Operation Protective Edge Memorial Chosen: Not Just a Remembrance Site, but Attractions All Year Round
Xnet
Oren Eldar
The main memorial site honoring the fallen of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 — to be built on the ruins of the abandoned amphitheater at the entrance to Kibbutz Gvar’am — will include live performances, play areas, and a scenic lookout with a good view of the Gaza Strip. The site, which is to be planned by the BO Landscape architectural firm, will be constructed in the rustic open space surrounding the amphitheater, offering attractions that go far beyond a memorial that is visited only on remembrance days.
The BO Landscape architectural firm won a closed architecture competition that KKL-JNF held this year after it showed the location to the bereaved families. The competition results are being published here for the first time. The other contestants were Amir Mueller Landscape Architects, Sack and Reicher Architects, and Tsurnamal Turner Landscape Architecture. KKL-JNF will also fund the monument’s construction, which will be dedicated on a date yet to be determined.
Between Collective and Individual Memory
Kibbutz Gvar’am is located approximately ten kilometers from southeastern Ashkelon, near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. The amphitheater, which was built in the 1950s near the access road leading to the kibbutz and was the site of many performances, was abandoned in the 1970s. KKL-JNF launched a location effort together with the parents of the fallen, and chose the abandoned amphitheater — which, instead of being demolished, will return to use not only on the annual memorial day but also throughout the year, as a place for performances and a destination for weekend hikes.
Orna Ben Ziony (the winning architect, together with Beeri Ben Shalom, her partner in the firm) say that in accordance with KKL-JNF’s guidelines, “We chose to build not a memorial site, but rather a center of both sacred and secular activity.” Ben Ziony and Ben Shalom proposed placing a circular route around the amphitheater’s perimeter that would offer activities such as a theater performance, starting points for hikes, picnic areas, and playground equipment.
The memorial wall, which is the centerpiece of the memorial to those who were killed in Operation Protective Edge, will be built on the highest point above the amphitheater seats, overlooking the Gaza Strip. Sixty-eight sycamore trees will be planted at the memorial site — one in memory of each soldier who fell that summer, and “circles of memory” will be placed around them. A separate memorial will be built to honor the five civilians who were killed during the operation; a smaller “memorial circle” will surround their names.
“This is a combination of collective memory and personal memory,” Ben Ziony says. “The large circle is one of memory, and also of the joy of life. The small circles are what we call ‘fragments of memory.’ Their purpose is to hold surface runoff in order to help the sycamore trees acclimate, and they will be comprised of four parts, each one of stamped concrete in different textures, so that no two circles are alike.” Ben Ziony said that all areas of the site will be accessible so that the many people who were wounded in Operation Protective Edge will be able to visit.
In accordance with KKL-JNF’s requirements that the architects collaborate with artists on their proposals, the winning proposal contains the work of industrial-environmental designer Cecilia Vitas, who created some of the elements in the Memorial Gardens of Ramat Hanadiv near Zichron Yaakov. Vitas is a member of the Kasher Visual Design practice, which will plan the memorial’s captions. Kasher Visual Design created the captions for the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and in Heichal HaTarbut in Tel Aviv. The winning architects estimate the project’s budget at NIS 7 million, including the preservation of the amphitheater. This is the first memorial planned by BO Landscape. At present, the company is planning Savyon Park, another project that they were awarded in a closed competition.
No Win for the Battle Map
Other teams that participated in the competition had different approaches to the abandoned amphitheater and its surroundings. Sack and Reicher Architects, who were the closest to winning, proposed a large wooden roof for the amphitheater that would allow various activities to be held there during the daylight hours as well.
The purpose of the wooden roof was also to link parts of the structure — the entrance plaza, the seating area, and a new wing to be constructed beside the stage, between the seats and the orchard, which would itself be the memorial, from which a window would open out onto the landscape. The idea was to expand the area of the amphitheater to include the entire forest, where a “star map” by sculptor Nahum Tevet (b. 1946) would be placed, and where various activities inviting visitors “to linger, play, ‘experiment and read,’ and to discover the logic in the array in front of him.”
