This photograph portrays the laying of the cornerstone of the new Knesset (Israeli parliament) building in 1959. The building was eventually opened in 1966. A number of Israeli flags can be seen in the background and large numbers of dignitaries who were attending this significant event in the history of the modern state. There is a man in the centre of the photo behind a microphone, addressing the participants who are all dressed in formal clothes. At the rear of the dais there are several people wearing military uniform.
During the first year of its existence, the Knesset was housed in several locations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In March 1950, the Knesset moved into the Frumin House in the centre of Jerusalem. This was supposed to be a temporary location – the building was designed for a bank – but the planning of a permanent building took longer than planned, and the Knesset remained there for sixteen years.
There was a competition to find a designer for the Knesset, but the result caused great controversy, best summarised in a letter sent by the speaker of the Knesset, Joseph Sprinzak, to the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Abba Eban, on November 12, 1957:
The jury… reached a unanimous decision that the first prize be given to the architect Klarwein… Contrary to the decision of the jury… and the sympathy for the plan in the public, a deadly storm broke out against the plan among the architects in Israel. One might say that a public of hundreds of architects in the country almost unanimously rejects Klarwein’s plan. This manifests itself in different ways, in writing and orally – some in an unworthy and vulgar manner, and some in a polite but totally negative manner, supported by objective proof regarding the essence of the building, which should be worthy of being a national building – the Knesset of Israel. Of course, one may also be suspicious of the sources of the objection by the architects of Israel to Klarwein's plan, but the fact is that the objection is total and very harsh. We are, thus, in a state of great embarrassment.
The building was eventually inaugurated in 1966, although the final building differed significantly from the original plans that had been submitted a decade earlier.
