Dani Karavan, creator of Knesset wall carving and works around world, dies at 90

Sculptor and Israel Prize winner Dani Karavan, known for his monuments in Israel and around the world, died Saturday at age 90.

Perhaps his most notable work in Israel is the huge wall carving decorating the plenum of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, named “Jerusalem, City of Peace.”

The wall depicts an abstract Jerusalem landscape, the surrounding hills, and the Judean desert. The project was commissioned in 1966 and took eight months to complete.

His many works in Israel include the Habima Square in Tel Aviv, “Ohel” at Sheba Medical Center, “Kikar Levana” in Tel Aviv’s Edith Wolfson Park, the Monument to the Negev Brigade near Beersheba and the “Way of Peace” near Israel’s border with Egypt.

In a tweet, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said of Karavan: “We pay tribute to the artist and peace advocate Dani Karavan. His Square of Tolerance, with its inscription of UNESCO’s Constitution in Arabic and Hebrew, among other languages, is just as relevant today. Installed in 1996, it promotes peace and refuses to deny or erase the culture of others.”

The “Jerusalem, City of Peace” wall sculpture (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Yair Talmor)

View of the ‘White Square’ sculpture, created by artist Dani Karavan, at Edith Wolfson park, overlooking Tel Aviv, on December 14, 2020 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

The Monument to the Negev Brigade in the Southern city of Beersheba, in the Negev, on February 17, 2018 (Hadas Parush/Flash90 )

View of the Habima National Theatre and Habima Square in Tel Aviv. May 22, 2011 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

International works included the “Esplanade Charles de Gaulle” in France, the “Murou Art Forest” in Japan, the Berlin memorial to Roma and Sinti victims of the Nazis, the “Way of Human Rights” in Nuremberg, Germany, and many more.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center left, attends the inauguration ceremony at the memorial to the murdered European Sinti and Roma who were persecuted as ‘Gypsies’ in Berlin, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. The memorial designed by artist Dani Karavan consists of a well with panels carrying information on the persecution and mass murder of this minority under the National Socialist regime. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)