🍉 Watermelon on the Roof – the meeting point

Muslala Summer Celebration!
At the heart of Jerusalem, 12 meters above the street level on the roof of the center of the city is the Muslala summer complex. A summer space with the cool Jerusalem breeze that invites encounters between communities, people, and artists. A space inspired by the watermelon Bastot of the 70s.

Dates: 2-13.8 (Except Fridays and Saturdays)

🍉 Activity hours:
Sunday-Thursday 16:00-19:00 – הגגון The Terrace المظلة
The Terrace: Adventure and Games for children on the Roof

Sunday-Thursday 19:00-23:00 – Community events: Food workshops, Live music, movie screening, computer games, dance performance, and more.

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Watermelon on the Roof with Four 🍉🍉🍉🍉 feet on the ground:

🍉 The Watermelon:
The great fruit that we never eat alone, that makes us share experiences and meeting one another. The ultimate symbol of the return of summer, freedom, sea, and sun. A fruit that is simplicity – water and sugar in natural packaging.

🍉 Simplicity:
The word Basta comes from the Arab word ‘Basit’ which means ‘Simple’.
The spirit of ‘Watermelon on the Roof’ is simplicity. The simplicity in the creation from the existing and the local, the simplicity of returning to our simple self, to the existing, and the basic. The Bastot of the 70s created moments of warm and even innocent encounter after years of boundaries, fear, and hostility. 50 years later we seek to bring the innocence and the belief in the power of reunion back into our lives.

🍉 Meeting point:
Art is a universal language we all speak, a language that creates an encounter that creates a culture. This is our belief. We created The ‘Terrace: an urban oasis’, to make our vision a reality. For the last 5 years, The Terrace has been a meeting point between people, communities, bees, and nature itself.

The terrace is home to different and diverse groups from all over the city. Every week you will find “Talking Different”: women from East and West Jerusalem who meet to get to know one another and to practice the language of the other. Here you will see the “Food rescue JLM” community, which are members of the Muslala community and a wide variety of organizations.
Watermelon on the Roof was created to celebrate this wonderful diversity. Here you will meet communities, groups, and organizations from Jerusalem: Food rescue JLM, 0202 The Jerusalem street, Between Heaven and Earth, Yeshiva Mitrahit, White Fabric, The Blue Door, Las Piratas Piratas, MakeGamesJLM, Kehilat Zion Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Musician Forum, Women dancing Africa.

🍉 Rooftops:
Our watermelon on the roof is characterized by a central interest: their establishment in the No-Man’s land, turning No-Man’s Land to All-Man’s Land. From an abandoned field and a dead area under the bridge to a bright, vibrant, and happy place.
This year, the Basta is putting the spotlight on the largest No-Man’s land in Jerusalem – Rooftops.
Today, 90% of them are empty spaces that are touching the sky and have the greatest urban potential of all. Rooftops: The new soil of the city!
Watermelon on the roof: Practicing Covid-19
We all understand that this summer will be different – less traveling, Festivals are canceled, Vacation days that have been already used, and most importantly the need to practice social gathering in a pleasant atmosphere.
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🍉 How are we adapting ourselves to the Covid-19 guidelines?
We are following the ‘Tav Hasagol’:
At the entrances, our host will welcome you, check your temperature, write your name in the visitors book, and will give an explanation about the terrace and the guidelines.

Watermelon on the roof is “Back to the Sources” also for Muslala.
During the years 2012-2013, we created the first Bastot in Musrara, and in 2015 the “Basta under the bridge” as part of the Israel Festival, between Beit Zafafa and the Katamonim. Thousands of people came to the events held in temporary buildings designed each time by a different artist and set up by a team of volunteers from around the world.
The 2020 Basta is designed by the artist Shmulik Twig, a member of the Muslala community. In 2012, together with Irit Shilo he created the “Mini-Greenhouse” where they grew Mini-Watermelon seedlings that were watered with greywater.
The Basta 2020 that Shmulik created is based on a simple principle – Sustainability. Instead of buying new materials try to use everything that is already on the roof.

Additional guiding principles:
Safe space – A space that contains and respects all participants without distinction between nationality, religion, sector, or gender.