Summary
The Welfare Association, Palestine’s largest humanitarian and development nongovernmental organization, founded in 1983 by Palestinian business and intellectual figures, which has spearheaded the Palestinian Museum project since its inception in 1997 (Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, PDF p.128).
Details
- Taawon’s self-proclaimed mission is to “preserve the heritage of the Palestinians, supporting their living culture and building civil society”; it is respected for its financial independence, especially from Western funders (PDF p.128).
- It relied heavily on private money from Palestinian business entities on its board, among them Arab Tech Jardaneh, Consolidated Contractors Company, Al-Hani Construction and Trading, Projacs International and the Bank of Palestine (PDF p.128-129).
- Questions recorded in Toukan’s research include whether Taawon disbursed cultural funds to one museum rather than a wider range of projects, ran the museum as a mainstream NGO development project without curatorial insight, and whether board members received returns on in-kind donations (PDF p.129).
- Taawon set up the task force that took charge of the museum project and opposed the empty-museum opening concept; it moved ahead with the May 2016 opening, by the unpopular Mahmoud Abbas, to honor its promise to open on Nakba Day (PDF p.130-131, p.135).
Related pages
Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, Palestinian Museum, Hanan Toukan