Why This Kickstarter Campaign is a Problem
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This bonus episode comes from a place of urgency: A new Kickstarter campaign is exploiting Palestinian embroidery under the guise of collaboration. This isn’t just about tatreez—it’s about cultural appropriation and the systemic barriers Palestinian artisans face while others profit from our heritage.
⚠️ CALL TO ACTION ⚠️
❌ WITHDRAW SUPPORT
If you backed this Kickstarter, cancel your pledge before the month ends.
📢 SPREAD THE WORD
Share this episode & talk about the issue.
🧵 SUPPORT PALESTINIAN ARTISANS
Buy directly from Palestinian creators.
Episode Shownotes
This bonus episode comes from a place of urgency: A new Kickstarter campaign is exploiting Palestinian embroidery under the guise of collaboration. This isn’t just about tatreez—it’s about cultural appropriation and the systemic barriers Palestinian artisans face while others profit from our heritage.
Joining us are:
Bisan Alhajhasan – Lawyer & founder of Thobnah, a platform that shows Palestine through our thobes.
Salma Shawa – Palestinian content creator from Gaza, whose work sheds light on the Palestinian experience through storytelling and advocacy.
You’ll hear about:
>> What this kickstarter is all about and what’s wrong with it
>> Cultural Exploitation & Appropriation
>> The ‘Collaboration’ Narrative
>> The Normalization Issue
>> Where Is the Money Going?
>> The impact of Israeli occupation on Palestinian artisans
>> Why Our Community Must Reject This Kickstarter
⚠️ CALL TO ACTION ⚠️
❌ WITHDRAW SUPPORT – If you backed this Kickstarter, cancel your pledge before the month ends.
📢 SPREAD THE WORD – Share this episode & talk about the issue.
🧵 SUPPORT PALESTINIAN ARTISANS – Buy directly from Palestinian creators.
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Transcript
Lina: Hi stitchers! Welcome to Tatreez talk, where we share conversations about Palestinian embroidery. I'm Lina here with my co-host Amani, chatting with talented embroiderers and artists sharing their stories, inspirations, and the cultural significance behind their work.
Amanne: Today we're diving into an urgent topic, one that needs our community to be aware of. We're talking about a Kickstarter campaign that's exploiting Palestinian embroidery under the guise of collaboration. This is about more than just the threes. It's about cultural appropriation. The struggles Palestinian artisans face in selling their work and the ways outside forces continue to profit off of our heritage, while Palestinians themselves are blocked from doing so.
Amanne: To help us unpack this topic, we are joined by 2 incredible guests that we are honored to have. First, st we have Bisan Al-haj Hassan, a lawyer and founder of Thobna, that I'm sure all of you are familiar with is a platform that shares Palestine through our thobs, helping to preserve and circulate our cultural treasures. And we're also honored to have Salma Shawa, a Palestinian content creator from Gaza, whose work sheds light on the Palestinian experience through storytelling and advocacy
Amanne: together. We're breaking down why this Kickstarter is so problematic, discussing the real challenges Palestinian artisans face under occupation, and most importantly, share what we, as a community can do to push back. Thank you so much. Bisan and Salma for joining us today. We are glad that we were able to talk to you guys.
Bisan: Thank you for having.
Lina: So to help, maybe ground us. I'd like to kick off with you, Selma, because I know that you've been actively looking into this particular Kickstarter campaign and raising awareness about it. Can you help showcase what exactly this Kickstarter is all about, and what's wrong with it?
Salma: Yeah. So basically, following the Oscar win for the film called No Other Land, there was a Kickstarter that was shared by Basil, who's 1 of the directors of the documentary. And there's also another director who is Israeli, which made the documentary controversial, to say the least, but anyways focusing on the Kickstarter that Kickstarter was shared right after the win.
Salma: and we looked. We started looking into it.
