International Convention Center (Jerusalem)

The center stands at Jerusalem’s western entrance, opposite Yitzhak Navon railway station and near the Central Bus Station, placing it beside major transport facilities.[7][2] Known in Hebrew as Binyanei ha-Ummah, translated as “National Buildings,” it was built on what were then Jerusalem’s western outskirts.[8] The venue serves national, world Jewish, and international gatherings, alongside exhibitions, concerts, theatrical productions, and dance performances.[8][1]

The institution was conceived not simply as an events building but as a gathering point for the Jewish people and an expression of the sovereignty of the young State of Israel.[1] Its establishment as a permanent home for the Zionist Congress gave it a particular role in relations between Israel and Jewish communities abroad.[1] International gatherings sometimes conducted most of their business in Tel Aviv while reserving at least their ceremonial opening sessions for Jerusalem.[8]

The complex occupies the Giv’at Ram spur, at an archaeological site previously known as Sheikh Badr, approximately two kilometers west of the Old City.[7][5] In Jerusalem’s planning scheme, Binyanei Ha’uma at Romemah was treated as a hinge point for westward development, standing on a dominant height near the main western entrance as the commercial center was expected to expand northwestward.[8] By 2023, more than half a dozen hotels, ranging from luxury to budget accommodation, were within walking distance.[9]

An architectural competition for the building began in early 1949, attracting more than 40 proposals; the selected design was by Ze’ev Rechter of the Rechter, Zarhy, Rechter architectural firm.[3] The Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund, and Economic Company for Jerusalem joined to establish a center for international congresses and conferences, art exhibitions, and festivals on a Sheikh Bader site belonging to the Jewish National Fund.[3] A later account described the proposed site as land of the Arab village of Sheikh Badr.[10]

David Ben-Gurion decided in 1950 to establish a gathering center that would symbolize the sovereignty of the new state and serve the Jewish people.[11] The Jewish Agency initiative envisaged a “congress house” for gatherings and celebrations.[10] Construction began in 1950, but the initiators proceeded before securing the full funding required, and financial difficulties repeatedly delayed progress.[6][3] Contributions came from the Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund, insurance companies, and others, without raising the necessary sum in time.[11]

Organizers appealed to the public to purchase shares in the Binyanei HaUma Association for 10 Israeli pounds each.[3] Purchasers received association membership and were promised benefits that included discounted performance tickets and priority for national events.[3][11] The slowly rising structure acquired the skeptical nickname “Khirbat al-Umma,” translated as “the ruin of the nation.”[3]

The immediate objective was to accommodate the 23rd Zionist Congress in summer 1951, the first congress after Israel’s establishment and the first held in Israel.[3][8] When it convened on August 14, the building remained only partly complete.[3] Workers hurried to prepare the main hall, moving earth, leveling the entrance plaza, concealing concrete walls with fabric, and laying blue carpets.[3] Delegates arrived at a building site still surrounded by scaffolding and earthworks.[11]

The congress’s plenary sessions took place at Binyanei HaUma, although its opening ceremony was held at Mount Herzl.[3] Meeting from August 14 to 30, 1951, the congress addressed the Zionist movement’s role after the establishment of the Jewish state.[12] It replaced the Basle Program with the Jerusalem Program, defining Zionism’s tasks as consolidating Israel, gathering exiles in Eretz Israel, and fostering Jewish unity.[12]

Public use began before completion of the entire complex, with major events taking place while construction continued; the building was not fully completed until 1963.[3] The exterior stone facing and glass windows were finished in preparation for the 1958 Decade Exhibition.[3] Rechter’s building is listed among the important halls constructed in Israel’s major cities, and its original modernist design combined a unified mass with a large transparent façade.[13][10]

Architect Moshe Zarhy later reflected that spaces which had seemed excessively large and unnecessary during the first decade appeared insufficient as the country’s needs grew in the 1960s and 1970s.[3] He also recalled initiator Alexander Ezer’s imagination, inventiveness, and creative spirit as sometimes being “too big for the state” of the time.[3] Following Jerusalem’s reunification, a major expansion was launched to meet growing demand from international congresses seeking to convene in the city, and new wings were added.[8]

In 1953, Binyanei HaUma hosted “Conquest of the Desert,” an international exhibition initiated by UNESCO.[3] It presented methods of cultivating desert land, solutions for water use, ways of improving plants and livestock, and advanced agricultural equipment.[3] More than half a million people visited, most of them Israeli citizens, despite some countries declining to participate.[3] The exhibition formed an early international showcase for practical approaches to agriculture and development in arid environments.[3]

The Decade Exhibition opened on June 5, 1958, as a centerpiece of Israel’s tenth-anniversary celebrations and was the largest exhibition held in the country up to that time.[3] Its two principal sections traced the history of the Jewish people up to the establishment of the state and presented the achievements of Israel’s economy.[3] During its three-month run, approximately 600,000 visitors from Israel and abroad attended.[3]

