"Liberation - Catharsis" by Najat El-Khairy- a collector and lecturer on Palestinian embroidery who uses her art to preserve this cultural legacy.... "The olive grove and doves are prominent features in the artwork. The olive grove with its trees represents peace, while the two doves in the sky symbolize freedom and the right of return."

"Liberation - Catharsis" by Palestinian artist Najat El-Khairy.

Zara Zhar

@Boudicca61AD

 

"Liberation - Catharsis" by Palestinian artist Najat El-Khairy. The artwork is part of a series that explores themes of purification and liberation from occupation, reflecting on the artist's personal journey and the Palestinian experience. 

 

Symbolism and Meaning 

 

The woman in the artwork represents the "Palestinian Fellaha" or village woman, and also the olive tree, which is a symbol of resilience, resistance, and determination. She is depicted with tree roots for legs, deeply entrenched in her land, proudly holding her history, culture, and heritage. 

 

Her face is intentionally omitted to represent all Palestinian women. The embroidery on the woman's dress and in the background is a central element. 

 

Najat El-Khairy is a collector and lecturer on Palestinian embroidery and uses her art to preserve this cultural legacy. The patterns often include motifs with specific meanings, such as "The Walls of Jerusalem" and "the Star of Bethlehem," and are used to assert the identity of the land. 

 

The olive grove and doves are prominent features in the artwork. The olive grove with its trees represents peace, while the two doves in the sky symbolize freedom and the right of return. 

 

The "forbidden colors" (red, green, white, and black) of the Palestinian flag, which the occupiers banned in artwork from 1980 to 1993, are freely used in this piece to assert Palestinian identity. 

 

Najat El-Khairy's art, including "Liberation - Catharsis," is her way of documenting and preserving Palestinian cultural heritage on a lasting surface, such as porcelain, to prevent it from being forgotten or appropriated. 

 

The artist was born in 1948, the year of the Nakba, which she sees as a driving force for her mission to keep Palestinian culture alive.

 https://x.com/Boudicca61AD/status/2051783193280323932/photo/1

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Palestinian Thoub - Rome Thoubs Exhibition 2026 The cross-point of Palestinian identities

 

Palestinian girls wearing the traditional Palestinian dress in front of the Church of All Nations (Gethsemane) in Jerusalem ✝️

Palestinian girls wearing the traditional Palestinian dress in front of the Church of All Nations (Gethsemane) in Jerusalem

 Milad ܝܠܕܐ

@PalCatholic

 

https://x.com/PalCatholic/status/2017653682578321592/photo/1

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"I experienced hunger, I experienced bombing and shelling, and I have experienced exile and loss because I am Palestinian, because I am from Gaza, all I did was I was born in Gaza. Gaza is a small place that is very beautiful, it has a lovely sea, and lovely weather, not like the weather here. There is sun, and no wind. I am here today to tell you how Gaza is beautiful and how people there are very nice, and all the children love to play and they love to go to school and they love to be children like other children. I am here to tell you about Palestine, our culture, our traditions, and that we love life, we don’t like destruction and that we don’t deserve what we have lived through and continue to live through.”" Renad from Gaza

renadfromgaza  2025 

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https://www.instagram.com/p/DRpVMTGDNxz/?img_index=1

Liked by

palestineinadish

and 57,720 others

During my participation in the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine at the Palestinian embassy in The Hague, I shared with the world part of my story and how I became not a child anymore.

This is part of my speech:

“Today, I am here without my family, without my mum, not in my home country. The only thing I have is my voice and this is the only reason why my mother allowed e to leave, when we got the opportunity to leave Gaza, she let me leave because she knew my voice will be the voice of people living in Gaza who are without food, without water, without shelter, and who are now living in tents in the piercing cold.

I experienced hunger, I experienced bombing and shelling, and I have experienced exile and loss because I am Palestinian, because I am from Gaza, all I did was I was born in Gaza.

Gaza is a small place that is very beautiful, it has a lovely sea, and lovely weather, not like the weather here. There is sun, and no wind. I am here today to tell you how Gaza is beautiful and how people there are very nice, and all the children love to play and they love to go to school and they love to be children like other children. I am here to tell you about Palestine, our culture, our traditions, and that we love life, we don’t like destruction and that we don’t deserve what we have lived through and continue to live through.”

