In 2008, a group of women from the village of Hares returned from a workshop in Ramallah inspired with an idea. There were no women's organizations in their village, no space that was distinctly theirs. They decided to establish one of their own.

The Hares Women's Society emerged from necessity. Jobs in the village were scarce, and reaching employment in nearby cities like Salfit, Ramallah, or Nablus meant navigating checkpoints, roadblocks, and closures—the daily reality of life under military occupation. The founding members wanted to build women's capabilities, reduce violence, engage young people, and strengthen the community's resilience in the face of daily challenges.

The Society runs on volunteer work, supporting Palestinian basket weaving and other community initiatives. This might seem unusual elsewhere, but in Palestine, contributing to collective welfare is simply what people do. Its members take pride in working without financial gain, creating a platform where community support becomes tangible.

Connecting to the Land through Weaving

In rural northern Palestine, women once practised basket weaving, creating baskets, trays, and household items from materials found around them. Olive branches became qertalla, strong baskets for daily use. Wheat stalks, or qash in Arabic, were transformed through qash weaving into serving trays and storage containers. More than mere decorative objects, they were tools for everyday living.

Then came modernization, and basket weaving in Salfit began to decline. Plastic replaced natural fibres. Mass production made handwoven items seem unnecessary. Land confiscation reduced wheat cultivation, making the stalks harder to find and more expensive to buy. The knowledge began to fade, passed between fewer and fewer hands.

For the Palestinian women artisans of Hares, this craft carries particular weight. Olives and wheat are not just crops—they are threads woven through Palestinian food culture and identity. Working with olive branches and wheat stalks from their own land through olive branch basket weaving Palestine connects them to the many blessings it provides. Like Palestinian embroidery, basketry is Palestinian cultural heritage made visible, a declaration of who they are and where they belong. For the women, the village of Hares is their homeland, the root of their identity as fallaheen—farmers, people of the land. To let the craft disappear would mean losing another connection to that land.

Leaarning through Sunbula's Capacity Training Program

To strengthen the Palestinian traditional crafts in the village of Hares, Sunbula developed a training program with support from UNDP, where more local women could learn and practise the craft. Fifteen women, all beginners, joined the program. Salma, the village's master weaver, taught them. Over weeks, the women progressed from small keyholders to medium baskets to large trays. They learned not just the weaving itself but how to calculate production costs, create product lists, and prepare to sell their work.

 

More than half the trainees were young women, university graduates facing the same employment challenges that sparked the Society's creation years before. The craft program offered both income potential and something more invaluable: a link to the knowledge of older generations.

Giving Back to the Community Beyond Basketry

Beyond capacity building in traditional crafts, the Society serves as a bridge between Hares and the wider world. They partner with organizations to bring educational programs, health services, cultural activities, and workshops to the village. They organize cleaning campaigns, plant trees along village streets, and run summer camps for children. They also help women access grants for small projects and find work in school cafeterias or with partner organizations.

Um Loay, who heads the Society, shares how she studied business administration but spent years as a full-time homemaker, unable to find employment. Now she directs her skills toward running the organization. The transformation extends beyond her work. Before joining the Society, she felt uncomfortable walking the village streets alone. Now she moves freely, and the community is embracing this as the new normal.

Um Loay relates this to a broader shift experienced by many women in the village. They have become more assertive and confident. Some have even started their own small businesses. The changes ripple outward, touching families and reshaping what feels possible for the community.

What Comes Next for Hares Women's Society?

The partnership with Sunbula is still new. This year, the women participated in Sunbula's annual holiday bazaar for the first time, generating some income. But the path forward needs experimentation: testing new designs, adjusting prices, finding what resonates with buyers without compromising the craft's integrity.





The women want to grow and sustain Palestinian basket weaving production in Hares. They want to train more weavers and strengthen the tradition's foothold in the village. For them, keeping this craft alive is not about nostalgia. It is about asserting their connection to the land and their identity as fallaheen.

Every basket woven from olive branches grown in Hares soil, every tray shaped from wheat stalks from the fields of Hares, becomes an act of cultural preservation and resilience. The community is insisting that their heritage, their land, and their presence matter.

The Hares Women's Society started with women returning from Ramallah, carrying an idea. Seventeen years later, they have created something that extends beyond any single program or project. A space where women support each other, where traditions are protected and revitalized, and where the community gathers to solve problems together.

We invite you to support the protection of cultural heritage in Palestine - Check out the new range of basketry crafts by Hares Women's Society here!