WHY WAS A NAZI FLAG FLYING FROM A JERUSALEM HOTEL IN THE 1930S?
Jaffa Gate was once too small for carriages and boasted a restaurant that later turned into a hotel down the road.
We recently published[1] pictures from the British Library's Endangered Archives Program,[2] including the incredible picture below of Jaffa Gate at Jerusalem's Old City which we have dated to the mid-1890s. Only in 1898 was the wall near Jaffa Gate breached so that carriages could drive into the city.
It was a leading hotel with 100 rooms, built around a court yard with Ionic, Corinthian and Doric columns.
Hotel Fast and its kosher restaurant was a well-known establishment in Jerusalem for decades, and was probably considered by many to be a Jewish-owned establishment because of its Jewish clientele.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Fasts were German Templers.
They lived in Jerusalem's German Colony and were exiled by the British after World War I and during World War II because of their support for Germany.
We recently uncovered pictures of German troops marching in Jerusalem streets on Good Friday 1917. Readers were able to identify the building on the left as the Fast Hotel.
Our biggest surprise was finding this picture of the German consulate in the Hotel Fast with the German Swastika flag flying from the building.
During World War II, the hotel was taken over by the British army command and turned into the Australian army club.
Here they are greeting the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the commander of the Australian troops in Australia, Lt. Gen. Thomas Blamey in February 1941.
The Matson Photo Service, shown on the ground floor, was run by Eric Matson, originally from the American Colony Photographic Department. Matson left Palestine in 1946 for the United States. His collection of photos were bequeathed to the Library of Congress where many of the pictures in this website were found. (Library of Congress)
The Hotel Fast building was abandoned in 1967 and torn down in 1976 to make way for the 5 star Jerusalem Pearl Hotel, built by the Draiman family in 1995.
Jerusalem Pearl Hotel
This hotel is CLOSED. Click below to compare rates in all Jerusalem hotels
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Footnotes
[1] http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2015/08/a-major-19th-century-photo-collection.html
[2] http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_item.a4d?catId=196125;r=6334
[3] http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_item.a4d?catId=196374;r=24464
[4] http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205082094
[5] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Swastika_flag_in_Jerusalem.jpg
[6] http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mpc2010006449/PP/
Lenny Ben-David served as a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington, D.C. He is an analyst, lobbyist, editor and writer. Visit his website at www.israeldailypicture.com. This article appeared August 31, 2015 in Arutz-Sheva and is archived at
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/200124#.VevWid8qcWM.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/200124#.VevWid8qcWM.
NO JEW HAS THE RIGHT TO GIVE UP
ReplyDelete(Eretz Yisrael) THE LAND OF ISRAEL
By David Ben Gurion
"No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel. No Jew has the authority to do so. No Jewish body has the authority to do so. Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel.
It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right that under no conditions can be cancelled. Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations. No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People.
Our right to the country - the entire country - exists as an eternal right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete redemption is realized."
This quotation of David Ben Gurion made at the Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1937, more than 65 years ago.
NO JEW HAS THE RIGHT TO GIVE UP
ReplyDelete(Eretz Yisrael) THE LAND OF ISRAEL
By David Ben Gurion
"No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel. No Jew has the authority to do so. No Jewish body has the authority to do so. Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel.
It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right that under no conditions can be cancelled. Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations. No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People.
Our right to the country - the entire country - exists as an eternal right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete redemption is realized."
This quotation of David Ben Gurion made at the Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1937, more than 65 years ago.
A valid argument can be utilized and applied to the Arab Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteFor over 400 years while the Ottoman Empire occupied Palestine and you did not demand that Palestine aka The Land of Israel be set up as an Arab-Palestine State, since you knew you are here only temporary and the land was desolate and you were a minority, but once the Jewish people came and started turning the dessert into green pastures, you the Arabs came flooding in from neighboring Arab countries by the hundreds of thousands.
The Jordanians Occupied Judea and Samaria for 19 years but you knew it was not your land and you did not even think of requesting your own Arab-Palestinian State in The West Bank aka Judea and Samaria.
The answer is because this is not your land; it is the land of the Jewish people for thousands of years, and you the Arabs are here to benefit from its economic growth and benefits.
At this time since you are the troublemakers and use terror and violence and you do not appreciate what Israel provides you in numerous benefits that you do not receive in any Arab country.
I ask you politely; please return back to the Arab countries you and your parents and grandparents came from. You have 14 days to vacate our land, if you do not vacate our land, we will be forced to utilize our enforcement division and force you to vacate and leave our country, which is applied to any and all the territory west of the Jordan River.
Remember you have been given this final notice. Due to our generosity we will also allow you to relocate to Jordan east of the Jordan River which is also Jewish territory. Furthermore, you can also relocate to the homes and over 120,000 sq. km. of land the Arab countries confiscated when they expelled over a million Jewish families who were mostly resettled in The Land of Israel.
YJ Draiman
A valid argument can be utilized and applied to the Arab Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteFor over 400 years while the Ottoman Empire occupied Palestine and you did not demand that Palestine aka The Land of Israel be set up as an Arab-Palestine State, since you knew you are here only temporary and the land was desolate and you were a minority, but once the Jewish people came and started turning the dessert into green pastures, you the Arabs came flooding in from neighboring Arab countries by the hundreds of thousands.
The Jordanians Occupied Judea and Samaria for 19 years but you knew it was not your land and you did not even think of requesting your own Arab-Palestinian State in The West Bank aka Judea and Samaria.
The answer is because this is not your land; it is the land of the Jewish people for thousands of years, and you the Arabs are here to benefit from its economic growth and benefits.
At this time since you are the troublemakers and use terror and violence and you do not appreciate what Israel provides you in numerous benefits that you do not receive in any Arab country.
I ask you politely; please return back to the Arab countries you and your parents and grandparents came from. You have 14 days to vacate our land, if you do not vacate our land, we will be forced to utilize our enforcement division and force you to vacate and leave our country, which is applied to any and all the territory west of the Jordan River.
Remember you have been given this final notice. Due to our generosity we will also allow you to relocate to Jordan east of the Jordan River which is also Jewish territory. Furthermore, you can also relocate to the homes and over 120,000 sq. km. of land the Arab countries confiscated when they expelled over a million Jewish families who were mostly resettled in The Land of Israel.
YJ Draiman