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Zion Square () is a public square in
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 ...
, located at the intersection of
Jaffa Road Jaffa Road, also called Jaffa Street (; ) is one of the longest and oldest major streets in Jerusalem. It crosses the city from east to west, from the Old City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem-Tel ...
, Ben Yehuda Street, Herbert Samuel Street, and Yoel Moshe Salomon Street. The square is one of the vertices of the Downtown Triangle commercial district. Since the British Mandate era, Zion Square has been the focal point of the cultural life of downtown Jerusalem. The square is busy day and night with tourists, elderly immigrants, overseas students, local youth,
street performer Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...
s, and religious activists. In recent decades, the square has become a hangout for disaffected and homeless youth. From the 1930s to 2011, the square was a popular site for mass protests and demonstrations.


Name

The square, originally called Zion Circus, was named for the Zion Cinema (also called Zion Hall), a 400-seat
silent movie ''Silent Movie'' is a 1976 American satirical silent comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in summer 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and S ...
house which occupied a hut on the site from 1912 to 1920. After the hut collapsed under a heavy snowfall, the cinema was reconstructed as a 600-seat theater for film screenings and live opera performances.


History

The land on which Zion Square and the Downtown Triangle lies was purchased by the
Jewish Colonization Association The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA; ) was an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries, by settling ...
from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which began selling off some of its holdings in Jerusalem after World War I. Mandate officials developed the field into a triangular district bordered by Jaffa Road, Ben Yehuda Street (constructed by the British in 1922) and King George Street (constructed by the British in 1924). Zion Square was also designed by the British as a
roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...
. The popularity of the films, operas, plays, concerts and lectures presented at the Zion Cinema turned Zion Square into the “center of cultural life in Jerusalem” in the 1920s and 1930s. Movie- and theater-goers gravitated between the cinema and the many cafes and coffee houses in the Downtown Triangle; two of the popular cafes were located in Zion Square itself: the Vienna Cafe and the Europa Cafe.


Political demonstrations

Zion Square became a rallying point for political demonstrations and social protests beginning in the 1930s, when young
Zionists Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly cor ...
held rallies here. From the 1950s to the 2000s, primarily
right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...
demonstrations were staged here. Several demonstrations turned violent, such as a 1971 protest by the
Israeli Black Panthers The Black Panthers () were an Israeli protest movement of second-generation Jewish immigrants from North Africa and Middle Eastern countries. It was one of the first organizations in Israel with the mission of working for social justice for Sep ...
in which Prime Minister
Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...
was burned in
effigy An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...
, and a 1995 protest against Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...
and the signing of the
Taba Agreement The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, commonly known as Oslo II or Oslo 2, was a key and complex agreement in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Because it was signed in Taba, Egypt, it is sometimes called the Taba Agre ...
(Oslo II), after which thousands of protesters continued on to the
Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...
, destroying property en route. The largest demonstrations in the square included a May 2000 protest decrying the handover of Arab settlements adjacent to the
Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...
, a November 2000 protest against
Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( ; born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party between 1997 and 20 ...
's "policy of restraint" at the beginning of the
Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...
, and a 2006 protest against the policies of acting prime minister
Ehud Olmert Ehud Olmert (; , ; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. The son of a former Herut politician, Olmert was first elected to the Knesset for Likud in 1973, at th ...
, each of which drew around an estimated 100,000 people. With the opening of the
Jerusalem Light Rail The Jerusalem Light Rail (, ''HaRakevet HaKala Birushalayim'', , ''Qiṭār Al-Quds Al-Khafīf'') is a light rail system in Jerusalem. Currently, the Red Line (Jerusalem Light Rail), Red Line is the only one in operation, the first of several ...
on
Jaffa Road Jaffa Road, also called Jaffa Street (; ) is one of the longest and oldest major streets in Jerusalem. It crosses the city from east to west, from the Old City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem-Tel ...
in August 2011, Jerusalem police stopped issuing permits for demonstrations in Zion Square to avoid the disruption of light-rail operations.