Salma: and it turned out that the founder on the Kickstarter is an Israeli businessman. And upon further investigation, Yosi Levine, who's the founder of that Kickstarter, actually has 14 other Kickstarter projects that are very very random.
Salma: ranging from selling whiskey bottles to wooden handles for bikes to even selling tiles taken from homes in Haifa, which is quite bizarre, and if you take a look at each individual Kickstarter that has to do with Palestine, including the one about the tiles and the Tatreez. There isn't a clear mention of the story of
Salma: why those styles are abandoned, to begin with, in Haifa, or what is the point of taking those styles like, there's no mention of that history. There's also this vagueness around who the perpetrator is which we know is Israel. But this use of language? It's like a manipulation of what's actually going on, because
Salma: it's always vague who the person doing the like. The person who's oppressing is never mentioned, which is super problematic. And I saw that to be a theme in multiple of Yosi's Kickstarters, including the Tatreez one which is obviously the most atrocious because it comes after the Oscar win, which means that Yossi was actually able to fundraise a lot because of the fame that comes with an Oscar win.
Lina: Yeah. And I, this is, I remember, Bisan, you actually messaging me as well about this particular Kickstarter campaign, and why? It is incredibly like a huge risk for cultural appropriation. A huge like the I think you mentioned in in our, in our, in the messages.
Lina: like Palestinians, have been fighting to maintain our ownership over to, because it is a Palestinian art form, and this could unravel all those decades of work. I'm curious to hear what is your reaction to this Kickstarter. Why does it? Why is it such a scary thing for you as someone who is in Palestine and working with Tatreez.
Bisan: Yes, so as sorry mentioned, it has been already a topic since the Oscar win, and how people have been interacting. A lot of people did not really understand even regarding the Oscar win. And then we had to explain a lot to several people around the world what it means regarding Tatreez. I always like to talk about it from the.
Bisan: you know, from the perspective of the importance of Tatreez. Tatreez is not just, you know. It's not. It's not just like something that Palestinians, you know, create and sell. It's it's how we tell our story. And it's how a lot of women all through history have been documenting a lot about Palestine.
Bisan: The danger in this situation is that
Bisan: you actually are presenting Tatreez to the world, in the market and in fashion shows, and in different places around the world at this moment, as a collaborative work or heritage between Israelis and Palestinians. So
Bisan: this narrative does not exist, even if few people come out and try to tell the world that it exists, it does not exist. Palestine is occupied, and the occupation has been trying to steal everything Palestinian. Not only the land, but everything connected, and, of course, is one of the ways they're trying to, you know. Rob us from everything about Palestine.
Amanne: Yeah. And you know, one of the things that Lena and I were chatting about in prep. For this episode was exactly that of like
Amanne: how they have tried to steal our culture in various ways. And you know one of the most recent ones specifically related to Tatreez that really stood out in my mind when we were talking again, because it was so recent. I believe it was in 2021 during the Miss Universe Pageant, when they were in 48, and they brought all these women from all over the world
Amanne: to go and experience Bedouin and I'm doing air quotes Bedouin culture. They were wearing like they were, you know, literally like sitting there rolling up. So it's it's insane to see that as a Palestinian diaspora, and I can only imagine what it is like for Palestinians in Palestine, who are literally like this is their everyday life, and this is their
Amanne: culture. I'm curious if either one of you can kind of speak on how the occupation has tried to steal Tatreez in the past, and has tried to claim Tatreez in the past.
Bisan: Sorry do you want to go, or should I.
Salma: Bisan, you can go.
Bisan: Okay. So I want to make something something like, you know, just clear that we're not only talking about Tatreez. We're talking about everything regarding the you know heritage, including even the agriculture, the food, the music, like everything, everything that is Palestinian.
Bisan: The occupation has always always tried to, you know, own everything, and then only allow Palestinians to work for them. So this is this is what this like initiative, or, you know, business that was that was released in in the Oscars is about
Bisan: when they do that, they basically.
