Discover Palestinian Traditions

A Palestinian potter at his wheel in Nazareth in July 1940, photographed at the table with a partly formed vessel in his hands

Palestinian Pottery: Hebron's Kilns, the Gaza J...

Palestinian pottery never stopped. Two traditions, the women's household ware and the men's wheel workshops, plus the Gaza jar and the Jerusalem tile workshops of 1919.

Palestinian Pottery: Hebron's Kilns, the Gaza J...

Palestinian pottery never stopped. Two traditions, the women's household ware and the men's wheel workshops, plus the Gaza jar and the Jerusalem tile workshops of 1919.

Nineteenth century Bethlehem dress embroidery worked in silk, silver and gold cord, showing the raised couched surface of tahriri

Palestinian Embroidery Stitches: Fallahi Cross-...

Palestinian embroidery is not one stitch. Fallahi counts squares against the weave, tahriri couches cord onto the surface, and manajel, jadleh, and tashreem hold the garment together.

Palestinian Embroidery Stitches: Fallahi Cross-...

Palestinian embroidery is not one stitch. Fallahi counts squares against the weave, tahriri couches cord onto the surface, and manajel, jadleh, and tashreem hold the garment together.

A married Bethlehem woman photographed around 1900 wearing the tall shatweh cap beneath a white veil, with a coin chin chain across her throat

Palestinian Headdress: The Shatweh, the Smadeh,...

A married woman in Bethlehem could carry her entire dowry above her eyebrows. The shatweh, the smadeh, and the wuqayat al-darahim were coin headdresses that recorded a woman's village, her...

Palestinian Headdress: The Shatweh, the Smadeh,...

A married woman in Bethlehem could carry her entire dowry above her eyebrows. The shatweh, the smadeh, and the wuqayat al-darahim were coin headdresses that recorded a woman's village, her...

Embroidered chest panel (qabbeh) from a Bethlehem Palestinian thobe, 1930s–1940s, showing dense traditional needlework

Tatreez Patterns by Region: Bethlehem to Gaza

Tatreez Patterns by Region: Bethlehem to Gaza Chest panel from a Bethlehem thobe, 1930s-1940s. Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress & Textile Museum. Photo: Ma'moun Othman, CC BY-SA 4.0....

Tatreez Patterns by Region: Bethlehem to Gaza

Tatreez Patterns by Region: Bethlehem to Gaza Chest panel from a Bethlehem thobe, 1930s-1940s. Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress & Textile Museum. Photo: Ma'moun Othman, CC BY-SA 4.0....

Palestinian wedding celebration with traditional embroidered dress

The Palestinian Wedding: From Zaffeh to Henna N...

Two days of henna, the zaffeh procession, the bride's tatreez thobe. The structure of a Palestinian wedding week, the regional rituals inside it, and how diaspora families preserve what they...

The Palestinian Wedding: From Zaffeh to Henna N...

Two days of henna, the zaffeh procession, the bride's tatreez thobe. The structure of a Palestinian wedding week, the regional rituals inside it, and how diaspora families preserve what they...

Palestinian dabke — the national folk dance performed at communal celebrations

Palestinian Dabke: The Stomp That Carries a Nation

The line, the lawweeh, and the stomp. Where dabke comes from, what the steps mean, and how diaspora dance troupes from Ramallah to California keep the line moving.

Palestinian Dabke: The Stomp That Carries a Nation

The line, the lawweeh, and the stomp. Where dabke comes from, what the steps mean, and how diaspora dance troupes from Ramallah to California keep the line moving.