Terrorist attacks

The Zion Cinema was the site of two attempted bombings, one in 1951 and the other in 1967. In both cases, an
incendiary device Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel ...
was planted under the theater seats and was discovered before it detonated. On July 4, 1975, a refrigerator loaded with of explosives detonated in Zion Square, killing 15 and wounding 77. At the time, the attack was the deadliest ever against Israeli citizens by a booby-trapped bomb. On March 24, 1979, a bomb exploded in a garbage can in Zion Square, killing one and wounding 13. On November 13, 1975, an explosive charge went off near Cafe Naveh on Jaffa Road, near the pedestrian mall. Six people were killed and 40 injured. 48 On the night of August 16–17, 2012, dozens of Jewish teens chased four Palestinian teens in Zion Square and beat one of them unconscious, in what Israeli police and witnesses described as an attempted
lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...
.


Decline and redevelopment

Following the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, the city embarked on significant expansion. Large commercial centers were opened in the new, outlying neighborhoods of
Talpiot Talpiot (, literally 'turrets' or 'magnificently built') is an Israeli neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, established in 1922 by Zionist pioneers. It was built as a garden suburb on land purchased by the Tel Aviv-based Palestine Land Devel ...
,
Givat Shaul Givat Shaul (, lit. (''Saul's Hill''); ) is a neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The neighborhood is located at the western entrance to the city, east of the neighborhood of Har Nof and north of Kiryat Moshe. Givat Shaul stands 820 meters above sea ...
, and
Malha Malha is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, between Pat (Jerusalem), Pat, Ramat Denya and Kiryat Hayovel in the Valley of Rephaim. Before 1948, Malha was an Arabs, Arab village known as al-Maliha (). Malha is now an upscale neighborhood fea ...
, weaning customers away from the city center. Government offices began moving out as well, precipitating the economic decline of the Downtown Triangle in the 1970s. The advent of
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
precipitated the closure of most of the Triangle's cinemas. The Zion Cinema closed in 1972 and was demolished. In its place, a high-rise building containing the Kikar Zion Hotel (on the upper floors) and a branch of
Bank Hapoalim Bank Hapoalim ( lit. ''The Workers' Bank'') is one of the largest banks in Israel, established in 1921. The bank offers a broad range of financial services to retail, corporate, and institutional customers, with a focus on retail banking services. ...
(on the lower floors) was erected. In 1983 Zion Square was converted into a pedestrian promenade along with Ben Yehuda Street and other streets in the Downtown Triangle in a successful effort to revitalize the downtown district. In 2006 the
Jerusalem Foundation The Jerusalem Foundation (, ''HaKeren LiYerushalayim''; ) is a Foundation (non-profit), nonprofit foundation that promotes the development of the city of Jerusalem, by raising funds for social, cultural and beautification projects. Established in ...
floated a secret proposal to rename the square Rapaport Plaza, after a
Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and Interstate 35, I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin, Texas, Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 popul ...
philanthropist who pledged $2 million toward the square's renovation. Architect Ron Arad of London was hired and presented a plan to install a towering, red, reflective steel sculpture as a focal point for the square. The plan, which was not reported to the public, was spotted on the Jerusalem Foundation website and brought to public attention by Lemallah, a grassroots citizens watch group, which launched a successful public protest against the name change and the sculpture. At the same time, Lemallah produced its own counterproposal for a round, six-sided, steel "peace dome" to span the square and Jaffa Road. That idea, too, did not come to fruition. In early 2016, a contest was held to redesign the square and on September 13, 2016, the Jerusalem Municipality announced that its panel had chosen a design by Maya Atidia and Tamir Manzur-Carmel called "Urban Forest Clearing" as the winner. Redevelopment work began in 2018, with the installation of a stage, public seating, and trees of the
plane Plane most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface * Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane ...
,
carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit, which takes the form of seed pods, and as an ornam ...
, Mediterranean hackberry, and
pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...
varieties.


