The Palestinian soil comes from several Palestinian towns. Some of it comes from the Arab part of East Jerusalem, and some from the No Man’s Land in Ramallah, along the wall erected by the Israeli government around the occupied West Bank. Most of it, however, was gathered in the border territory located by the foot of the Golan Heights, near the Syrian border. This is where the village of Al-Farradiyya used to be before its destruction in 1949, when the Israeli paramilitary forces evicted over 80 villages in that area. The Palestinian inhabitants were displaced and the village was blown to bits.
Hiba and Alaa have a rap group, which is why they worked with the Bazar Music Shop, close to Superkilen. The family of these two cousins came from Al-Farradiyya, but had to escape north, first to Lebanon and later on to Denmark. Hiba and Alaa suggested an extended version of a Palestinian exile custom, consisting on bringing with you a handful of soil. Together with the artist group SUPERFLEX from the Superkilen advisory board, they traveled to Israel and Palestine to gather soil for the park. Over time, the reddish soil vanished from the park, maybe because the tradition of taking a handful of earth also somehow travelled to Superkilen.
