Three Trees: Environmental Projects on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem (2003–2015)

Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, at an altitude of 828 m, is the location of the main campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.1 Three kilometers northeast of the old city of Jerusalem, it is situated on a vantage point overlooking the city as well as the Judean desert and the mountains of Transjordan. Positioned on the watershed of the AfroSyrian rift, this site stands on a highly sensitive geographical and political borderline between the Judean Mountains and the Judean desert and between the Jewish and Arab populations of the city. Mount Scopus invites reflections, interventions and readings of its multiple associations with diverse and contrasting claims of ownership. The following essay engages with three environmental interventions performed “on the ground” of Mount Scopus that address the geographical and social complexity of the place. Three environmental-artistic “Creative Preservation” 2 projects, which I generated in three distinct parts of Mount Scopus between 2003–2015, attempt to recall, expose, and unite elements of the genius loci of Mount Scopus. They operate in a complex field of conflict where national, economic, and ideological agendas create borders and divisions, covering, disguising, dissembling and even leading to large-scale physical elimination of vast layers of the Place.3 The three environmental projects presented here, all realized at a distance of less than 500 meters from each other, endeavor to rethink the intricate ways in which time has registered its marks on this location, while attempting to create a contemporary connection with the different social groups that inhabit Mount Scopus today.