Immigrant monument in Achziv beach, Cenotaph monument in Akhziv National Park, Israel
Psal-Yam (Sea Sculpture) is a five-metre-high monument by Israeli sculptor Yechiel Shemi on the beach at Achziv. It is built as three cast-concrete platforms that serve as a base for an assemblage of iron parts salvaged from immigrant ships. Shemi stressed that the work belongs to the landscape and must be viewed from several different points.
Yechiel Shemi built the five-metre monument as a memorial to illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine, using scrap iron from the immigrant ships Patria and Exodus salvaged in Haifa port. A private donor funded it, and its erection was part of a wider tourism development of Achziv beach completed in July 1969. In 2022–2023 it was removed for eight months for repair and conservation.
The name Psal-Yam (Sea Sculpture) plays on the Hebrew word for sculpture, and the work commemorates the Ha'apala, the clandestine immigration of Jews to Palestine. Its iron came from the immigrant ships Patria and Exodus, scrapped at Haifa port. The monument was removed for eight months in 2022–2023 for restoration.
The memorial is reached by walking marked trails within the national park that lead toward the coastal area. Wear comfortable shoes since the ground can be uneven along the shoreline paths.
The iron in the sculpture is scrap from the immigrant ships Patria and Exodus, salvaged at Haifa port. In 2022–2023 the monument was removed for eight months for repair, maintenance and conservation.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,638 contributors worldwide.