Gaza Street or Gaza Road ( - ''Derech Aza'') is a main street in the

Rehavia Rehavia or Rechavia (, ) is an upscale neighbourhood in Jerusalem. It is bordered by Nachlaot and Sha'arei Hesed to the north, Talbiya and Kiryat Shmuel, Jerusalem, Kiryat Shmuel to the south, and the Valley of the Cross to the west. Rehavia was ...

neighborhood of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

History

The street is named ''Gaza Street'' because it was built on a part of the historical road from

Jaffa Gate Jaffa Gate (; , "Hebron Gate") is one of the seven main open gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. The name Jaffa Gate is currently used for both the historical Ottoman gate from 1538, and for the wide gap in the city wall adjacent to it to the ...

of the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem (; ) is a walled area in Jerusalem. In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city, the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Arm ...

to the south

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast, including

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

. During the first half of the twentieth century, most of the street's residents were wealthy

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

(e.g., minister

Yosef Burg Shlomo Joseph Burg (, 31 January 1909 – 15 October 1999) was a German-born Israeli politician. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset and served in many ministerial positions for the next 40 years. He was one of the founders of the Nati ...

), who kept up their European lifestyle and language even calling the street "Gaza Straße". Thus, the name of the intersection of Gaza and Rabbi

Chaim Berlin Chaim Berlin (1832, Valozhyn – 1912, Jerusalem) (חיים ברלין) was an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi and chief rabbi of Moscow from 1865 to 1889. He was the eldest son of the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin. Biography Ch ...

streets, "Gaza-Berlin Corner", becoming a slang term describing the neighborhood's population. During the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, activists had put stickers over the word "Gaza" on its street signs and replaced it with names of Israeli towns which suffered losses during the October 7th, 2023 massacre.

Landmarks

Aside from being important for commuting, it holds its own commercial and cultural value. The official residence of Israel's prime minister is located on Balfour Street, which leads off Gaza Street, and therefore demonstrations often take place at the Paris Square across from the official residence. In 2007, the square was symbolically renamed the "Freedom for

Jonathan Pollard Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954) is an American former intelligence analyst who was jailed for spying for Israel. In 1984, Pollard sold numerous state secrets, including the National Security Agency's ten-volume manual on how the U.S. ...

Square". Gaza Street begins at the intersection of

Paris Square Paris Square can mean: * Paris Square (Haifa), a city square in Haifa * Paris Square (Jerusalem), a city square in Jerusalem * Pariser Platz, a city square in Berlin * Paris Square (Rio de Janeiro), a city square in Brazil {{disambig ...

King George King George may refer to: People Monarchs ;Bohemia *George of Bohemia (1420-1471, r. 1458-1471), king of Bohemia ;Duala people of Cameroon * George (Duala king) (late 18th century), king of the Duala people ;Georgia *George I of Georgia (998 or ...

, Keren HaYesod and Rambam streets, and it spans until the intersection with Rabbi

Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959), also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his death in 1959, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of th ...

Avenue next to the

Valley of the Cross The Valley of the Cross ( Emek Hamatzlevah) is a valley in western Jerusalem, named after the Monastery of the Cross which is located in the valley. The monastery was built in the 11th century, during the reign of King Bagrat IV by the Geor ...

("Emeq HaMatzleva") and the

Monastery of the Cross The Monastery of the Cross (; ; ; ka, ჯვრის მონასტერი, ''jvris monast'eri'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery near the Nayot neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is located in the Valley of the Cross, below the Israel Mu ...

. There are many cafés, restaurants and other commercial activity on the street.

Architecture

Most of Gaza Street's buildings are designed in the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

style common to the neighborhood and are faced with

Jerusalem stone Jerusalem stone (Hebrew: ; ) is a name applied to various types of pale limestone, dolomite and dolomitic limestone, common in and around Jerusalem that have been used in building since ancient times. One of these limestones, '' meleke'', has ...

. Most are apartment buildings, no taller than four floors and featuring

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In March 2002, a suicide bomber struck Café Moment, located on the street, killing eleven people. Another attack by a Palestinian suicide bomber two years after killed eleven and injured over 50 people on a bus.

References

{{coord, 31.7721, N, 35.2137, E, source:wikidata, display=title Streets in Jerusalem Rehavia