November 10th, 2021, Birzeit: The Palestinian Museum has announced that it is now officially registered with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior as a non-governmental Palestinian association and has become independent from its founding organization, Taawon. The Palestinian Museum was originally established as one of Taawon’s flagship projects through the generous support of its members.
The Palestinian Museum, represented by the Museum's Director General, Dr Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, and Taawon, represented by its acting Director General, Mr Luay Khoury, signed an agreement on October 24th, 2021 at the Museum’s Birzeit headquarters outlining the rights and duties of the two parties, which will allow the Museum to officially become an independent institution from January 1st, 2022. Taawon will continue its financial support to the Museum for a transitional period while it implements its long-term sustainability plan.
Mr Luay Khoury emphasised that Taawon remains committed to supporting the Museum as it continues to develop its resources and financial stability. “Members of Taawon believe The Palestinian Museum to be a symbol of national defiance to the illegal Israeli military occupation and a tool to strengthen the solidarity of Palestinians and support their steadfastness, a key Taawon goal” he said, reaffirming Taawon’s pride in establishing the Palestinian Museum as a world-class institution producing knowledge of Palestinian history and culture in an open and emancipatory spirit. Mr Khoury also confirmed that Taawon will remain supportive of the Palestinian Museum.
The Palestinian Museum is a non-governmental association dedicated to supporting an open and dynamic Palestinian culture nationally and internationally. The Museum presents and engages with new perspectives on Palestinian history, culture, and society. It also offers spaces for creative ventures, educational programmes, and innovative research. The foundation stone of the Palestinian Museum was laid in 2013, with the work and planning phase for programmes and projects beginning in the same year. Since opening its doors in 2016, the Museum has received several awards, including the World Architectural Festival Culture Award and the Presidential Award from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 2017; the MENA Green Building Award in 2018 and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2019. The Palestinian Museum has been a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 2015.
Since its opening, the Palestinian Museum has produced seven original historical, artistic and research exhibitions while it continues building its permanent collection and running diverse programmes in knowledge and research, education, and public outreach, which attract tens of thousands of visitors annually, onsite in the Museum and online around the world.
The Museum also provides research and archival platforms that are the first of their kind in Palestine. These include the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, an open-access digital archive that documents Palestinian social history via digitising photographic, film, audio, and other materials, available free of charge to the general public. These platforms also include the Palestinian Journeys website, an interactive encyclopaedia of the Palestinian question, filled with specialist articles, biographies, timelines, and undiscovered stories, developed in partnership with the Institute for Palestine Studies.
A People by the Sea, the Museum’s latest exhibition, opened in September 2021 and will run until November 2022. The exhibition presents a history of the Palestinian coast, starting from the mid-18th century and ending in 1948, thus allowing for a re-examination of the Nakba through a presentation of two hundred years of historical landmark events. See www.palmuseum.org
Taawon is an independent Palestinian non-profit organisation, committed to providing development and humanitarian assistance in Palestine and the Palestinian communities in Lebanon. Its work touches the lives of more than one million Palestinians annually. Since its establishment it has invested nearly 0 million in education, the care of orphans, preservation of Palestinian culture and heritage, youth empowerment, and community development including health, agriculture, and emergency humanitarian aid projects. See www.taawon.org
