Most of the site on which the park now stands was previously a limestone hill. As the park was in development, the remains of a
Hasmonean were discovered in the southern section of the land.
Cemetery Since the second half of the 19th century, a
Muslim cemetery has been situated on a portion of the land. It served the needs of
Arab residents in
Jaffa and
Al-Mas'udiyya. Following the
cholera epidemic that broke out in Jaffa in 1902 and the need to bury the dead far from the city, an official permit was given by the Ottoman authorities for the burial of Muslims on the land. Jewish residents of Jaffa were forbidden from burying their dead near the city and an area was allocated for a Jewish cemetery northeast of Jaffa (later the
Trumpeldor Cemetery). As Arab Muslims began to settle in new neighborhoods in the late 1920s, the expansion of the Muslim cemetery southward was halted. In the early 1960s, the
Hilton Hotel chain wanted to build a hotel in Tel Aviv on the park land. It served as a recreation camp for the
Royal Air Force. The park also features in this context in Avni-Levy's 2002 novel, ''Auntie Farhuma Wasn't a Whore After All''.
Dory Manor also wrote a poem about the park, titled "In the Garden". Ilan Sheinfeld, a pioneering gay Israeli writer, also regularly mentioned the park in his poetry. In one poem, he writes: "Blessed are you the garden, the protector of all who desire" appears. In his poem "Gan Porah", the park becomes a metaphorical garden representing male love in general, with the pleasure and terror involved in it. The park is also the location of the Electric Cave in
Yigal Mossinson's children's novels series,
Hasamba. Independence Park is mentioned in the song "I Sing" by
Arik Einstein and
Shalom Hanoch, whose original lyrics were "There is a park in the north of the city, in the north of the city there is a park, whoever criticizes it, breaks his little one". The park is also indirectly mentioned in the song "With Him Forever" by the band Korach Teshah, whose lyrics contain the line "A friend brings a friend every night to the park," referring to the cruising culture that was popular in the park. ==Landmarks==