Jerusalem hotels can be more than just a place to stay during a Jerusalem vacation. Many hotels here are actually historical landmarks in their own right, & that’s something to take into account when you plan your travel to Israel. Here’s a tour of just three Jerusalem hotels that shaped the city’s history.However it is a recognized landmark because of its associations with the War of Independence. The hotel was commissioned by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Husseini, a great supporter of Hitler. The contract to build the hotel stipulated that mostly Arab workers should be hired & that the building be finished within 13 months. The tender for the hotel was awarded to two Jewish architects. Amazingly, the hotel was completed ahead of schedule.
More amazing still is that despite the mostly Arab workforce, & daily visits by the Mufti himself, the two Jewish architects – Tuvia Donna & Baruch Katinka – were able to build two weapons caches in the walls of the hotel. The British forbade Jews to carry weapons of any kind & so the Jewish forces had to resort to hiding their stockpiles of weapons for the coming War of Independence. The hotel meeting rooms were frequently used by the Arabs to plan attacks against the Jews, as well as by the British Peel Commission.This was once a commune of American & Swedish Christians. The commune’s members included two of the earliest professional photographers in Jerusalem, to whom we owe many of the turn of the century images of the city. Other members helped install the first phone lines in Jerusalem. And it was a white bed sheet borrowed from the American Colony that the Turks used to surrender to the British, thus ending 300 years of Ottoman rule. History is still being made here, since it is a favorite haunt of diplomats & journalists. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3890103
