Beit Aghion in West Jerusalem
Monday, 14 September 2020 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Levant / Levante Category/Kategorie: General , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 4 minutes
U.S. Vice President and possible future U.S. President Joe Biden meets With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu © U.S. Department of State/Matty Stern
🔊 Listen to this Post
Beit Aghion, also known as Beit Rosh HaMemshala (
House of the Prime Minister ) is the
official residence of the
Prime Minister of Israel . It is located at 9
Smolenskin Street, on the street corner of
Balfour Street in the upscale
West Jerusalem neighborhood of
Rehavia , situated between the city center and the
Talbiya neighborhood. The private residence of Netanyahu is located in
Caesarea , north of the ancient city of
Caesarea Palaestinae , where the official residence of the
Roman praeses Pontius Pilate was located (
Pilate stone ).
The building was built for the Jewish –Greek merchant Edward Aghion who was an affluent resident of Alexandria , Egypt . It was designed by the Jewish-German architect Richard Kauffmann and was built between 1936–1938. In 1941, Peter II, King of Yugoslavia resided in the house. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War it served as a hospital for the Irgun “fighters”.
U.S. Vice President and possible future U.S. President Joe Biden meets With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu © U.S. Department of State/Matty Stern
In 1952, the Israeli government purchased the house for the purpose of turning it to an official residence for the
Foreign Minister . In 1974, the Israeli Government decided to transfer the official residence of the Prime Minister from Beit Julius Jacobs, which served as the official residence of the Israeli Prime Minister between 1950–1974, to Beit Aghion. During the 1990s, a wall was erected around the house for security reasons and a segment of Balfour Street was closed to traffic.
The building is composed of several square blocks connected to one another and in the center of the building there is a stairway, decorated with a row of windows in the front. The front of the building also includes a section molded in a circular way, and in a boat-like style typical of the
international style . The building is coated with
Jerusalem stone . The building also consists of an inner courtyard (patio)—an element that differs from the common international style, which the building-style is made of, however, is commonly found in an
Islamic-styled buildings. The patio was most probably added originally due to the Aghion family’s request.
Read more on Times of Israel, 3 August 2020:
Plan for Israeli-style White House going nowhere, wasting millions – comptroller , DW, 6 August 2020:
What’s behind Israel’s growing protests? , DW, 16 August 2020:
Israel: Arrests in Jerusalem as protests against Benjamin Netanyahu continue , Haaretz, 23 August 2020:
30 Arrested at 10,000-strong Protest Against Netanyahu in Jerusalem , Haaretz, 5 September 2020:
Jerusalem Police Clash With anti-Netanyahu Demonstrators as Protest Enters 11th Week , Times of Israel, 6 September 2020:
12 arrested, 2 cops hurt at protest outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home and
Wikipedia Beit Aghion (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_229971" align="aligncenter" width="554"] The historic Tower Theater for the Performing Arts, built in 1939 © RichardHarrison/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Fresno is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km²) and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California,...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_229756" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © NorthernLight/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Uummannaq is a town in the Avannaata municipality, in central-western Greenland. With 1,407 inhabitants in 2020, it is the eighth-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal. Founded in 1763 as Omenak, the town is a hunting and fishing base, with a canning factory and a marble quarry. In 1932 the Universal Greenland-Filmexpedition with director Arnold Fanck released th...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_150376" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Cruisship Hameln on River Weser in front of Hotel Stadt Hameln © Thomas Fietzek[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Hamelin (German: Hameln) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of 59,000. Hamelin is also the gateway to the surrounding Weserbergland mountains, which can be visited by hikers and bikers. Embedded into the gentle hills of the Weser Mountains Region lies, to the left and...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_209248" align="aligncenter" width="590"] House on the Loch © flickr.com - Chris Combe/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Loch Torridon is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland in the Northwest Highlands. The loch was created by glacial processes and is in total around 15 miles (25 km) long. It has two sections: Upper Loch Torridon to landward, east of Rubha na h-Airde Ghlaise, at which point it joins Loch Sheildaig; and the main western section of Loch Torridon proper. Loch a' Chracaich and Loch Bea...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_171116" align="aligncenter" width="484"] © Lencer/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Beit Hanoun is a city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip with a population of 49,000. It is located by the Hanoun stream, 6 km north of Gaza City, 5 km east of Beit Lahia, and just 6 kilometers west of the Israeli town of Sderot. There are twelve secondary, primary and agricultural schools in Beit Hanoun and an agricultural college which is related to al-Azhar University - Gaza. There is a medical center and hos...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_240787" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Boby Dimitrov/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Kavarna is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Dobruja region of northeastern Bulgaria. It lies 42 kilometres (26 miles) northeast of Varna, 43 km (27 mi) from Dobrich and 43 km (27 mi) south of the border with Romania. It is the principal town of Kavarna Municipality, part of Dobrich Province. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 11,397 inhabitants. A little yacht port...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_228179" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Clingman's Dome Observation Tower, the highest point both in Tennessee and along the Appalachian Trail, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park © Scott Basford[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalac...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_236980" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Zairon/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Beuvron-en-Auge is a commune in the Calvados department and Normandy region of north-western France.
Beuvron is affiliated to Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ("the most beautiful villages of France"), an independent association of communes and communities of communes which seeks to promote as tourist destinations those small, picturesque French villages which meet its membership criteria.
[gallery size="la...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_170643" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Hégésippe Cormier/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Oman) through the Strait of Hormuz and lies between Iran to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula to the southwest. The Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive reefs (mostly rocky, but also coral), and abundant pearl oyster...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_163577" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Mary G. Steiner Egyptian Theatre © Kevinthompson3221[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Park City is a city in Summit County in Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is 32 miles (51 km) southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and 19.88 miles (31.99 km) from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population is at 7,900. On average, the tourist population greatly exceeds the number of permanent residents. In the summertime m...
[ read more ]