Talpiot
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Talpiot, is a neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem that was established in the 1922 by Zionist Jews. The neighborhood was evacuated following the 1929 acts of violence. Following the Israeli War of Independence, Talpiot became almost completely surrounded by Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem for 19 years, but it remained settled under Israeli control. The neighborhood expanded significantly only after the 1967 Six-Day War, mainly over lands near and beyond the old separation line between Israel and Jordan, including lands formerly administrated by the UN. It also includes an important industrial area.
The Nobel prize winner Shmuel Yosef Agnon lived in this neighborhood for most of his life in front of Joseph Gedalja Klausner the brilliant scholar. According to Amos Oz' autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness (2003) they did not like and shunned each other.
The May 24, 2001, collapse of the Versailles wedding hall in the Talpiot area of Jerusalem killed 23 and injured more than 200. The collapse was blamed on poor construction practices. The disaster, which is considered Israel's worst civil disaster, was caught on videotape. The wedding hall was built using the cheaper Pal-Kal method, which uses thinner sections of concrete than usual during construction. The building method was banned in 1996 because of safety concerns. Ten people were arrested by the Israeli authorities, including the wedding hall's owners, the engineer who invented the Pal-Kal method, and contractors and builders involved with recent renovations. In October 2004, two of the owners of the hall were convicted of causing death through negligence; two other employees were acquitted.