man's formidable contribution to his people, and later to his country, has not faded.

If Zionism was not actually born with Herzl, it at least became more concrete, purposeful and decisive after he appeared.

The man who was a journalist, a jurist, a writer and a playwright was also – and perhaps first and foremost – a "long distance runner".

Already at the end of the 19th century, he was able to skillfully sketch the image of the Jewish state. More than 100 years ago, he spoke of the importance of a national flag and defined borders, and throughout considerable periods of his life, he was unafraid to go against conventions, until his ideas actually became the convention.

If Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, his contemporary, revived the Hebrew language, Herzl revived Zionism and gave it momentum and an actual chance to succeed.

Once he introduced, for the first time, the Jewish national aspiration to many world leaders and turned the Zionist movement into a political body recognized by the world powers, Herzl transformed age-old dreams and yearnings into achievable programs and goals.

My friends, Members of Knesset,

Four years ago – and better late than never – the Israeli Knesset decided to mark the anniversary of Herzl's death on the Hebrew calendar as a permanent memorial day, and legislate the "Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl Law". The importance of this law is mainly in inculcating Herzl's legacy to the younger generation. In recent years, the education system also dedicated a more substantial portion of its curriculum to teach Herzl's enterprise and Zionist vision, and many are becoming acquainted, for the first time, with the unique image of a dreamer transformed into a man of action. 

However, the State of Israel and the people of Israel do not need a law to value and cherish the man who laid the ideological foundations for the establishment of the State. We are eternally committed not only to the memory of Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl, but also to his remains.  For precisely this reason, my Government decided to fulfill Herzl's will regarding his burial and that of his closest family, by bringing to Israel, for Jewish burial, the remains of the children of the State's Visionary, Paulina and Hans Herzl, may they rest in peace. 

In his address at the opening of the 2nd Zionist Congress, convened in Basel in 1898, Herzl said, inter alia, the following words:

"This place we seek is one of a kind.  There is no other place on Earth that is as coveted as this one or that has been the object of the burning desire of so many nations – a desire dried out by the heat of their passion.  However, we believe that this eastern wilderness has not only a past, but a future – our future.  This land, whose products are now so scarce, produced, in the past, opinions which enriched all mankind.  Precisely for this reason, no one can deny that a connection exists between our people and this land, a connection that can never be dissolved."

Indeed, this connection between the people and the land can never be dissolved and it binds us today.  Although Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl's vision was realized, and although considerable portions of what he envisioned and dreamt in the wake of the 19th century have long become the reality of our lives, the mission is not yet complete.

The great challenge posed by Herzl to his generation, and to us as their descendants – to preserve the Jewish state as a state where Jews will never again become a minority – is an incredibly binding and weighty duty.  I believe that I will not be exaggerating if I say that it would be good for each and every one of us to frequently ask ourselves what we have already done, and what we can still do, in order to meet this challenge.

In the spirit of the political wisdom and courage of the State's Visionary, we will pursue the effort to realize his far-sighted vision.  And may this path be the most appropriate way to honor his memory.

Thank you very much.