Itongadol.- Peres to give final speech as president before Rivilin\’s swearing in; mayors from South to attend; customary cocktail party was canceled, out of sensitivity to the security situation.
President-elect Reuven Rivlin will be sworn in at a low-key ceremony in the Knesset on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein decided not to postpone the ceremony but to make it more modest, in light of the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
An honor guard will meet Rivlin in the plaza in front of the legislature and then attend a plenum meeting in his honor.
The meeting will open with a fanfare and an address from Edelstein.
President Shimon Peres will give his final speech as president, followed by Rivlin taking the oath of office on a Bible.
Then, Edelstein will declare, “Long live the president of the State of Israel!” and MKs will respond, “Yechi, yechi, yechi!” meaning “long life.”
After the cheering, Rivlin will give a speech, followed by the singing of “Hatikva.”
The customary cocktail party was canceled, out of sensitivity to the security situation.
Instead, Rivlin will shake hands with inauguration attendees.
“While IDF soldiers are fighting and citizens of Israel are threatened by missiles, we thought the event should be more modest and low-key.
We support IDF soldiers in their holy mission to bring quiet and calm to all residents of Israel as soon as possible,” Edelstein and Rivlin said in a joint statement.