Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks at the start of the festive Cabinet meeting on the occasion of Jerusalem Day:
"I welcome the new ministers – Minister Avigdor Liberman, Minister Sofa Landver and, from Jerusalem, Minister Tzachi Hanegbi. Welcome to you all.
We are holding a festive Cabinet meeting today on the occasion of Jerusalem Day. We have come here to the wellspring. It is well known that if you want to find a spring, look for the wellspring, the source. We have come here to Jerusalem, the wellspring of our people and our heritage, the place whose living waters have sustained us for thousands of years.
We are developing and building Jerusalem. Today we will advance an NIS 850 million supplement to the Jubilee Plan. This is almost NIS 1 billion that we are investing in the development of Jerusalem, in technology and in companies. The face of Jerusalem is changing. There is an interesting technological development here. “From Zion shall go forth Torah” – and it is going forth from the yeshivas; from Zion shall go forth software – and it is going forth from the new companies that we are cultivating here.
We are investing very much in tourism infrastructures and in the infrastructures of various projects and in parks. Jerusalem really is a beautiful city. I welcomed the city development plan. They say that this is the first plan for Jerusalem since the British were here, but a correction must be made: The first Jerusalem development plan was that of King David and King Solomon after him, but this is the first in the new era.
Jerusalem is surrounded by parks and here we are in one of these marvelous parks; there are many others. And this plan touches on all of these areas, including the development of Jerusalem as an academic city, to increase the number of students in it – human, national and international capital that is moving the city forward.
I am proud that we started this in previous governments; there is continuity. I know that all the ministers will join in this wholeheartedly. I would like to thank you. I would like to congratulate you, Mr. Mayor, for your important, vigorous and dynamic leadership in developing our Jerusalem, the city of the patriarchs, our spring which constantly flows forward.
Thank you. Happy Jerusalem Day!