Palestinian children receive an education at children's camps run by the United Nations agency UNRWA, which is almost completely staffed by Palestinians
20 years in the making, a new $28 million Palestinian museum of national heritage opened on ancient Jewish land now occupied by the Palestinian Authority – with no exhibits.
As history demonstrates, the people today known as “Palestinian” Arabs bear no distinction from the Arabs living in neighboring nations that only gained their current borders and distinct nationalities in the past century.
A large majority of them are descendants from Muslim conquerors who invaded in the 7th century
These descendants arrived in Israel looking for work early in the 20th century, as the Jews were draining the swamps and cultivating in what until then had been desert.
There is no distinct “Palestinian” history or culture.
And, so, it was absolutely fitting that The Palestinian Museum of Art, History and Culture opened its doors with NO EXHIBITS.
The 43,000 square foot building will employ 40 staff.
Museum of Palestinian culture - Photo EPA
This is the essence of Palestinian culture. If there were no Jews, they would turn on each other - as Muslims do all over the Middle East
Salah Kuwar, 20, an electrician in charge of the sound and lighting for the inauguration, said the museum was “a lovely idea, but it’s strange that we have millions for a museum of the Palestinians, but little help for the Palestinians themselves, to give them institutions, or to help with finding them jobs.
" No, there’s no time for the past. We are fed up, we need an intifada (uprising),” Kuwar said, adding that he didn’t get “the point” of any of it.
Exhibits were delayed partly because the museum’s director resigned last December over disputes with the museum’s management. He took with him the first exhibit, “Never Part,” which was to showcase personal items of Palestinian refugees.
A source close to the project told AFP that the museum’s inauguration without exhibits was a disappointment, as it will “not live up to its declared vision of telling the Palestinian people’s story to the world.”
By Daniel Greenfield Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, author is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
150 years ago, Mark Twain visited Muslim-occupied Israel and wrote of “unpeopled deserts” and “mounds of barrenness,” of “forlorn” and “untenanted” cities.
Palestine is “desolate,” he concluded. “One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings.”
The same is true of the Palestinian Museum which opened with much fanfare and one slight problem. While admission is free, there’s nothing inside for any of the visitors to see except the bare walls.
Or they could their new museum halls with
these artifacts of typical Palestinian culture
The Palestinian Museum had been in the works since 1998, but has no exhibits. The museum cost $24 million. All it has to show for it are a few low sloping sandy buildings indistinguishable from the dirt and a “garden” of scraggly bushes and shrubs. The Palestinian Museum is open, but there’s nothing inside.
It’s hard to think of a better metaphor for Palestine than a bunch of empty buildings designed by Irish and Chinese architects whose non-existent exhibits were the brainchild of its former Armenian-American director. It’s as Palestinian as bagels and cream cheese. Or skiing, hot cocoa and fjords.
Over the Palestinian Museum flies the proud flag of Palestine, which was originally the flag of the Iraqi-Jordanian Federation before the PLO “borrowed” it, and visitors might be greeted by the Palestinian anthem composed by Greek Communist Mikis Theodorakis.
If it sounds anything like the soundtrack from Zorba the Greek, that’s because they both share the same composer.
VIDEO - WHAT IS PALESTINE, WHO ARE THE PALESTINIANS
All of Palestine is so authentically Palestinian that it might as well be made in China. At least that’s where the stained Keffiyahs worn by the stone throwers hurling rocks at passing Jewish families while posing heroically for Norwegian, Canadian and Chilean photojournalists are made.
Palestine is an empty building with nothing in it. It’s a political Potemkin village. There’s a flag, an anthem, a museum and all the trappings of a country. But if you look closer, there’s nothing inside.
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