Support Palestinian artisans

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Women in Hebron, a fair-trade collective for artisans, employed 150 women from eight villages in the hills surrounding Hebron. Today only 38 women remain. 

In post-COVID Palestine, this is a success story. 

Many handicraft shops have furloughed all of their workers; some have closed their doors permanently. The market for artisanal Palestinian goods is fueled by tourists and for twenty consecutive months tourism has been dead. In ordinary times, Israel deters and prevents visitors from entering occupied Palestine; during COVID they closed the borders entirely.  Artisans across Palestine have been devastated. In the face of this hardship, Women in Hebron has managed to stay afloat. Their success is due, in part, to one relentless Ramallah-based marketplace: Handmade Palestine.  

Handmade Palestine is a fair-trade shop on a mission. The project, which is run by volunteers and headquartered in a cafe, has extremely low overhead. This allows them to pay artisans well, and to use their meager profits to plant trees with the nonprofit Mashjar Juthour, a land preservation and restoration project. While the bulk of each Handmade Palestine purchase goes directly to artisans, a percentage is used to plant native trees and to help Palestinians connect with their ecological heritage. It gets better: the stuff they sell is really, really pretty.

(Photo: Handmade Palestine)

From embroidered cushion covers to keffiyeh-print yoga straps, and from organic olive oil to olive wood cutting boards, Handmade Palestine’s products are high quality and highly curated. This goes for both the items and the stories behind them. Felted camels are crafted by Bedouin women in Khan al Ahmar, a village situated between two Israeli settlements that are under imminent threat of demolition. Embroidered keffiyeh face masks are sewn by women in the al-Amari refugee camp, where residents suffer from overcrowding, lack of services, and regularly face night-time incursions by the Israeli military. Felted Christmas ornaments come from Ma’an Lil Hayyat, a historic home in Bethlehem that has been converted into a social space where individuals with special needs can socialize, and, if they choose, can work together with dignity in a supportive environment. Purchasing from Handmade Palestine keeps members of these marginalized communities in business.  

Handicrafts do more than generate income, they strengthen community, they honor women’s role in society, and they demonstrate sumud—steadfastness–in the face of the occupation. 

One of the first organizations that Handmade Palestine partnered with was Women in Hebron. In 2005, before opening multiple storefronts and receiving international invitations, the initiative was one woman, Nawal Slemiah, selling handicrafts on consignment. At the time Nawal’s husband was in an Israeli prison (40% of men in the occupied territories have been detained in Israeli jails, a fact unsurprising when attending a protest is illegal, and when loopholes like “administrative detention” allow Israel to legally detain Palestinians, for up to 6 months, without charge, and to renew the detention, without charge, repeatedly). Nawal needed money desperately and had no employable skills, but she knew how to embroider.

Hebron’s Old City is dangerous. Settlers live above the souq, checkpoints and military installations flank the entrances.  When Nawal set up shop, the space was deserted. Only a few intrepid tourists passed through, to witness the cruelty of the occupation so visibly on display. This is where the founder of Handmade Palestine met Nawal. Nawal didn’t speak much English then. She hadn’t heard of the fair trade movement or ever encountered a cooperative. She was selling handicrafts to survive and to help neighbors do the same.  

Handmade Palestine gave Nawal the language to market her project, and it grew from a one-woman shop to a local movement. Seeing Nawal’s success, others opened stores in the Old City. Hebron is still dangerous. There are still settlers above the souq, and after military incursions, tear gas canisters can be found on the streets, but a historic Palestinian space has been reclaimed thanks, in part, to handicraft artisans and the sales that support their work. As the founder of Women in Hebron, Nawal Slemiah now promotes her handicrafts internationally. When she addresses crowds, she tells them what she has seen firsthand: handicrafts do more than generate income, they strengthen community, they honor women’s role in society, and they demonstrate sumud—steadfastness–in the face of the occupation. 

Handmade Palestine is hosting a crowdfunding campaign, right now, in the form of an online bazaar. If you support Palestine, please support Palestinian artisans. The unstated aim of the occupation is to squeeze Palestinians until they give up, move to cities, emigrate. Purchases through Handmade Palestine do more than generate income: they help Palestinians stay on their land, preserve the land and practice sumud. 

Mondoweiss is a nonprofit news website dedicated to covering the full picture of the struggle for justice in Palestine. Funded almost entirely by our readers, our truth-telling journalism is an essential counterweight to the propaganda that passes for news in mainstream and legacy media.

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