Al-Manara Square

"[1] Until the end of the 19th century, the site of al-Manara Square was part of a dirt road that connected Ramallah to the nearby town of al-Bireh.

With the establishment of the Friend's Boys School near the site in 1901 and later the Ottoman decree making Ramallah a local administrative center in 1902, the road became increasingly important for the area.

By 1905 a new road connecting Nablus with Jerusalem passed through the site of al-Manara Square and the Saraya building, housing the local Ottoman administration, was built 250 meters away.

[1] In 1918, after the fall of Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom established the British Mandate of Palestine and designated Ramallah as capital of its own administrative district.

And electrical switchboard controlling the street lights was placed on a pole planted on a dirt road separating them which was dubbed "al-Manara" or "The Lighthouse."

The infrastructure around the square continued to improve until the 1948 Arab–Israeli War which resulted in a mass Palestinian exodus from areas captured by the nascent state of Israel.

In 1982 Israeli commander Moshe Biton issued a decree to demolish Al-Manara Square and the monument was stored in a municipal treasury.