The president and prime minister attended the opening ceremony, which included a choir and orchestra performing Haydn’s “The Creation.”[3] President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was to activate a mechanism that would illuminate 15,000 electric bulbs simultaneously, but the bulbs instead came on one after another.[3] Another episode concerned Yosef Zaritsky’s abstract painting “Might”: after Ben-Gurion expressed dislike of the work, it was moved to a less prominent location, angering the artist and prompting press criticism of censorship.[3]

A large sales fair accompanied the exhibition, with carousels, a Ferris wheel, and other attractions.[3] A Kol Yisrael radio studio at the site regularly broadcast quizzes and game shows involving audience participation.[3] Performers included the Dudaim, the Nahal entertainment troupe, and Arik Einstein, bringing popular entertainment into the anniversary program.[3] A 1959 report also records a permanent exhibition at the National Convention Center that was then being reorganized.[14]

Binyanei Ha’uma hosted the opening session of B’nai B’rith’s 24th General Convention on May 23, 1965.[15] Sydney A. Hellenbrand presided, and the Hebrew University’s B’nai B’rith Hillel chorus led the assembly in Hatikvah.[15] Greetings were delivered by Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Issar Y. Unterman, B’nai B’rith Israel district president Yehoshua Mazur, B’nai B’rith Women president Mrs. Arthur G. Rosenbluth, and Jewish Agency treasurer Louis Pincus.[15] President Zalman Shazar, unable to attend because of illness, sent a message that was read to the convention.[15]

The 27th Zionist Congress met at the center from June 9 to 19, 1968.[16] More than 3,000 delegates, visitors, and guests attended its opening session, whose program included a pageant marking the 70th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress and the 20th anniversary of Israel.[16] The opening observances linked the congress hall with other Jerusalem sites: participants went to the Western Wall for Minha prayer and then to Mount Herzl to lay a wreath at Herzl’s tomb.[16]

At the center’s festive opening session, a procession carried flags associated with Zionist history, Jewish communities, Youth Aliyah, the Jewish Brigade, and the state’s wars, among other banners.[16] These congress proceedings formed part of a longer program of national and international conventions held in the building.[8]

The venue’s musical history includes the Song and Chorus Festival and concerts by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Broadcasting Authority Orchestra.[3] It also hosted the Eurovision Song Contests of 1979 and 1999.[4] Israel won the 1979 competition with “Hallelujah,” performed by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey.[11] By 2018, the auditorium was considered too small for the enlarged Eurovision format, which by then included semifinals.[4]

Other prominent events included the trial of John Demjanjuk in the 1980s, Bible quizzes, Israel Prize ceremonies, presidential conferences, international business conferences, art fairs, and the International Jerusalem Book Fair.[11][17] Concerts, dance recitals, theatrical performances, song contests, and public ceremonies extended its use beyond congresses and exhibitions.[8][11]

In 2020, the complex contained 27 halls and 12,000 square meters of exhibition space, including the 3,000-seat Ussishkin Auditorium.[18] A 2024 account placed total capacity at up to 10,000 attendees and likewise gave Ussishkin Hall a capacity of 3,000.[1] The center was described in 2020 as operated by a company owned by the Jewish Agency and Jerusalem Municipality.[18]

Before the COVID-19 shutdown, approximately 500 events involving tens of thousands of participants were held at the center each year.[18] In 2019, its program included 25 international conferences.[19] The interruption of in-person activity followed the center’s last pre-shutdown event in March 2020.[18]

During the disruption, the institution built a virtual stage and broadcast studio, hosting online performances, conferences, and professional examinations.[19] The 38th Zionist Congress took place on its renewed digital platform.[19] By 2024, adaptations included a professional studio, halls equipped for virtual events, and remote-access tours; virtual programming enabled activity to continue when audiences could not attend during the COVID period and the war then underway.[1]

In 2023, the center reached the final four in Jerusalem’s bid to host the International Congress and Convention Association’s 2024 conference.[9] Its surrounding hotel accommodation and proximity to major transport stations formed part of the setting for its contemporary conference business.[9][2] In October 2020, the board approved naming the center for Israel’s ninth president, Shimon Peres, at the initiative of Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog.[2]

A 2016 account of the Jerusalem Gateway business district project envisaged expanding and renovating the convention center as part of a wider redevelopment at the city’s entrance.[20] The stated ambition was to make it the Middle East’s largest convention center.[20][18] Subsequent proposals combined additional congress and exhibition facilities with commercial, hotel, residential, and transport-related development.[18][10]

Plans described in 2020 included a 9,000-square-meter multipurpose Expo exhibition area with a height of 12 meters.[18] A separate announcement that year envisaged a convention center covering about 55,000 square meters alongside a business district, with an overall project estimate of approximately NIS 1.8 billion over roughly ten years.[2] These figures represented proposed redevelopment rather than completed facilities.[18][2]

