אדריכלות ישראלית - גיליון 126

2021 אוגוסט 126 חינה של הזיקנה אדריכלות ישראלית 95 | | Considering the fact that the amount of curses in Knesset Members' arsenal far exceeds the number of diasporas from which we are gathered, the Knesset regulations do not define what is an improper expression, apart from a minor act in 2001 that "sees very severely use of terms like murderer, traitor or Nazi". I checked carefully: expressions such as "theorist, liars or ass-lickers" are not mentioned at all. In the British Parliament, from where we have copied most of our laws without even checking their relevance, declaring a Member of Parliament to be a liar, drunk or pig is regarded as improper, not to mention intermediate concessions like rat, hooligan or homeless. In Ireland, which also learned a few things from the British, one Member apologised for shouting at his colleague "fuck you". In Canada, where they can curse in two languages, denoting someone “a tired snail who just returned from a funeral” is regarded as end of the world. In Israel, all the gravest matters of state are heard not in Parliament but in the Knesset, a borderless field of thorns. Aquarter of the tenants are sure they are in a synagogue; a quarter still dream about the house of insults on Balfour; a quarter who are busy feminising the Hebrew language by differentiating between men and women. And the rest are surviving souls that blush every time they face a non-politically correct expression, remembering the times when the Knesset was an honourable shrine where only the lucky were privileged to sit. And to the (very) few who remember the source of Jabotinsky Street, I remind them that Zeev used to quote Ecclesiastes, saying that "Human beings differ from beasts by their honourable behavior", in his efforts to educate the Beitar Party to be proud of their Judaism. I recall that once, Rabbi Moshe Halfon Hacohen saw one of his grandsons running after a rooster in the courtyard; he shouted and cursed the creature out of frustration. "What do you want from him … my son, the rooster doesn’t understand you at all! Try to speak to him politely, so he might think you are civilised and come closer to you!". "Fire Brothers, Fire" (translated from Yiddish - Avraham Levinson), it is no longer Bibi or Tibi, it’s To Be or Not To Be (translated from English - Shakespeare). Not with curses, friends, nor with whips, try honour and respect. And those who still do not understand the relevance of all this to architecture, turn to me in private. Architect Dr. Ami Ran editorial house is on fire – tenants think it’s a barbeque דבר העורך