AP, Ramallah :
Palestinians will soon get a chance to glimpse the small bedroom where their longtime leader Yasser Arafat spent his final years.
The 5-square meter (54-square-foot) room is the centerpiece of the new Arafat Museum, which opens to the public on Thursday to coincide with the 12th anniversary of Arafat’s death.
The room has only a single bed and small closet that barely holds four suits, a few checkered headscarves and shirts. There is also a nightstand and lamp, a prayer carpet and a painting by his then-young daughter Zahwa.
Arafat spent most of the last three years of his life in this bedroom on the ground floor of his Ramallah headquarters, known as the Muqata.
Israel confined him to the building on Dec. 8, 2001, accusing him of masterminding a violent uprising at the time. He remained holed up there until Oct. 29, 2004, when Israel allowed him to travel to France for emergency medical care. He died from a mysterious illness at the age of 75 two weeks later.
The bedroom, left largely untouched since Arafat’s death, is housed in a vacant wing of the Muqata that is connected to the new $7 million, 2,600 square meter (28,000 square foot) museum by a bridge.
“Arafat’s story is the story of the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and independence,” said Nasser Kidwa, Arafat’s nephew and head of the Arafat Foundation.
The museum tracks Arafat’s life, saying he was born on Aug. 4, 1929, in the Old City of Jerusalem, though other accounts have said he was born in either Gaza or Cairo.