Tsurnamal Turner Landscape Architecture (in collaboration with the esteemed designer Dov Ganchrow) placed the monument on the stage of the amphitheater using two elements of stainless steel that broke through the stage wall into the landscape. The names of the fallen are engraved on the remaining space between the parts. Using the same design language, which combines stainless steel with concrete, they proposed seating areas throughout the forest.
Amir Mueller’s proposal, which was called Eitan 68 (for the number of soldiers who fell in the operation), included a map of the various battles that took place in the Gaza Strip, with 68 elements, each dedicated to a different soldier, scattered throughout the forest. The concrete element was to include a pillar with the name of the fallen soldier engraved upon it in a way that would allow visitors to place a flower and a memorial candle upon a concrete surface that folded into a bench.
Individual Memorials of Operation Protective Edge Already Exist
The memorial on Kibbutz Gvar’am combines several approaches of memorial area planning in Israel: the use of an existing structure, such as Yad La-Shiryon, the memorial site of the Armored Corps at Latrun, whose main building is a British Mandate-era Tegart fort; landscape sculpture, such as the Monument to the Negev Brigade (designed by Dani Karavan) north of Be’er Sheva; and a combination of a memorial site with another activity, such as the Menashe Forest Music Festival, which is held near the Memorial to the Fallen of the Kibbutz Movement.
The memorial will join approximately 2,900 sites commemorating Israel’s fallen soldiers that are scattered throughout the countries, according to statistics of the Defense Ministry’s Commemoration Department — making Israel perhaps a world-record holder in relation to the number of inhabitants. Almost half of the memorial sites were created by individuals or families, with the others divided among units, residential communities, military operations, and wars. In addition to the official memorial hall on Mount Herzl commemorating the fallen of Israel’s wars (which was planned by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects) that was dedicated in Jerusalem this year, several individual memorials have been built in the three years since Operation Protective Edge. These include Mizpe Noam in the Meitar Forest in memory of Staff Sgt. Noam Rosenthal; a scenic outlook in memory of Sgt. First Class Nadav Goldmacher and Sgt. Max Steinberg on the Imber Promenade in Be’er Sheva; and the Ein Oren scenic overlook on the Zippori mountain range along the Israel Trail, in memory of Sgt. First Class Oren Noah.
The Families of the Fallen Tilted the Scales in Favor of the Winners
Four representatives of the committee of the families of the fallen soldiers of Operation Protective Edge served on the judging committee: Shmulik Lavi, Orit Hai, Esti Tal, and Limor Cohen; three representatives of KKL-JNF: architect Zohar Zafon, head of the planning department for the southern district; Noa Tal, head of the architectural planning department; and Dani Gigi, head of the northern Negev area; and one professional judge, Professor Nurit Lissovsky of the landscape architecture track at the Technion, where two of the contestants, Amir Mueller and Matanya Sack of Sack and Reicher, teach.
Inna Dolzhansky, KKL-JNF’s spokeswoman, said that the Families’ Committee carried a substantial amount of weight in making the decisions, which tilted the scales toward the proposal of the BO Landscape firm, passing Sack and Reicher’s proposal, which took second place, by only several points. “The proposal that the KKL-JNF officials thought was better is not the proposal that was chosen,” Dolzhinsky said. “The proposal that the Families’ Committee thought was good was chosen. It is important to us that this memorial site be a place of honor and esteem for them that gives them expression, and so they were given greater weight from the beginning, both in terms of numbers and in terms of the planning.”
KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar said that KKL-JNF had “decided to allow all the bereaved families commemoration that would be both significant and meaningful. The monument will be a collective memorial site that is dignified and respectful, that will commemorate, in the most appropriate way, all those who fell in the war.”