The Palmach History Museum
by Ruth Heiges
After nearly a decade in
design and construction, Beit Hapalmach, the Palmach History Museum,
located next to the Land of Israel Museum in Tel
Aviv, has finally opened its doors. The aim of the museum,
explains Ilan Lev, Director of the Museum, is to give a sense of the
period which led to the founding of the state.
"Since January 1st,
when the museum opened its doors to the public, over 10,000 people
have seen the exhibit," Lev says. "The reaction -
'magnificent'."
While Israel is not short of
museums and monuments dedicated to the creation of the state and
those who fought for it, this museum is outstanding. The full complex
has not yet been completed; a 450-seat auditorium, a lecture hall, a
library, archives, an exhibition hall, a memorial and a cafeteria are
to be added as soon as funds become available. However, the museum is
already being cited for its architectural importance, and was even
featured in the March 1999 edition of Domus, a leading Italian
architecture journal, which hailed the design as "totally
integrated into the natural landscape and topography, a design
language that seems to fuse the ideals of the Palmach with local
materials."
The Palmach was the strike force of the Haganah,
the pre-state underground defense organization which was eventually
incorporated into the Israel
Defense Forces after 1948. Though it existed for only seven
years, the values which the Palmach promoted - mutual responsibility,
assistance, sacrifice and contribution to the greater good - are
legendary in the annals of local history and society.
Appropriately, the main
exhibit takes place underground, in a series of chambers. Groups of
25 visitors, led by a guide, begin the tour at a memorial to the
fallen. The next room is a scale version of Tel Aviv's Herzl Street
in 1941. Here, the multi-media experience begins, with a newsreel of
the war in Europe projected onto the street scene. This sets the
stage for the formation of the Palmach, which was created to deal
with two threats: the advance of the Germany army towards Egypt,
and attacks by hostile Arabs on the Jewish community.
Moving into the next
chamber, one is in a eucalyptus grove at night. Here, a movie is
projected onto an entire wall, introducing the visitor to a fictional
unit of seven new Palmach recruits meeting with their commander for
training orientation. The story of these characters carries the
visitors throughout the rest of the program, which lasts over one
hour.
Over time, the unit gains
training and experience, and personalities emerge. Some are assigned
to blow up bridges, others to lead supply convoys to Jerusalem or to bring in immigrant ships. The visitor watches as they
expectantly listen to the UN vote on the fate of the country, as they
battle through the War of
Independence, and as they express their grief at the gravesides
of those who did not make it. Remarkably realistic sets, sounds,
lighting, special effects and even moving rooms make the visitor feel
part of this extraordinary experience.
"When Shaike Weinberg
[the late founding director of the Museum of the Diaspora and the
U.S. Holocaust Museum] first visited Beit Hapalmach while it was
under construction, he said its vision couldn't possibly be
realized," explains Yishayahu (Shaike) Gavish, retired general
and chairman of the non-profit organization which raised funds for
the building of the museum. "Upon visiting again in 1999 and
experiencing the tour, he stated, 'This is going to be an
international school for museology.'"
The museum was designed by architects
Zvi Hecker and Rafi Segal. As Hecker is currently based in Berlin, German
students of architecture have been showing up at the museum. "I
tell them they will not be able to understand a word, because the entire
program is currently in Hebrew," explains Karkom Rosenstein, the
guiding coordinator. "But, they insist on going in, in spite of
the language problem, and the fact that they have absolutely no connection
to this experience. Afterwards, they tell me, 'We didn't understand
a word, but we felt everything.'”
Visitor Information:
Visit to the museum must be pre-arranged. The tour
is carried out in groups of up to 25 people (individuals visitors will
be pre-arranged into groups).
The tour is for children over 6 years only.
The length of the tour is 90 minutes. The presentation
is in Hebrew. English speakers will be provided with a translation through
headphones.
Entrance fee: 25 NIS for adults. 15 NIS for school
children and pensioners (payment is by cash or check only).
Address: 10 Haim Levanon st. Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv.
For correspondence: the Department of Museums, Ministry
of Defense, Hakirya, Tel-Aviv, 64734. Tel. 03-6436393 Fax. 036436964
Source: Palmach Museum |