King David Hotel

The King David Hotel (Hebrew: מלון המלך דוד, romanized: Malon ha-Melekh David; Arabic: فندق الملك داود, romanized: Funduq al-Malik Dāwūd) is a 5-star hotel in Jerusalem and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Opened in 1931, it was built with locally quarried pink limestone and was founded by Ezra Mosseri, a wealthy Egyptian Jewish banker. It is located on King David Street in the centre of Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City and Mount Zion, and is named after the Biblical King David.

The hotel, owned and operated by the Dan Hotels group, has traditionally been the chosen venue for hosting heads of state, dignitaries, politicians and celebrities during their visits to Jerusalem.

It is also famous for the 1946 King David Hotel Bombing, when an attack by the Zionist organization Irgun targeted the hotel's southern wing, which contained offices for the British authorities during Mandatory Palestine, killing 91 people of various nationalities and injuring 45.

In 1929, Palestine Hotels Ltd. purchased 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) on Jerusalem's Julian's Way, today King David Street. Half the construction costs were paid by Ezra Mosseri, an affluent Egyptian Jewish banker and director of the National Bank of Egypt, and another 46% by the Goldschmidt family and other wealthy Cairo Jews. The approximately 4% remaining was paid by the National Bank of Egypt, which purchased 693 shares of the company between 1934 and 1943.

From its earliest days, the King David Hotel hosted royalty: the dowager empress of Pahlavi dynasty, Tadj ol-Molouk, queen consort 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 Mandatory Palestine, the southern wing of the hotel contained British administrative and military offices.

On July 22, 1946, the southwestern corner of the hotel was bombed during an attack by the Zionist paramilitary group Irgun. 91 people of various nationalities, including Britons, Arabs and Jews, were killed and 45 people were injured by the militant right-wing group. An earlier attempt by the Irgun to attack the hotel had been foiled when the Haganah learned of it, and warned the Mandatory Palestine's British authorities.

On May 4, 1948, when the British flag was lowered as the British Mandate ended, the building became a Jewish stronghold. At the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the hotel found itself overlooking "no-man’s land" on the armistice line that divided Jerusalem into Israeli and Jordanian territory. The hotel was purchased by the Dan Hotels chain in 1958. Multiple scenes in the 1960 film Exodus were shot at the hotel, both outside and inside, in the main lobby and on the terrace.^{[additional citation(s) needed]} When East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War, two additional floors were added.^{[citation needed]}

Among the hotel's famous official guests: British monarch Charles III; King Hussein of Jordan; U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden; British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; U.S. politicians Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton; as well as many stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Gere and Madonna.