Economic Situation and the Role of Craft Groups in Palestine

Sunbula works with organizations that strive for economic self-help through craft production. Since the Intifada (popular uprising) broke out in the fall of 2000, the economic role of these craft producers, most of whom are women, has become crucial. Many women have become a main breadwinner of the family, as their husbands lost jobs inside Israel or Palestinian cities due to the hermetic closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Over the last several years, it has become an enormous challenge for these craft producers to carry out their day-to-day work. Due to the curfew and closure of communities, village women are often unable to bring finished pieces of embroidery to their cooperative to receive wages. The craft organizations are having difficulties obtaining fabric and threads, prevented by hundreds of army checkpoints and road blocks that are placed across the West Bank. Traveling in and out of Gaza Strip has become virtually impossible, as the Erez Crossing, the Strip's only gateway to outside world, has been closed to most people.

When Sunbula's marketing effort for their crafts is needed more than ever, our work has been affected negatively by this intensification of the Israeli occupation. Face-to-face contact between Sunbula and the producers has become impossible, as Palestinian communities have turned into isolated cantons, separated by the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements and road systems that connect them. In order to receive products from and to send payments back to the producers, Sunbula has been relying on the help of people from aid agencies and diplomatic community, whose immunity enables them to travel across the army checkpoints.

Today, with the rapid construction of the Separation Wall, Palestinian communities are threatened with further physical isolation and economic stagnation. The role of the craft groups, as well as Sunbula, will become even more vital to meet the needs of hundreds families to afford food, clothing, education, and medical care.

	Economic Empowerment A boy picks up a package of work order - fabric, threads, and instruction - at Surif Women's Cooperative in the village of Surif, the West Bank. His mother, while running her household, would do the embroidery work at home in exchange of wages.
	Working with the Marginalized Members of the Oasis Workshop, dedicated to provide a work opportunity to adults with mental disability in Bethlehem area, recycle the milk cartons to produce greeting cards
	Preserving the Cultural Heritage Artisans at Atfaluna Crafts in Gaza City have successful revived the once-dying art of Majdalawi fabric weaving.