$30 Million Palestinian Museum to Open in the West Bank in 2016

A rendering of the new Palestine Museum.
Photo: Palestine Museum

The NGO Welfare Association has announced the construction of a $30 million museum dedicated to Palestinian history, culture, and art, slated to open in the West Bank next year.

The 3,800 square meter museum—which will be located in Birzeit, north of Jerusalem—will house a series of exhibits aimed at creating a “link between Palestinians in historic Palestine and those living in the diaspora.”

The museum will include exhibits on Palestinian culture, society and history of Palestine.
Photo: henninglarsen.com

Organizers explained that the institution will be “dedicated to preserving and celebrating the culture, society, and history of Palestine over the past two centuries.”

The Palestinian Museum‘s inaugural exhibition was also revealed. Entitled Never Part,  the show will explore the relationship between materialism and identity through the most valued possessions of Palestinians and how they reflect their personal stories and culture, Haaretz reports.

The institution will be the largest museum dedicated to Palestine in the world.
Photo: henninglarsen.com

The opening ceremony of the Palestinian Museum will take place on May 15, 2016. The date coincides with the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic. It refers to the day when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced into exile as a result of the conflict that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.

Today, under half of the 12 million Palestinians in the world live in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The remaining six million live abroad, including an estimated 5.5 million registered refugees that live in UN-run refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries.

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