PNA to open Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah

 The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said Tuesday it will open Yasser Arafat Museum in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday to mark the 12th anniversary of the death of the late president.

Figures including President Abbas, Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abul Ghait and his predecessor Nail Al-Arabi and former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Al-Majali will attend the opening ceremony.

Ahmad Suboh, director of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, which is running the project of establishing the museum, told Xinhua that the presence of Abul Ghait and other Arab officials is considered a message of Arab solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

"This participation is a message that the Palestinian cause is still the first cause of the Arabs and is highly appreciated," said Suboh.

The construction of the two-storey museum, which covers an area of 2,600 square meters, began in 2010 with a cost of nearly 7 million U.S. dollars.

The museum houses 120 paintings and personal collections of Arafat, including the Nobel Peace Prize he won following the signing of the interim Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in 1993.

The museum will be open to the public on Thursday.

Yasser Arafat, the first president of the PNA, died on Nov. 11, 2004, at the age of 75.