Amos Oz's King David Hotel
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Walking into the King David Hotel, the Jerusalem stone exterior and the blazing hot heat of the city gives way to the cool, marble interior where dignitaries, scholars and the privileged have stayed for almost a century. From the moment one enters, one finds his or herself in a dwelling, lush with opulence and luxury. As one walks deeper into the hotel, there are sitting rooms filled with luxurious furniture and curtains upholstered in velvet, laden with rich, deep colors. There are high ceilings with colorful, intricate designs, different in each room. The hallways are lined with lamps and in the modern day there are glass showcases displaying the expensive watches, jewelry, and art that the guests can purchase.
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Going deeper into the hotel and walking out onto the terrace, one can enjoy their lunch or dinner while overlooking the Old City. Below the terrace exits a hidden oasis; only to be experienced by those privileged enough to stay there. Unknown to those on the outside, there are pools surrounded by cabanas, tennis courts, and manicured gardens for guests to stroll through.
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As a child, Amos Oz saw the King David Hotel as a place where "Jews and Arabs mixed with cultivated Englishmen with perfect manners...long-necked ladies in evening dresses on the arms of gentlemen in dark suits, where broad-minded Britons dined with cultured Jews or educated Arabs" (3). Today the signatures on the hallway floor and the photographs in the stairwell reveal this truth. One's religion, nor ethnicity, is discriminated against in the King David Hotel, making way for culture and refinement to be the primary determinates of whom stays in the rooms above the lobby floor.
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Although it is only a fifteen-minute walk from Jaffa Gate, the King David Hotel seems to exist in a different Jerusalem entirely. It is a proper testament to the biblical King David; whose powerfully enduring legacy exists as a paragon for the people and the city of Jerusalem of today, just as Amos Oz described.
