The art of handweaving is dying out and is limited almost exclusively to a small West Bank village, Samoa’, where women still pass down the art from one generation to the next. This women’s cooperative weaves the rugs and also raises the sheep and washes, spins, and dyes their wool.

The art of handweaving is dying out and is limited almost exclusively to a small West Bank village, Samoa’, where women still pass down the art from one generation to the next. This women’s cooperative weaves the rugs and also raises the sheep and washes, spins, and dyes their wool. Because the Israeli occupation chokes access to Samoa’, the rugs have become extremely difficult to find as the women are unable to sell their products in the greater marketplace.  MECA crossed nine road blocks, seven illegal Israeli settlements, and ten sniper towers in order to get to Samoa’.

The poverty level in this village is very high because Israel has confiscated approximately 25,000 acres of their agricultural land for building the apartheid wall, settlements, and other occupation infrastructure.

The Atfaluna Society for the Deaf in the Gaza Strip is also keeping the tradition of rug-weaving alive through their vocational training program. As Israeli restrictions on anything coming in or out of Gaza tighten, it has become nearly impossible for these artisans to sell their products abroad. When our shipment was stalled for months, we carried these rugs in suitcases through Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt and brought them back to the United States.