The 13th edition of the Jerusalem Design Week kicked off last week, showcasing dozens of exhibitions and installations depicting through art the difficulties faced by a country at war on several fronts for almost a year.
This year, the main theme is “The Ark,” in reference to the biblical story of Noah, recounting a catastrophic flood that wipes out humanity but which leads to redemption.
Alon Boutboul and Eden Sabach, students at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, put together a photography book titled “Nir Oz: flowers of Redemption and Mourning” that juxtaposes the darkness of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and the green oasis represented by the kibbutz’s botanical garden.
On Oct. 7, a quarter of Kibbutz Nir Oz was either murdered or abducted.
In addition to pictures of flowers and the ruined houses on the kibbutz, the book, which took six months to assemble, also contains interviews with the residents.

“We tried to create a symbolic poetic point of view of Nir Oz and everything that happened on Oct. 7. Flowers can symbolize grief, but also hope. We navigated between those two themes,” Sabach told JNS.
Nir Oz’s botanical garden combines plants and flowers capable of surviving in the desert conditions in the Negev and flourishing in a natural ecosystem. Since its establishment, the garden’s plants and flowers have only been watered once.
“When we entered the kibbutz the first time, we saw the flowers between the burnt houses—a contrast between the green and the black,” Boutboul told JNS.
Following the Hamas attack, Boutboul and Sabach served in the same Israel Defense Forces reserve unit.
“When we came back to our studies in Bezalel, we decided to do a project for one of our courses and chose Nir Oz as our subject,” said Boutboul.
Most of the book’s content comprises pictures of doors of houses on the kibbutz. As nearly 70% of the kibbutz will soon be torn down and rebuilt, Sabach stressed the importance of documenting the current reality.
“There is something personal, even intimate about a front door, and the flowers and plants at the door and the posters of kidnapped people who used to live inside,” said Sabach.
Boutboul and Sabach self-published the book hoping to cover some of their costs and to be able to provide a free edition to each member of Nir Oz.
“If these people can find some hope in these times, so should we. Their families and community went through the most horrible disaster—if they believe that things will be okay one day and that people from their community that were kidnapped will return, I should believe it too,” said Sabach.
“The message of this book is to leave some space for the mourning but also gain some hope for redemption,” she continued.
Another project, presented by Yssaf Ohana, 27, bridges the gap between the generation of Jews who fled their home countries to Israel in the 20th century and a younger generation feeling uncertain about the future.
The Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught on Israel was the trigger that led Ohana to create his project, which was realized under the auspices of the Bezalel Academy, with the guidance of Dan Hasson and Rachel Gotsman.

Ohana grew up in Kibbutz Gevim, located close to the border with the Gaza Strip. For the first three months of the Gaza war, he found himself without a home.
“My parents and my family became refugees in their own land and this led me to ask myself where my home is, as its foundation is under attack. I explored the fantasy of living in another land and whether it would solve the problem,” Ohana explained to JNS on Wednesday.
Trying to imagine what emigration would look like, Ohana began his journey by looking into his family’s history. “Immigration is the story of every Israeli and every Jew. We are all immigrants,” he said.
Ohana’s grandmother, Gila, left Marrakesh, Morocco to begin her journey to Israel in 1959. Ohana collected testimonies from his family and historical documents to understand what made his grandmother leave Morocco and track the architectural spaces she went through on her journey.
He retraced her steps from the fishing boat on which she left the shores of her home country to the Grand Arenas camp in Marseille and then the housing she was provided in Kiryat Gat on her arrival in Israel.
Based on her memories, he tried to create an imaginary migration journey of his own. “I designed a ship, a camp in Hamburg, a residence in Berlin and a family home in the Israeli communities facing the Gaza Strip,” said Ohana.
“This fills a gap between the generation that fled to Israel and a generation, who after experiencing the political crisis we are going through in Israel and the war, is asking what the future holds. After all, there is some common destiny between that generation and us,” he added.