As part of our work to aid Palestinian children and families, MECA buys and sells Palestinian crafts and goods to support the talented craftspeople in Palestine, help them generate income, and protect their way of life. Read more about the Palestinian Artisans. Additional proceeds from sale of these items will be used to support our programs in Palestine.
For ten years, MECA and the women of Joining Hands have held an annual bazaar of Palestinian handmade crafts. Throughout each year, we spend time building relationships with artisans, farmers and craftspeople—especially women—living in the West Bank and Gaza, who make beautiful handwoven rugs, wooden sculptures, pottery, embroidery, soap, jewelry and more. Most of these communities have had much of their agricultural land confiscated by Israel, and for many of our Palestinian friends, these crafts are their sole means of livelihood and survival.
We are now excited to make these incredible products available for purchase online, and ask that you continue to check our Shop Palestine page for new items, as we continue to post them. Our store will also feature scarves, handbags, and other unique accessories from Turkey, Egypt, and Lebanon to support our programs.
If you are local, we welcome you to shop directly at our Berkeley, CA office, where you can pick up a bottle of olive oil, a jar of honey, and much more! For any questions on items and orders, please email us at shop@mecaforpeace.org.
Куфията е традиционен шал за някои страни от областта Шам – Палестина, Сирия и Йордания, както и някои области в Ливан. В други модификации тя се използва и в останалите арабски страни. Счита се, че името куфия идва всъщност от град Куфа, Ирак. Други нейни наименования са гутра (в персийския залив), хатта, шемаг и т.н.
През последните 60 г. тя се отъждествява с палестинската култура и кауза. Носи се по много различни начини, включително и заедно с т.нар. “агал” – кръгла поставка за главата.
По-долу сме показали 4 от най-разпространените не само в страните от арабския свят начини, но и по света, тъй като шалът се носи от много хора като моден аксесоар, но и като символ на съпротива и подкрепа за Палестина, както и като част от екипировките за оцеляване. Преди няколко години е била много модерна сред тинейджърите в Токио, американските рапъри и хипита. Тъй като Близкия Изток е постоянно във фокуса на световните новини, куфията също стана популярна и в света на модата.
С времето тя се е модифицирала в различни варианти и цветове. В Йордания например тя е червено-бяла, в Палестина черно-бяла, някъде се носи без ресни, а има дори и тип обикновен шал. В Йемен са познати куфии с повече цветове. Някои от йеменските евреи също носят куфия.
Британските войници са носели този шал повсеместно по време на ПСВ и ВСВ, от тогава той получава и другото си название – шемаг.
Куфията има много предимства – тя предпазва от жаркото слънце като същевременно поддържа естествена вентилация на тялото. Изработена е от памук или вълна, а в някои случаи дори от коприна със златни нишки.
Шалът, който се използва за глава, е квадратен, около 1 х 1 м. И с по-малък размер обаче може да се постигне връзването, но не и това от тип 4.
И така, вариантите:
1. Сгънете шала на триъгълник.
Поставете широката му част на главата и челото отпред.
Прехвърлете двата края зад врата и завържете един път, след което направете възел. Краищата висят отзад.
2. След като сте завързали кърпата един път, а не на пълен възел, прехвърлете краищата към челото като ги кръстосате и захванете отстрани като ги подпъхнете един под друг.
3. Поставяте шала отгоре сгънат преди това на триъгълник, като единият му край трябва да е малко по-къс от другия отстрани на лицето. Захващате единият, по-къс край на шала, прехвърляте го под брадичката и го придържате с ръка към главата острани над ухото. Хващате с другата рръка втория, прекарвате го отзад през врата и част от главата и завързвате двата края. Друг начин е чрез прехвърлянето и на късия край през лицето.
4. Като шал на врата – сгънете отново на триъгълник шала. Хванете горната широка част за двата края и я навийте два-три пъти в зависимост колко голям е.
Поставете така сгънатия шал отпред с върха надолу. Прехвърлете двата края през рамената и готово!
Последният начин на носене на палестинския шал е най-популярен. Той е превърнат в символ на подкрепа за палестинската кауза, както казахме. Редица известни личности го носят на различни места и по различни поводи. Самият папа се появи с куфия след като тя му бе поставена от палестински младежи на площад Свети Петър във Ватикана през 2009 г.
Други знаменитости, които са носили куфия, са
Енрике с куфия в своя песен
Риана
Стинг
Колин Фарел
Роналдо с шалче
и др.
В момента е създаден проект, с който да се опази автентичното производство на куфията в малка семейна фабрика в Хеброн.
Забележка: Куфията може да се върже и като хижаб.
Автор: К. Шопова. С благодарности на Исхак. Thank You, Ishak!
As they organize to defend their land and Palestinian farming against the onslaught of settlements and siege, Palestinian agricultural workers and organizers have been subject to an intensified arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Click here to sign our petition at change.org or sign on here to demand an immediate end to the targeting of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and all Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers, and the freedom of the Palestinian organizers imprisoned for defending their rights.
A number of staff of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (Facebook), a Palestinian grassroots organization that organizes Palestinian farmers to defend their land and develop their products, have been targeted in recent days for arrest by Israeli occupation forces.
