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    'Everybody's Getting Along Here': How 'Hotel Corona' United Israelis And Palestinians

    A Jerusalem hotel hosted 180 quarantined COVID-19 patients from different backgrounds. Despite concerns they might clash, some became friends. The biggest test of togetherness came during Passover.
    by Daniel Estrin Jun 09, 2020 5 minutes
    Aysha Abu Shhab (right) and Noam Shuster-Eliassi (second from right) with other COVID-19 patients quarantined by the Israeli military at the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, which became known as "Hotel Corona."

    Baruch Shpitzer, the reception manager at the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, prides himself on making tourists feel at home in his sprawling 9-story hotel and spa, built into a cliffside and featuring panoramic Old City views.

    In March, though, his hospitality skills were put to the test. His reception desk was encased in plexiglass. His new arrivals were sometimes delivered by ambulance. None of them was staying at his hotel by choice.

    "We speak to them to get them out from the shock that they're in when they're coming into the hotel," Shpitzer says.

    The guests, as he called them, came from many walks of life — Israeli Jews, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, religious, secular — but all had one thing in common: They were among thousands of COVID-19 patients the Israeli military quarantined in hotels throughout the country.

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