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

Renad Attallah

 https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search?q=Renad+Attallah

Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout of Palestine

Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout
http://ismail-shammout.com/

Ismail Shammout was born in 1930 in Lydda – Palestine. 

During the Nakba of 1948, he and his family were forced out of their home during the assault of Jewish Zionist militant groups on their town. 

A long march on foot allowed them to settle in the refugee camps of Khan Younis in Gaza where he lived under very harsh conditions. 

In 1950 he managed to travel to Cairo to study arts from where he later earned a scholarship to study fine arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. 

After he finished his studies, he moved to Beirut in 1959 where he married his fellow arts student from Cairo, the Palestinian artist Tamim El-Akhal (born 1935). Both lived and worked in Beirut until 1983 then moved to Kuwait, then to Germany and finally to Amman in 1994. 

Shammout died on July 3rd 2006.

Shammout, who himself experienced expulsion and refuge and accompanied later the birth of the Palestinian Revolution in the 1960s, became since the very early days of his professional live along with his partner Tamam El-Akhal the “artistic face” of the Palestinian Freedom Struggle. He has been long recognized as Palestine’s leading modernist painter. 

His experience of dispossession and the memories of beloved Palestine, the dreams of return as well as the dignity and pride of his people formed the soul of his entire art. 

The simplicity of the themes and his outstanding artistic skills let his works enjoy a widely spread popularity which significantly shaped modern Palestinian Art.  https://ismail-shammout.com/

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Palestinian embroidery continues to be an important symbol of Palestinian culture & identity worldwide #Thobe

Once a traditional craft practiced by village women, Palestinian embroidery continues to be an important symbol of Palestinian culture & identity. A rich artistic tradition passed down through generations, it is now common in all of Palestine & among members of the diaspora

Rima.... a poem by Anne Selden Annab in Growing Gardens for Palestine

 

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Rima

Rima Najjar in a traditional Palestinian Embroidered Thobe

 

Rima 

 

Rima- connected

by family and Palestine.

She travels the world online and on foot,

following the art and the history

of and for Palestine.

Rima's goodness

(her greatness)

has a reach far beyond

the leap of literary awareness

and books, far beyond

the rainbow colors and hues of paint

and tile and trees and flowers in spring

all for and of Palestine.

Rima shares, shares the beauty she finds,

shares the challenges and routes

whereby humans connect

over and over through the years.

Rima shares knowledge and facts

and empathy and compassion

and character

Rima is as exquisite

as the roses her sister tends.

Where music and art for Palestine might be

she is there, in body or spirit

she is there for and of Palestine.

poem copyright © 2022 Anne Selden Annab

Nujoud Merancy wore a blazer embroidered with a Palestinian design in her new NASA work photo

"Blazers are my day-to-day wear, and tatreez is day-to-day wear in the Middle East, so I just thought, 'why can't I have something on my day-to-day clothing?'"

Nujoud Merancy wore a blazer embroidered with a Palestinian design in her new NASA work photo (NASA headshot)

'It's very me': NASA engineer celebrates Palestinian heritage in viral photo

Nujoud Merancy's decision to wear Palestinian tatreez in NASA headshot was inspired by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, she tells MEE

 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/NASA-engineer-Palestinian-heritage-viral-photo-Nujoud-Merancy?fbclid=IwAR0YnxTqba_oUEXAIg46qje7fwXvHJTrBOS4OyubhQSWiPL_WiZFvsVi5GM

 

 "When she was a child, she made frequent summer trips to Nazareth to see her dad's [Palestinian] side of the family. Her relatives are the ancestrial caretakers of Nazareth's oldest Muslim house of worship, the White Mosque, built in 1804. 

 

"My family has been there for centuries. My uncle is the current caretaker [of the mosque], but it's been passed down through the generations, through the family of the caretakers," Merancy explained. 

She said her family in Palestine and the US have been incredibly supportive of her career.

And now, she said she hopes to inspire other young girls and boys across the world to reach for the stars."

Nihal Rabbani: "November or December 1988 with my dad, celebrating Palestine's Declaration of Independence..."

Mahmoud Rabbani, born in Palestine, with his daughter, Nihal Rabbani, who is wearing a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress.

