Jerusalem of Gold

New construction projects are constantly being built in Jerusalem. Entire city- and suburban city areas, hills, slopes and valleys are being leveled and massively built over, poured with concrete, piled up, broken into the rock, boarded up and “developed”, as such activities are now called everywhere. In order to secure and shield the construction sites, opaque protective walls and metal barriers are erected around these places and these in turn are wallpapered with views of the city itself. These poor prints, which quickly fade and wear away, depict what is actually going on here: the building rubble and the building frenzy are tearing up the hills of the holy city, Zion is being battered and concreted over. The insincere advertising intention, namely to impress with set pieces of old beauty and the splendor of new luxury buildings, is reversed: the galleries on the sheet metal walls unintentionally tell the truth about the fragmentation and sealing of the lovely hills. The posters announce the destruction brought about by the construction, which is already included in the enormous use of space for more and more people on increasingly scarce land. O how beautiful in its height, the joy of the whole earth, like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great king. Psalm 48,2