Sheikh Badr was a Palestinian Arab village on a hilltop in west Jerusalem. The Haganah expelled its population during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. From 1948 to 1951, Sheikh Badr Cemetery, a temporary Jewish cemetery was established here; a few hundred graves still remain from that time. After 1949, the area was incorporated into a new area called Givat Ram.

Yitzhak Rachamim Navon was an Israeli politician, diplomat, playwright, and author. He served as the fifth President of Israel between 1978 and 1983 as a member of the centre-left Alignment party. He was the first Israeli president born in Jerusalem and the first Sephardi Jew to serve in that office.