The garden had been neglected over 19 years, when the Mount Scopus campus was in an enclave under Israeli control surrounded by Jordan. Indeed, in 1954 a new botanical garden was opened in western Jerusalem, near the Jewish National and University Library, on the new campus of the Hebrew University in Givat Ram. In 1958 two Israelis soldiers were killed in the garden by Jordanian ambush, also the United States Chairman of the Commission that came to mediate was killed in this incident.