Following the appointment of Dr Mahmoud Hawari as its new director last week, Israel’s Palestinian Museum has opened its doors today (18 May) without any exhibits.

The US$60m, (€55m, £40m) project, which has the intention of creating an iconic building to act as a beacon of hope for the Palestinian people, was first mooted in 1999, but has been stalled multiple times due to political tensions in the region.

The building itself – a contemporary design by Heneghan Peng which sits on a series of terraces designed to echo the agricultural terraces of the region – is “symbolically critical”, according to Omar al-Qattan, the museum’s chair.

The museum’s inaugural exhibition Never Part, which will highlight artefacts of Palestinian refugees, was suspended after a disagreement between former director Jack Persekian and the museum’s board, which led to Persekian's departure.

al-Qattan said that Palestinians were “so in need of positive energy” that opening a museum completely void of an exhibits would still be worth the effort.

Despite its lack of exhibits, the building is hosting its opening ceremony a few days after the 68th anniversary of what Palestinians refer to as Nakba – the 1948 Palestinian exodus and the conflict that followed.

The museum will be free-to-visit for the public starting 1 June, though what will be available to see is still in question.

The museum is also launching the first of its satellite exhibitions on 25 May, with Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery coming to Beirut, Lebanon.