ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Palestine and investigates the Muqata’a, one of the most significant Palestinian governmental institutions. The Muqata’a is a large compound that functions as the Palestinian presidential headquarters that went through cycles of destruction and reconstruction. Initially built by the British as a colonial fortress in the 1940s, the Israeli Army later destroyed it between 2002 and 2004. It was then rebuilt by the Palestinian National Authority in 2005-2016. Most importantly, it is where the former Palestinian President and national leader Yasser Arafat was put under Israeli siege for nearly two years before his death in 2004, and where he is now buried. Given its colonial history, political status as a presidential office and national significance in relation to Arafat, this chapter argues that the reconstruction of the Muqata’a hides the colonial history of the site and builds a renewed sense of Palestinian national identity that is exclusionary and selective. Methodologically, the chapter relies on site observation, mapping, interviews, archival research and visual analysis to show how the architectural investigation reveals hidden motives and an untold story of the Muqata’a.
