HADAR SAIFAN 

Text By Kobi Ben-Meir

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Hadar Saifan created this video piece while driving along Route 918, which extends between  Kibbutz Gadot and the kibbutz where she grew up—Kibbutz Dafna on the Lebanese border. The road, which until 1967 was located near the border with Syria, was nicknamed the "security road" after eucalyptus trees were planted on both its sides. The tall trees were planted not to beautify or forest the area, but to hide the vehicles traveling on the road from the eyes of Syrian snipers.
Today the road is again in a liminal region constantly threatened from Lebanon. Saifan "clears a route" along its length: scanning a threatened path, ostensibly joining the task of guarding and protecting Israel's new-old border. She turns a worried gaze at the sky, from which rockets penetrate Israel, burning the boulevards of trees and nature reserves and wreaking deliberate havoc in the northern settlements.