BASTA

BASTA: In Between Red and Green, East-west Jerusalem. In collaboration with Muslala group

“In 1968, we made a little progress and began opening joint businesses. We set up watermelon sheds—different from anything you know–and we partied in Moroccan-Arabic and Arabic-Arabic every evening. People would buy watermelons by day, and by night: chaflot (public parties), music, drinking juice or having a beer at Bab-Al-Amud (Damascus Gate). All along that road, which runs up against the walls of the Old City, the guys from the neighborhood were partners with Palestinians, and every shed became a cooperative enterprise”
Reuven Abergel, a social and political activist, and founder and leader of the Israeli “Black Panthers”.

In the spirit of those encounters, Muslala group in collaboration with David Behar-Perahia, set up a watermelon shed in the Musrara neighborhood, facing the Old City walls. In Jerusalem’s historical nomansland, the space between the red and green borderlines, east and west, sounds and tastes, neighbours and guests met for watermelon parties in the Ramadan holiday summer nights.

The program offered: sing-a-long parties in Arabic and Hebrew, eastward and westward tours, storytellers, film and video screenings and mostly – delicious and thirst quenching watermelon evenings at the end of the Ramadan day of fasting.
The Muslala group was established in 2009 by artists and residents of the Musrara neighborhood in Jerusalem who joined together to rethink public space – where we all meet.

Architect-Designer: David Behar-Perahia
Curating Team: David Behar-Perahia, Irit Manor, Tami Manor Friedman, Matan Israeli, Hamutal Wachtel
Construction and technical infrastructure: Natan Landau and the Muslala workshop
Venue: Musrara Neighborhood, Jerusalem
July 2012