(I*Consult) Lenny Ben-David - When the British attempted to arrest the pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in 1937, he fled Palestine, and the British made do with confiscating his property. The Husseini clan owned several well-known buildings in Jerusalem, among them the Palace Hotel on Mamilla Street (later Israel's Ministry of Trade), Orient House (the site of Palestinian Authority attempts to establish its rule in east Jerusalem), and the Shepherd Hotel. The acquisition of the Shepherd Hotel site was carried out according to the letter of the law. The land, first confiscated by the British, was administered by the Jordanian government after it illegally annexed the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1950. Under international law, the Israeli government became custodians after the 1967 war. For the last 15 years the building stood abandoned.
2011-01-10 09:20:17Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive