Garden and landscape, the spatial and the ethical: the impact of enclosure on an enclosed garden, the case of Artas, Palestine

Abstract

Garden and landscape are closely associated concepts: both have concrete physical spatial characteristics yet often embody intangible symbolic and poetic dimensions. At the same time, an inherent tension exists between the two: while garden is defined by enclosure, landscapes are not marked by borders. The case of Artas, a Palestinian village that is encroached upon on both sides by external development—an Israeli settlement on the one and a Palestinian refugee camp on the other—is described in this paper through the metaphor of the enclosed garden. The disadvantaged geographic and political predicament of Artas prompts reflections on the ethical dimensions related to landscape and garden in the context of spatial infringement. The discussion is framed within a conceptual multiplicity of the term landscape, the discourse of the Right to Landscape and an exploration of the meaning of borders in terms of landscape.

Keywords:

• Enclosed garden
• landscape concept
• borders
• right to landscape
• Palestine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Among the Muslim population were 5 male and 69 female Christians included, belonging to a population of the convent Hortus Conclusus.

2. Artas residents’ perceptions of their landscape change have been documented in detail by Alnazer (2008).

3. For a detailed analysis of the effects of the occupied landscape on Palestinian wellbeing see Egoz and Williams (2010).