Reviving Arad with Eldad Menuchin

January 8, 2010 - 7:48 PM by

The city of Arad is a sort of forgotten footnote in Israel’s history. Today, the selective and short memory of people living in Israel’s populous center associate Arad mainly with an annual festival of Israeli music. They forget, or worse perhaps, do not even know about Ben Gurion’s vision for Arad as a gateway to the Negev region, a center for industry and tourism because of its clean air, purportedly free of allergens and asthma-inducing pollens.

Eldad Menuchin Arad-2006-105

Photographer Eldad Menuchin does remember. As a child, his family spent summer vacations in Arad.

Eldad Menuchin Arad-2006-103

As an adult, he returned to Arad to create a series of images that capture perfectly the stultifying stillness of a summer afternoon as the city bakes underneath the hot desert sun.

Eldad Menuchin Arad-2006

But Menuchin’s work also depicts a city in steady decline since July 18, 1995 when a tragic event — in which three young persons were crushed to death by the festival crowd — tarnished the city’s reputation and deprived Arad of an important source of income.

Eldad Menuchin Arad-2006-107

The circumstances of what has come to be known in Israel as The Arad Catastrophe, were as follows: in May 1995, two months prior to the festival, pop group Mashina announced they were breaking up and Arad would be their farewell concert. On the day of the concert, thousands of teens began crowding the gate leading into the open-air concert venue. The fence caved in during the performance of warm-up act Tea-packs and two young men were killed instantly. A third young woman died in hospital a few days later.

At the time, then-President Ezer Weizman blamed the horrific event on “the Americanization washing over us… Israel must beware of McDonalds, we must beware of Michael Jackson, we must beware of the Madonnas.”

Eldad Menuchin Arad-2006-109

In fact, as official investigation later revealed, the parties at fault were the organizers who oversold tickets, did not open additional gates, and did not have a security officer present on the grounds. In addition, the police deployed an insufficient number of personnel — just 54 officers, according to the Wikipedia entry (in Hebrew) about the tragedy. Well, it wasn’t the first or the last time Weizman got things completely wrong.

The festival experienced something of a revival this past year when sponsorship taken over by mobile phone company Cellcom which renamed it Volume Arad — an attempt, it would seem, to break with the past, and hopefully bring the crowds back to the city.

---_0489

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , • Category: Art, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Travel 

Comments

Leave a Comment





© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap