Abstract
At a time when it was unusual in Israel for a group of residents to organize a grassroots campaign against a municipal decision about urban planning—and triumph—something even more uncommon occurred in Jerusalem: three students from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem instigated the first steps for such a campaign and launched important actions that contributed greatly to the establishment of a green park where a four-lane highway had been approved. Route 34 was slated to be paved along the route of the old railway from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and thence through the Pat and Gonen neighborhoods at the outskirts of the Talpiot industrial zone, the Mekor Hayim neighborhood, and Emek Refaim Street. The joint initiative, launched by the Garin Dvash (Honey Group) of the Society for Protection of Nature and the Keshet School, ended with the halting of the urban plan to pave the new road and the construction of a park along the railway tracks—dubbed the Railway Park. The park has turned this inter-urban nexus into one of the most challenging connections within one of the most divided cities in Israel and beyond.
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- 1.
The municipality’s original plan was to build two projects along the railway tracks: in the eastern section—between Bak’ah and Emek Refaim—a walking trail and cycling track, and a highway in the southwestern section, between Gonenim and Mekor Haim, Talpiot, and Beit Safafa.
- 2.
The Sala-Manca Group is an independent group of artists that has been active in Jerusalem since 2000, and produce creative works in a wide variety of fields, such as performance, video, poetry, curatorship, and public art. The group consists of two artists—Lea Mauas and Diego Rothman. The group works in collaboration with many artists, curators, and cultural institutions in Israel and abroad, and has published the newsletter Footnotes, curated the Heara (footnote) events of independent art, and established and directs the Mamuta Center for Art and Research at the Hansen House in Jerusalem.
- 3.
In the past nine years, projects have been realized thanks to funding from the ITC and the support of organizations and foundations, such as the Sderot Conference for Society, as well as the support and mentorship of the Dean’s Office of the Bezalel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and grants from the Perach Organization.
- 4.
The actual plan to transfer the IDF colleges to Mount Scopus was approved in June 2012, with the designated site situated between the Hebrew University and the Mormon University, in the eastern part of Mount Scopus.
- 5.
The Situationist movement was an international movement of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, theorists, and social activists that operated mainly in Europe in the years 1957–1972. The movement was influenced by Marxist theories and avant-garde art movements of the 1920s—particularly Dada and Surrealism. One of its principal criticisms of capitalism was related to the notion of the “spectacle”. Debord was one of the movement’s leaders.
- 6.
- 7.
The alternative plan Turgeman was responding to was designed at the request of the Jerusalem Development Authority as part of the master plan of the Emek Refaim Park. The architects Yair Avigdor, Raz Matalon, Hagit Bergman, Shlomi Zeevi, David Eran, and Roman Katz participated in designing the master plan. At first, the plan was supposed to create a “leisure route” dedicated to sports activities, parallel to a narrower road whose paving the municipality had approved. The plan was divided into four parts: Part I—a “cultural area”, including a section of approximately 800 meters from the train station near the Khan Theatre to the Bethlehem Junction; Part II—an urban boulevard from Bethlehem Road to Oranim Junction; Part III—an extension of the boulevard to the Patt Junction; and Part IV—from the Pat junction to the railway station at Malha.
- 8.
See the results of the study conducted by the residents that were published in December 2007 in a blog established by the residents in promotion of the campaign:
“A week ago, we promised to reveal data and maps that prove that the [provision of] green areas in the southern neighborhoods of the city and in the Gonen neighbourhood in particular are sub-standard by any measure. […] As evident from the maps, the Gonenim neighbourhood has been discriminated against, and its green areas situation is sub-standard, in relation to other neighborhoods […]”. (from http://israblog.nana10.co.il/blogread.asp?blog=497224&blogcode=8292997 [In Hebrew]; accessed November 30, 2018)
- 9.
According to a report published in Kol Hazman on August 22, 2008, following the theft of one of the sculptures, a picture of the sculptures was added, with the caption: “The symbol of the campaign to establish the Railway Park in the Katamonim neighbourhood—one of three sculptures created by students from Bezalel—was stolen last week. The environmental sculpture was put up by the residents in an area where they demand to build the park” (p. 28).
- 10.
http://israblog.nana10.co.il/blogread.asp?blog=497224&blogcode=7948600 [In Hebrew], accessed November 30, 2018.
- 11.
israblog.nana10.co.il/blogread.asp?blog=497224&blogcode=10207504 [In Hebrew]; accessed November 29, 2018.
- 12.
Mr. Nir Barkat.
- 13.
An Arab neighborhood (formerly village) adjacent to the Gonenim neighborhood.
- 14.
A large-scale military operation led by the IDF in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014. The operation included heavy aerial bombings and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip.
- 15.
Permanent residents cannot vote or be elected to the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), nor are they entitled to hold an Israeli passport. They are allowed to apply for Israeli citizenship.
- 16.
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
- 17.
Naama Tayer and Tom Axelrod.
- 18.
Baha Alyan.
- 19.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CBY0Vmt5Tw&t=194s [in Hebrew and English], accessed December 3, 2018.
- 20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qJMDFlGvh4&t=9s [Hebrew subtitles], accessed December 3, 2018.
- 21.
Taasu Makom (“Make a Place”) is a joint venture of the Eden Company and the Society Division of Jerusalem Municipality, in collaboration with its operations manager. The project’s purpose is to promote and execute projects that create creative, pleasant, and inviting public spaces throughout Jerusalem.
- 22.
Beit Safafa is referred to by its residents and residents of Jerusalem as “a village” or “neighborhood”. According to the Community Administration officials, they themselves use the various labels interchangeably, depending on the context or interests.
- 23.
The project was covered in the national press. See, for example, an article in which a photograph of the campaign was presented by students from our course in the public space (Hasson, 2013a).
- 24.
A student at the Department of Architecture.
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Rotman, D., Shouker, E. (2019). Building and Developing HaMesika Park: From Resistance to Collaboration. In: Markovich, D., Golan, D., Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (eds) Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13781-6_6
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