King David Hotel

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Hotel facts and statistics
King David Hotel מלון המלך דוד
King David Hotel at night

Location	Jerusalem, Israel
Opening date	1931
Developer	Frank Goldsmith
Management	Dan Hotels
Owner	Dan Hotels
No. of restaurants	4
No. of rooms	237
Website	www.kingdavidhotel.co.il/danSite/eng

The Hotel in 1931

Frontal view, 1934

The King David Hotel (מלון המלך דוד) is a 5-star hotel in Jerusalem, Israel. The hotel was built with locally quarried pink limestone and opened in 1931. It was founded by Frank Goldsmith, father of the billionaire investor, Sir James Goldsmith. The King David Hotel is now a Jerusalem landmark and one of Israel's most famous hotels. It is owned and operated by the Dan Hotels group.

1 History
2 King David Hotel today
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

In 1929, Palestine Hotels Ltd. purchased 4.5 acres on Jerusalem's Julian’s Way, today King David Street. Half the construction costs were paid by Albert Mosseri, an affluent Egyptian Jewish banker and director of the National Bank of Egypt, and another 46% by other wealthy Cairo Jews. The approximately 4% remaining was paid by the National Bank, which purchased 693 shares of the company between 1934 and 1943.^[1]

From its earliest days, the King David Hotel hosted royalty: the dowager empress of Persia, queen mother Nazli of Egypt and King Abdullah I of Jordan stayed at the hotel, and three heads of state forced to flee their countries took up residence there: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, forced to abdicate in 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, driven out by the Italians in 1936, and King George II of Greece who set up his government in exile at the hotel after the Nazi occupation of his country in 1942. During the British Mandate, the southern wing of the hotel was turned into a British administrative and military headquarters. In July 1946 it was blown up by the Irgun, the pre-state underground led by Menachem Begin. A warning call by members of the Irgun went unheeded. For many years, the British denied they had been warned. In 1979, a member of the British Parliament produced evidence that a call had indeed reached headquarters regarding an imminent attack, but the officers had dismissed it as a joke, declaring they did not take orders from Jews.^[2]

This act of terrorism resulted in the death of 91 people. An additional 45 people were injured. The bombing of the hotel produced the largest death toll of any single act of terrorism in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On May 4, 1948, when the British flag was lowered, the building became a Jewish stronghold. At the end of the Israeli War of Independence, the hotel found itself overlooking "no-man’s land" on the armistice line that divided Jerusalem into Israeli and Jordanian territory. It was purchased by the Dan Hotels chain in 1958. The film "Exodus" was shot at the hotel in 1960. When Jerusalem was reunited following the 1967 Six-Day War, the hotel was expanded, with two additional floors.

[edit] King David Hotel today

Today, the King David Hotel is part of the Dan Hotel Chain, and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World and continues to accommodate foreign heads of state and diplomats visiting Israel. To mark the hotel's 75th anniversary, an exhibit of historic photographs is on display in the lobby. ^[3]