See a photo of Maya, when she visited me in Arad, during the second Lebanon War, July 2006
continuation of the copied pages of Alt-Neu-Land

But before I can do that with all my heart, I must allow myself,
to document at least the places and spaces of my fantasy.

For years I had simulated my complex ideas
on an ancient agricultural spot,
in a wadi which runs from the Ramon Crater to the Nitzana Wadi
until the fateful clash with the Israel Authority for Nature Reserves
about a little tree I planted there and my flight to Egypt in May 1995.

[After that - during the last period of my Succah life until April 1996,
I chose another area for my fantasy,
which belongs to the town's jurisdiction
and therefore had more chances to be released for building the Midbaron.]

What follows, is a series of photos, I took of the "original Midbaron Wadi" ,
on 2002_12_28.

I started with the perspective from a spot associated with pain,
which I called "UNA".

There was my devastating failure in 1995.
On the twenty-ninth of November - the commemoration of the United Nations Vote for a Jewish State in 1947,
I wanted to cause a breakthrough, with conveying to Shim'on Peres, Israel's temporary Prime Minister after Rabin's murder,

THE 1995 PROPOSAL "WATER IN THE DESERT"

AS A LIVING GRAVESTONE FOR THE MURDERED PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN

When there was no response whatsoever, despite my previous connections with Peres, especially in 1976,
I came to understand , that it would not be me who would realize my vision,
like it was not Moses who was allowed to enter the promised land,
[see "Nebo-let-Go" after the final "failure" January 2006]
but that I had - like the prophet Elia - 7000 partners,
represented by the young Keren Krotchik, who helped me prepare and survive that day.

Here Keren, in the winter of 1995/96 a volunteer in the Succah, helps picking up the prepared palmfronds and covering "Hagar" , a cabin for hosts.
I met Keren in that workshop I led in the "Tent of Appointment" in May 1995,
at the end of which I asked the guests to come with me
to the Midbaron Wadi, to see, if my tree was still there.
Only Avi Dagan, the organizer of the workshop, and Keren came with me.
And it was Keren, who heard the horrifying screams of my agony over the uprooting of the tree.

Still, I had a hard time to understand the implications of that relevation.

The next step I wanted to take, was to finally leave the Succah
and park opposite the "Midbaron Wadi" above the road to Egypt,
where nature was already ruined by heavy army vehicles,
hoping that this fact would help me with the authorities.

 

First I moved my bus, stripped of Harem David,
out of its hiding wadi into the open Zin valley
its face towards what I desired as the future.

This was the view I had from my bus,
after I had parked it at the confluence e between the tributary wadi - which runs along the Succayah - and the Zin Wadi,
so as to demonstrate, that I wanted to leave the Succayah area, drive some 7 km north-west and park the bus at "UNA".

While my bus was parking there (Nov. 1995-April 1996), Micha, my youngest son, came to visit me

The kitchen of my bus

 

Then I invited the ranger, a man from Ezuz who appreciated my work.
"I know", I said," that this wadi belongs to the Nature Reserve!"

He: "That's why Amitai uprooted the laurel, you planted there.
That's why you fled to Egypt and caused all that drama.
All the region north of the road is Firing Zone,
& all the region south of it is Nature Reserve!"

I: "But the spot I found is ruined by the army anyway
and its directly next to and above the road,
i.e. at the very edge of the Firing Zone.
Please, let me park there."

He: "NO WAY!"

In February 1996, the spot where that ranger had said his "No way!" was flooded for two hours.

[as to the healing of that pain, see my visit to Ezuz on July 4, 2009]

 

This was to be the last stage before leaving the Succah, the Negev and Israel altogether,
in order to prepare the future in Sinai, in Egypt.

The ugly white pole designates, that this region - despite its being an army firing zone-
is the continuation of the NATURE RESERVE on the southern side of the asphalt road to Egypt,
which is where my fantasy wadi runs down from the Crater and a dustroad leads up to my Midbaron.

This exact spot - viewed here from the south west and the south east
- was suitable for my bus, provided I would do serious work on the access.

When David and I roamed around to let us be guided to the exact spot,
we found an old Italian newspaper clipping on the dry desert ground.
It showed a photo of Dante in an hermitage.
From the text under the photo I now only remember the word "UNA".
And since "una" is the feminine form of the Latin "unus" = ONE,
it was the perfect name for what I thought was the perfect "Nebo",
i.e. the mountain, from which Moses was permitted to see the land,
but never to enter it.

Wild clouds over wild terrain and a first spring flower on the day I revisited "UNA" (2002_12_28)

The view from "UNA" to the southern side of the road was crystal clear and the Midbaron wadi was already green, long before spring

Still from the UNA perspective; the route of the Midbaron Wadi down from the Crater, is clearly visible