Essay by Nihal Rabbani:

"November or December 1988 with my dad, celebrating Palestine's Declaration of Independence. 

Thirty years ago, when the First Intifada received worldwide media attention, and we slowly started being portrayed as human beings instead of terrorists for the first time ever, there was a sparkle of hope. 

This was before the Oslo Accords, before the apartheid wall was erected, before the West Bank quadrupled in settlements, before the Palestinian Authority was formed, before the Gaza Strip became a mining field for the Israeli military to practice ILLEGAL chemical warfare on the Palestinian population, before a small proportion of a lost generation succumbed to suicide bombings, before Hamas would become a household name and replace Israel's accountability for its war crimes (it had only been in existence for a year in 1988) and before I even set foot in my parents' birthplace.

Shortly after this photo was taken, my father visited Palestine for the first time since he was thirteen years old, about forty years after his family was expelled from their homeland in 1948 and forced to escape to refugee camps in Lebanon." 

Preserved Online For All To See ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

 in Growing Gardens for Palestine

“My Christian grandmother and my Muslim grandmother in Palestine” - Shared by a Palestinian man on Facebook

       
       The Holy Land

You have bullets, bully brigades,

biblical words & word smiths

all fundraising for more...

More injustice. More suffering.

More homes and gardens usurped,

more children tormented and

families destroyed in what was

(what always will be)

historic Palestine.

 

We have nothing much more

than personal stories,

beloved memories,

and old photographs

preserved online for all to see.

 

We are people, human beings.

Our ancestry reaches back

totally entwined with every

rock and stone, every tree,

every water well, every little flower,

no matter where we are now.

 

Our recipes are of the land

and trade routes, plus trial

and error.  We helped perfect bread

baked in clay ovens, in our own way.

 

Our Zaatar is a scrumptious blend

of herbs  & our olive oil is heavenly gold.

 

We keep keys.

 

Our embroideries are

by hand, with symbols

imagined and taught

mother to daughter for eons,

for longer than thread can last.

 

Our hope is that one day

justice and peace will prevail

for all good people willing to

actively empower fair and just laws

with full and equal rights, respect, 

dignity... and security for all.

 

                                  poem copyright ©2015 Anne Selden Annab     

Rashida Tlaib wears a Palestinian dress to be sworn into Congress and inspires #TweetYourThobe

Rashida Tlaib with Mayaar, the daughter of filmmaker Adam Shapiro and human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf. (Photo: Twitter)

"Writing in Elle today, Tlaib explained why she opted against business attire to pay homage to her mother and her Palestinian heritage with the dress:

“Throughout my career in public service, the residents I have had the privilege of fighting for have embraced who I am, especially my Palestinian roots. This is what I want to bring to the United States Congress, an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country. This is why I decided to wear a thobe when I am sworn into the 116th Congress.

My Yama (mother in Arabic) came to the United States at age of 20, and just like any immigrant parent, she wants all of her children to succeed, but without giving up on our roots and culture.

As a young girl, I watched my mother hand stitch thobes while sitting on the floor with a lamp at her side. She would make the small designs of flowers and different shapes. Just thinking about it brings up so many memories of my mother and how proud she was of being Palestinian.” "  Rashida Tlaib wears a Palestinian dress to be sworn into Congress and inspires #TweetYourThobe

Noura Erakat:

"Thank you for inspiring *several* generations @RashidaTlaib. #TweetYourThobe"

Huwaida Arraf

2019 #TweetYourThobe creator Susan Muaddi Darraj

2019 #TweetYourThobe creator Susan Muaddi Darraj

Author of A Curious Land

Winner of the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction

 

> & The Inheritance of Exile

AMAZON.COM "Susan Muaddi Darraj won the 2016 American Book Award for her second short story collection, A Curious Land: Stories from Home. She is also the author of The Inheritance of Exile, as well as numerous young adult biographies, articles, book reviews, and essays. She also has been awarded the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction and the Arab American Book Award, and A Curious Land was also shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award. You can visit her at www.SusanMuaddiDarraj.com or via Twitter at @SusanDarraj. She has been recognized twice by a literary grant by the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance recently named her one of its 2016 Ruby's Literary Arts grant awardees. She lives in Baltimore, MD."