The First Knesset of the State of Israel (1949-1951). Three exercise books containing the signatures of practically every member of Israel’s first Parliament. Totaling 118 of the 120 members.

(ISRAEL, STATE OF).

Israel, 1950

The consigner relates the following story: Her father, a young Israeli schoolboy during the founding of the State of Israel was taken by his uncle to visit the Knesset. The boy managed to have all 120 members of the first Knesset, except for two (one including Ben Gurion) sign his three autograph books. Signatures include Golda Meir, Moshe Sharett, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, Ari Jabotinsky, Shneor Zalman Shazar and Abba Eban (who happened to have been in the Knesset on that specific day). A few members signed twice and several signatures are unclear. The consignor continues the story as to why Ben-Gurion refused to sign the autograph book of a ten-year old. For the uncle who brought the boy to the Knesset was the Revisionist activist Hillel Kook. When they reached Ben-Gurion on the Knesset chamber the Prime Minister bluntly asked the boy: “Are you with him?” Receiving an answer in the affirmative, Ben-Gurion immediately spun around and refused to engage with the boy any further. Such was the degree of animosity in Israel following the events relating to the Altelana Affair and other related contentious civic affairs.