(18 May 2016) The largest museum dedicated to Palestinian history, culture and society opened in the West Bank town of Birzeit on Wednesday - but there were no exhibits to see.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas travelled the six kilometres (four miles) from his headquarters in Ramallah to open the biggest project the Palestinians have undertaken in terms of scale, space and budgets.
Palestinian officials, intellectuals and foreign diplomats gathered at the inauguration of the glass and stone building, designed by the Dublin-based architectural firm Heneghan Peng.
But the museum's halls are empty, devoid of artifacts, artworks or collections.
A dispute over different creative visions for the museum's opening led to the resignation of the previous director six months ago.
The Palestinian Museum's Chairman, Omar Al-Qattan, said that although he hoped to host the first exhibit here by the end of the year, it was nevertheless important to go ahead with the inauguration and hail the completion of the building.
The museum's opening has been timed to take place a few days after annual commemorations for Nakba Day, or day of catastrophe - the term Palestinians use for the May 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel and in which they fled, or were forced to leave their homes.
The chairman, who calls this a "trans-national museum", said that one of its aims was to keep alive ties with Palestinians living in the diaspora through the offering of cultural programmes and exhibitions.
Lebanese-born Al-Qattan - himself a descendent of Palestinian refugees - said that the Palestinian Museum's first exhibit would take place in Beirut next week and would be dedicated to the political history of Palestinian embroidery.
There are 450,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon, mainly in refugee camps, with others living in Jordan, Syria and in Western countries, particularly in Chile.
It took three and a-half years to build the museum, which is nestled on a grassy hill near the Palestinian university town of Birzeit.
The edifice is located on a 40,000 square-metre (yards) piece of land and cost 28 (m) million US dollars.
Palestinians have about 30 museums in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - the areas where they hope to establish a state - but nothing on the scale of this new project.
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