Brothers and sisters in bereavement, Mr. Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Mr. Chairman Zevulun Orlev, distinguished guests,

Sixty-two years: 62 years have passed since that dreadful day.

We who were children then are now grandparents. I remember how we stood, tense and quivering, near the large radio sets of those days, trying to extract one more word, one more bit of information, about what had happened. We did not know then—some of us still do not know today—the precise fate of all those in the convoy.

We struggled to gain official state recognition of the incident, which was finally forthcoming three years ago. In our innocence we thought that now the authorities would make every effort to investigate and determine who is buried in the mass grave, and the location of the remains of the other 22 victims. But we have been disappointed in this.

And then, just this week, we learned that none of those murdered are considered citizens of the State of Israel. Were it not for the perseverance and determination of the chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, Mr. Zevulun Orlev, who is with us here today, this secret would never have seen the light of day.

Now we know and are aware that our parents and siblings, buried and unburied, have still not been recognized as Israelis!

Our fondest hope, for ourselves and our dear friend Zevulun, is that his efforts and ours will be crowned with success and that our loved ones will finally be recognized as full citizens. Then and only then, perhaps, the authorities will make the effort to identify those buried in the mass grave and find those who were never given a Jewish burial.

Perhaps our leaders’ hearts will be filled with compassion and courage and they will announce a search for the victims—Israeli citizens—who still do not have a dignified final resting place among their brothers and sisters.

From this platform I call on you:

Leaders, the time has come to pay our last respects to those who risked their lives to reach the hospital, in a time of war and strife, in order to treat their patients, or to receive treatment there, and to allow them to find their final rest, honored by the tribute and homage of those who owe them so much.

Brothers and sisters in bereavement!

In recent days, the place name that makes us tremble—Sheikh Jarrah—has appeared in the headlines again, in what might seem to be a different context but is in fact the same affair.

The tenants of the buildings in this part of the Shimon Hatsaddik neighborhood, who, as ruled by the Supreme Court, are occupying the property of others but are not willing to pay rent to them—to the Jews who owned them before the War of Independence. Those Jews had to flee for their lives when the fighting broke out and find shelter in the heart of besieged Jerusalem .

No group of European anarchists came to encourage them and fight for their rights of residence. Today those Arab tenants are conducting their struggle, through the offices of Israeli justice (even though they do not accept it), not only to remain on the premises, but to remain there without paying rent—for they won’t pay anything to Zionists!

It is so true that Jews are compassionate. When we see, in our own media, how pathetic and wretched they look, when the Israeli establishment evicts them from the houses in which they have been living for more than 62 years, our hearts overflow with pity and we feel a sense of guilt and natural injustice.

Nevertheless, dear brothers and sisters, nevertheless!

The residents of that neighborhood are the very persons (or their children) who poured forth from these same buildings to massacre our parents, siblings, and children, the passengers of the ill-fated convoy.

They themselves are still here, and their children are still here. Quite shamelessly, the blood still dripping from their fingers, they demand relief from Israeli justice and condemn us as persecuting them for no reason, as cruel villains who have no pity for old people and infants.

It is crucial that we know, that the world know, and that our courts know, that those who permitted the original owners to return to their property were not guilty of discrimination. No, they were righting a historic wrong and doing elementary justice, for which the owners have been waiting since 1967.

Locals and outsiders alike would be well advised to learn the historical account, in all its horrifying details, before they accuse the State of Israel of such an infringement of basic justice!

Some years ago I suggested to MK Benny Elon that it would be appropriate to establish a museum here about the Mt. Scopus convoy. I still think that would be the right thing to do.

Earlier this week we dedicated the rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, 62 years after the commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion stood on its ruins and triumphantly declared that the Jews and their holy places would never again return to Jerusalem .

Let everyone know—especially those who are so righteous in their own eyes—that Jerusalem , and the Shimon Hatsaddik neighborhood, and Sheik Jarrah, and this edifice on Mt. Scopus , and all the buildings and neighborhoods of the city, both spiritual and worldly, will remain ours. We will never leave them again. As for those by whose merit we stand here today—their “memory will never perish from among their descendants.”

David Cassuto