In 1946, Colonial British Mandate authorities barricaded Princess Mary Avenue (now Shlom Zion Ha Malka St.) in Jerusalem’s Zion Square with barbed wire, stretching 105 yards across the roadway. The photo is taken looking from the Arab side across the barrier to the Jewish side in the background. This wire barricade was installed to prevent interactions between Arabs and Jews and also to secure the Generali building with police headquarters, seen here on the right in the center. The British had made the area into a fortified zone, one of several throughout the city, at that time.
This photo was taken on May 19, 1948, during a momentous point in the history of Jerusalem in particular and Palestine in general.
Just days earlier, on May 14, 1948, the British Mandatory government departed Palestine, the Yishuv government announced the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Zionist Irgun forces (who had prior knowledge of the planned withdrawal) immediately headed for this strategic zone the same day to capture it. The first building they captured was the empty Generali building. By the date of this photo, the Zionists were in control of this zone.
The original photo caption also notes: “On this day, the Old City of Jerusalem appeared in imminent danger of being wrested from its Jewish defenders by Palestine’s King Abdullah’s desert legion.”