In 1929 on Julian’s Way, today King David Street, Ezra Mosseri, a reach Egyptian Jewish banker and director of the National Bank of Egypt, purchased 4.5 acres and build together with wealthy Cairo Jews, King David Hotel. The hotel was opened in 1931 and became a home for King Alfonso XIII of Spain, forced by Franko to abdicate in 1931. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia lived in the hotel after driven out by the Italians in 1936. King George II of Greece managed his government in exile at the hotel after the Nazis occupied his country in 1942. Swiss architect, Emile Vogt designed the building with locally pink limestone. British turned the southern wing of the hotel into a British military headquarters, which became a target for Jewish paramilitary group Irgun, who demanded unhindered entry into Palestine of Jews who survived in the Holocaust. The British authorities of Palestine not only refused a visa to Jews but also deported illegal immigrants to concentration camps in Cyprus. On July 22, 1946, Irgun bombed the southwestern corner of the hotel. Ninety-one people died, and 45 people were injured in this attack. On May 4, 1948, the British Mandate ended, the building became a main Jewish headquarters. The hotel was on the proximity to the armistice line that divided Jerusalem into Israeli and Jordanian territory at the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel forces defeated Jordan troops east Jerusalem was proclaimed the part of the Jewish capital of Jerusalem the hotel was expanded, with two additional floors. Since then King David Hotel accommodated many foreign heads of state and diplomats visiting Israel.

Photo By Unknown - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1606214