Negev Brigade Monument

The story

The Negev Brigade Monument stands on a chalk hill in the east of Beersheba, looking west toward the city and out to the desert on all its other sides, and it is one of the recognized symbols of the Negev. It commemorates the work of the Palmach's Negev Brigade in the War of Independence, and first of all the defense of the water line to the Negev. The monument was designed by the artist Dani Karavan, and the landscaping work at the site was done by the landscape architect Zvi Dekel. It was built between 1963 and 1968 of exposed concrete, in the Brutalist style, and joins architecture and sculpture: eighteen symbolic elements connected to the brigade and to the battles. Among them a perforated memorial dome, through whose slits the rays of the sun penetrate and light up the names of the fallen; an observation tower eighteen meters high, in which Karavan pierced holes in the form of shell holes so that it would sound in the wind; a water channel leading to a small pool, in memory of the water pipeline the brigade guarded; trenches that imitate communication trenches; and battle diagrams cast into the ground. Engraved in the concrete and in the copper plates set into it are the names of the fallen, the emblem of the Palmach, the brigade's campaign diary, verses and poems. Of his intention Karavan said that he wanted a place that creates life and not a place of death and memorial service, and that children would play inside the monument and climb on it. Adjoining it is a national park of 295 dunams, in which the plant community characteristic of the steppe belt is preserved, and in the month of March the brown iris blooms there.

• 1948
• War
• Commemoration
• Brutalism
• Public art
• Beersheba