Jacir Palace

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Jacir Palace or Qasir Jacir (Arabic: قصر جاسر‎) is the largest hotel in Bethlehem in the central West Bank. The building's original design was based on the Louvre while imposing the characteristics of an Arab household. Jacir Palace has three floors, each spanning 800 square meters. The hotel contains an outdoor swimming pool, a health spa, two meeting rooms, 250 available rooms and eleven food and beverage outlets including restaurants and bars.^[1]

Jacir Palace was built in 1910 by local craftsmen on the orders of the former mayor of Bethlehem Suleiman Jacir (great grandfather of Emily and Annemarie Jacir), who intended that he and his five brothers’ families would live in the house together. So they did for a time, however, the family went bankrupt in the 1930s and were forced to abandon the palace. Jacir Palace was eventually turned over to the British who used it as a prison in the 1940s. In the 1950s it was a private school called al-Ummah, later the house became a public boys’ school and at a still later stage was transformed into a public girls’ school.^[2]

In 2000, a group of Palestinian investors belonging to PEDCAR — which is linked to the Palestinian National Authority — acquired Jacir Palace; they refurbished and renovated it soon after.^[3] However, the hotel was closed down from 2000 to 2005 due to the violent conditions of the Second Intifada.^[4]