Dr. Moayad Bisharat
This is the most recent in a series of arrests of UAWC activists in recent weeks, including the Director of Development and Operations, the engineer Fuad Abu Saif on July 26 in an early morning raid on his home in Hebron, in which his computer, mobile phone and other communication devices were seized. The director of the UAWC Jericho office, Mohammad Nujoom was abducted on July 16 as he re-entered Palestine from abroad. Both were taken to the Moskobiya compound for interrogation.On July 31, Dr. Moayad Ahmad Bisharat, the coordinator of UAWC’s Jericho office was abducted at dawn from his home. The UAWC office in Jericho was then ransacked by Israeli forces, who confiscated the computers, laptops, and files of the organization.
In addition, UAWC Board Member Ahmad Soufan, held in administrative detention for one year, was recently ordered into a third term of six months in arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial. Two other UAWC leaders, Abdel Razzak Farraj, administrative and financial director, and Board member Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, were both finally released from administrative detention after multiple renewals of their imprisonment.
UAWC, which recently marked its 25th anniversity, has been struggling with Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers to defend and develop their land, support Palestinian agricultural projects, and support farmers’ steadfastness on the land in the face of Israeli occupation and aggression.
The attack on the UAWC is part of the overall attack on Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers, from olive farmers whose trees are set ablaze by settlers, tthose whose land was stolen for settlements, “military use,” or “buffer zones”, to the fishers of Gaza, who daily brave military attack for seeking to fish in their sea. It reflects the over 64 years of occupation, land theft, displacement and dispossession of the occupation of Palestine. Farmers and agricultural workers are on the front lines of resistance as they struggle to remain on their land – and are thus being targeted for arrest and imprisonment in an attempt to undermine the steadfastness of the farmers.
Western governments, including those of the United States and Canada, are not only silent in the face of these attacks, they are directly complicit, as they pledge expanded military support and allegiance to Israel as its occupation, apartheid and human rights violations continue and escalate. It is urgent that people make their own voices heard to challenge and break this complicity.
TAKE ACTION!
1. Click here to sign our petition at change.org, or sign on here! This petition will be presented to Israeli embassies in the US, Canada and other countries on Wednesday, August 15, demanding the release of these prisoners, justice for all prisoners, and an end to the attack on Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers. Individual and organizational signatories are welcome – we particularly urge groups and organizations to sign on to and distribute the petition. If you experience any difficulty signing on, please send your endorsement to samidoun@samidoun.ca.
2. Boycott Israeli goods and agricultural products! The Palestinian movement has called for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli goods and institutions until it ends its violations of Palestinian rights. Israeli oranges, organic peppers, dates, and other agricultural products are the fruits of stolen land. Boycott those products and help to raise awareness in your community!
3. Support Palestinian agricultural products, including olive oil, spices, and maftoul, farmed by Palestinian farmers and not occupation settlements.
4. Join a protest or demonstration outside an Israeli consulate for Palestinian prisoners. Many groups and organizations are holding events – join one or announce your own. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use this form to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.ca.
5. Help to support UAWC – here is information on how you can donate to support UAWC’s much needed work among Palestinian farmers and fishers.
israel is using chemicals to corrode the foundation of the Al Aqsa Mosque and build more tunnels. The chemicals are supposedly maximizing the speed at which Israel can drill. According to Khatib, israel is destroying the foundation to prepare for the mosque’s demolition and the building of the Temple.
The revelations were made by head of the Gaza branch of Al-Quds International Institution and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Ahmed Abu Halbiyya..
A Zionist group claimed that Dr. David Delgado Shorter violated university policy by offering his students weblinks to information on the Palestine solidarity movement.
The fight foracademic freedomand freedom of speech on US campuses continues as Zionist groups attempt to intimidate university officials into censoring faculty and students who criticize Israeli policies.
Dr. David Delgado Shorter, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of world arts and cultures/dance, was recently accused by the Amcha Initiative — an outside Zionist group which has filed numerous complaints against professors who hold discussions on Israeli policies — that his course included reading materials which “seek to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.” Unbeknownst to Shorter, a faculty colleague began an investigation of Shorter’s course material based on Amcha’s complaint.
However, despite the unprecendented review, the Zionist censors failed to prove that their claims hold any merit.
After learning about the investigation into his course, Shorter himself asked for a review of Amcha’s complaint by the UCLA’s Academic Senate Committee on Academic Freedom. The committee found that “no evidence was provided” in which principles of professional standards and university policy were violated, and that “no complaint by a member of the course was received.”
The Amcha Initiative has a history of vitriolic intimidation and legal threats against faculty who lead discussions on Israeli policy (or who simply link to websites with information on the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement) in the University of California and the California State University systems. The group accused Shorter of “using his official UCLA class website for the purpose of promoting the academic and cultural boycott of Israel” (“A question about academic freedom,” 29 March 2012).
These claims revolved around a class Shorter taught in the Winter 2012 quarter entitled “Tribal Worldviews.” Shorter told The Electronic Intifada that the class incorporates “how indigenous people use media and technology to engage with or combat globalization.”
On the course’s website, Shorter included pages of non-required links and background material that students were free to peruse if they found the information helpful in their research. Included amongst the dozens of links were the website for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and a book review published on The Electronic Intifada.
