PM marks Tu Bishvat by speaking at a 3rd grade civics class at his alma mater in Binyamina.
By JPOST.COM STAFF
"The most important law ever enacted by the Knesset is the Law of Return," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told third-graders in Binyamina's Eshkolot school on Tuesday during a 40 minute civics class he conducted, to mark Tu Bishvat and the 59th anniversary of the Knesset.
"[The Law of Return] endows every Jew with the right to come to Israel; it is the law that fulfills the dream and the principle that the state of Israel is the home of the Jewish people," he said.
Olmert, who studied at Eshkolot as a child, told the children that the school had changed since he had last seen it. "When I studied here, it was so many years ago. I look around and try to recognize the school as it once was and I can't," the prime minister said. "I remember how the teacher Kahane tried to teach us carpentry lessons, and I was very clumsy. I also remember the teacher Drora who taught me in first grade."
The great granddaughter of former prime minister Menahem Begin asked Olmert what political party he belonged to. "Today I am in the Kadima party, but not too many years ago I was in your great grandfather's party - Likud."
"This was the most interesting class I've taught in the last year," Olmert concluded, and invited the children to take a tour of the Knesset. "If you ever have a question you are welcome to call me in Jerusalem," he told the kids. "Just say I was your teacher and they'll transfer me to you."