In 2022, Jerusalem Municipality shelved a radical redevelopment proposal that would have removed much of the original façade.[6] That proposal included a congress hall accommodating 4,500 seated attendees, or 6,000 with standing-room sections, above 7,000 square meters of exhibition space.[6] The municipal conservation committee instead instructed architects to prepare a design maintaining the building’s original style.[6]

A detailed addition to a plan approved in 2018 was described in 2023.[10] It proposed enlarging the center and placing an Expo exhibition center beneath the existing building, together with a 141,000-square-meter underground parking area.[10] The wider scheme included three hotels totaling 70,000 square meters, 35,000 square meters of retail, and 105,000 square meters of employment space.[10] Construction could proceed in stages over as long as 20 years.[10]

The redevelopment design was prepared by Populous and Jerusalem-based Goldschmidt, Arditi, Ben Naim.[10] It envisaged restoring the familiar façade, adding a shell-like metal roof, and retaining Ussishkin Auditorium.[10] The proposal also included 14-story assisted-living housing and approximately 300 rental apartments.[10]

On March 23, 2011, an improvised explosive device concealed in a bag exploded at a bus stop next to the International Convention Center.[21] The terrorist attack killed Mary Jane Gardner, a 59-year-old British citizen, wounded Israeli civilians, and damaged two buses.[21] The contemporary account recorded 39 wounded civilians and said responsibility had not yet been established.[21]

A later account linked the attack to a Hamas network and gave a higher total of 47 Israelis wounded.[22] It also identified one of the network’s recruits as the bomb maker and recorded the discovery of another device at his home in Hebron.[22]

Restored Roman-era kilns are displayed in the basement of Binyanei Ha’uma, while some archaeological finds uncovered during construction were incorporated beneath glass floor tiles in the complex.[5][3] Excavations at the site extend across more than 55 years, including work directed by M. Avi-Yonah in 1949 and 1968 and further excavations in 1992.[7][23] The ceramics workshop remains were uncovered in 1992, following earlier indications of the workshop in excavations between 1949 and 1967.[5]

The ancient site covered an estimated 4.5 hectares on the upper slopes of the Giv’at Ram spur, chiefly around its summit, approximately 825 meters above sea level.[7] Finds indicate occupation from Iron Age II through the Byzantine period.[7] Its position at the top of the ascent from the coastal plain offered access to Jerusalem’s western approach, and a Roman road from Joppa through Nicopolis, or Emmaus, passed nearby before continuing along the course of present-day Jaffa Road.[7]

The site appears to have been inhabited from at least the late Iron Age through the Early Islamic period.[23] Until the First Jewish Revolt, it appears to have been associated with Judah’s Jewish population; during the Hasmonean and Herodian periods it reached its greatest extent and developed into a pottery-production center serving Jerusalem and Jewish pilgrims.[23]

After the Roman suppression of the Judean revolt, the Tenth Legion established a military outpost on the summit and central kilnworks nearby.[23] The workshop supplied everyday vessels and construction materials for the legion’s facilities in Aelia Capitolina and elsewhere.[23][5] Its location offered raw materials, elevation and wind suitable for firing kilns, and access to the main road for transporting finished goods.[5]

The production complex included clay-preparation areas, potters’ rooms, drying space, and kilns.[5] An initial row of five kilns was later supplemented by replacements; the kilns averaged approximately 3.5 by 3 meters.[5] Products included pipes, roof tiles, flooring bricks, bathhouse pillars, and bricks for vaults, with construction pieces moulded and stamped with the Tenth Legion’s insignia.[5] The workshop operated during the second and third centuries CE.[5]

A large monastic complex and other facilities later occupied the summit during the Byzantine period.[23] The complex ceased to exist under violent circumstances sometime in the seventh century CE, and scant remains also survive from the Early Islamic period.[23] The 2005 excavation publication, “The Pottery and Other Small Finds,” directed and edited by Benny Arubas and Haim Goldfus, addresses the site and its archaeological remains.[7] Goldfus and Arubas conducted the workshop excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.[5]

The ancient settlement’s name remains unresolved; its proposed identification with Iasonis Pagus, rather than nearby Deir Yasin, is a scholarly hypothesis.[7][23] Other suggestions—including an early military or administrative outpost network, a private estate belonging to a ruling-class or high-priestly family, a monastery serving Christian pilgrims, and an Early Islamic postal way station—are interpretations rather than established identifications.[23] The site’s precise character in the third and fourth centuries also remains unclear.[23]

The substantial modern preservation debate concerned how much of the original building could be altered during expansion.[6] The municipality’s 2022 decision to reject extensive façade removal and seek a design maintaining the original style established architectural conservation as a constraint on redevelopment.[6]