Street scene

Zion Square is busy day and night as a meeting place and hangout for people from all walks of life, including tourists, elderly immigrants, seminary students, street performers, and
Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...
and
Breslov Breslov (also Bratslav and Breslev) is a branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism. Its adherents strive to develop an intense, joyous relationship with ...
activists. Zion Square has been described as "always crowded, always crazy". The square is a hangout for drug users. An estimated 70 percent of teenagers who hang out in the square take drugs. The open, street-level basement of the Kikar Zion Hotel is a well-known haunt for both drug dealers and prostitutes. School dropouts, disaffected religious immigrant teens, and homeless youth are also fixtures in the square. Street workers have identified large groups of Russian immigrant youth hanging out in the square and drinking vodka purchased with money panhandled off tourists. The square also attracts sizable numbers of settlement youth uprooted by the 2005
Israeli disengagement from Gaza In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well. The disengagement was executed unilaterally: Israeli a ...
. To reach out to at-risk and disaffected "square dwellers", several drop-in centers operate in the vicinity of Zion Square, including Crossroads, Hameshulash, Hezroni's Squat, and The Zone. The ELEM – Youth Distress in Israel organization brings a mobile unit to Zion Square on weeknights to engage street youth in art projects.


Landmarks

Zion Cinema was the central landmark of Zion Square from the 1920s until its closure in 1972. Located on the south side of Zion Square, it was originally a 400-seat silent-movie hut and, after snowfall destroyed the structure, was rebuilt into a 600-seat theatre that staged plays, concerts, lectures, and films. In the 1920s and 1930s the Zion Cinema was the cultural center of Jerusalem. After its closure, the building was demolished and a high-rise containing the Kikar Zion Hotel and a branch of
Bank HaPoalim Bank Hapoalim ( lit. ''The Workers' Bank'') is one of the largest banks in Israel, established in 1921. The bank offers a broad range of financial services to retail, corporate, and institutional customers, with a focus on retail banking services. ...
was erected in its place. In 2013 the 117-room hotel was purchased by Orchid Hotel Management Ltd., which is renovating the property for reopening as the Herbert Samuel Hotel. The hotel will have 137 rooms and suites, and a
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...
rooftop restaurant with a 360-degree panoramic view. Hamashbir Lazarchan, a seven-story,
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
that opened on the east side of Zion Square in 2011, is the largest department store in Israel and the
flagship store A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
of the 38-store chain. The store was originally established in 1947 on the opposite side of Jaffa Road, and moved to a location near King George and Ben Yehuda Streets from 1970 to 2010. On the north side of Zion Square stands the Jerusalem Hostel. This lodging opened as the Tel Aviv Hotel in 1926 and later became known as the Ron Hotel.
Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...
stood on one of the hotel's balconies on August 3, 1948, to announce the dissolution of the
Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and the sign-up of his soldiers with the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
. On the west side of Zion Square stands the Sansur Building, erected in 1929. This three-story office and commercial building sports an "eclectic", neo-Renaissance and classical design. The building was commissioned by and named for a
Christian Arab Arab Christians () are the Arabs who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, bu ...
merchant from
Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
and originally housed Cafe Europe, a popular coffeehouse patronized by Jews, Arabs, and British in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1947-48 it housed the Jerusalem Emergency Committee.


References


Notes

48 Terence Smith (14 November 1975). "6 killed, 40 hurt by bomb in Israel". The New York Times.


Sources

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External links


Zion Square Live Web Cam2010 Israel Postal Service commemorative stamp of the Zion Cinema
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zion Square Squares in Jerusalem Tourist attractions in Jerusalem Jaffa Road Roundabouts and traffic circles Buildings and structures completed in 1924 1924 establishments in Mandatory Palestine