By Alephs
(2017-01-24)This is Beit Falasteen, or, in English, House of Palestine.
It is owned by Munib al-Masri, probably the richest Palestinian in the world. The house, built atop the biblical Mount Gerizim, was inspired by Villa Capra "La Rotonda", probably one of the most famous villas in the history of architecture.
Al-Masri, known also as "Duke of Nablus", "the Godfather", and "Palestinian Rothschild", is a Palestinian industrialist, statesman, patriarch of the al-Masri family, and one of Yasser Arafat's closest friends and supporters. He was once a minister in both the government of the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Even though he was offered the presidency and the prime ministership of Palestine, he refused them several times, and now only retains an elected seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council.