Bisan: they basically just want Palestinians as cheap labor. And that's what they've done all over Palestine, whether it was with like a handmade
Bisan: projects, or, like everything else, agriculture, including everything. So what? What basically Israel has been doing all the past years with Tatreez. They try to. Okay. They try to claim it for themselves. They do try to buy lots of old, you know, thobs and then claim that
Bisan: it's theirs. Of course they stole tremendous amount of thobes all through history they haven't ever been able to actually say it's theirs.
Bisan: It's really hard. Tatreez and thobes are more than just, you know, a handmade skill you can't like steal the thobe and then claim it's yours, and then, you know, have it. Even when they tried a lot, and they they tried to, even, you know, have it in businesses in
Bisan: to sell it like all over the world. But they still couldn't manage to ever claim, or, you know, convince anyone that it's theirs. It's really hard to steal culture, because it's not something you learn overnight, and it's not something you you know, you you gain overnight, and that's why they use power of business. And that's why
Bisan: they try to control these things throughout controlling that they are the people who are financially controlling it, and then they use the indigenous people to actually create everything, and then they sell it. But for me. I see this as like a problematic thing.
Bisan: not only like with totters, with so many different things. Maybe we talk about later in the podcast.
Salma: Yeah. And I could add, I remember a few years ago, there was a fashion brand that had a similar concept of bringing together Israelis and Palestinians that brand was called Adish clothing. It's since disappeared. I think it failed, which is great. I'm not unhappy about that, but it's the same idea of like.
Salma: It's almost like they want Palestinians to not end the occupation, but instead work together to benefit Israel. And there's this illusion that this is bringing progress and peace and development
Salma: when it's not. And all that this does is it benefits the neoliberal order that we're forced to live under as Palestinians. So it's all very deceitful from the marketing to the story that they tell the narrative just everything. And it's even, I think it's even bigger than just
Salma: cultural appropriation or normalization. At this point, it's there's like so many material implications that come with this way of thinking. Because if someone is to, if if people. If more people were to believe that this is the path to liberation, then we're in like, we're in a huge crisis because we don't want this model to be replicated with other people and businesses.
Bisan: Yes, you know, you know, one like very important thing. We need to always remember that financial power is very important, and one of the one of the things I try to tell people is that
Bisan: you know why a lot of Palestinian women actually are selling their old thobs nowadays is because they're financially unable to survive under occupation with everything that we're going through. So it is very important for people to, you know, be aware of the source that they want to buy from if they really want to support Palestinians. Because.
Bisan: you know, buying Palestinian products and buying Palestinian Tatreez from Palestinians is a way of, you know, of awareness and support.
Lina: Yeah, a hundred percent. And actually, I would love to kind of maybe pivot to why, it's so difficult for Palestinians to sell their art themselves like, why is this is coming up? This isn't the 1st time is kind of the point of this conversation. Right like this is something that we? It's a huge red flag, because Palestinians have been
Lina: going through this for decades since 1948, and even probably before. And so I wanted to learn more, you know. And I know both of you actually have this kind of experience because you have lived or live currently in Palestine. What are the barriers that exist for Palestinians, that
Lina: you know they like. They have to resort in some cases to care quotes collaborating with Israelis.
Bisan: So, Lena, there are endless barriers. The 1st thing that comes to my mind is no freedom of movement, no freedom of import, like exportation. I just want to give you an example that, like a Palestinian person who wants to sell anything or wants, you know, like an everyday, you know, life for a Palestinian like.
Bisan: you know, we are completely banned and blocked on every sort of way that we can receive money from anywhere in the world. So this is a huge like, you know, Factor. Why, a lot of Palestinians cannot sell their products around the world. There's hundreds of people who create handmade embroidery all over
Bisan: over Palestine, and yet they're never able to sell anything, because, first, st they cannot send it abroad. Second, they cannot receive money. 3, rd they are like, you know, finding hardships with materials, you know, to reach to places. If you want to go from one village to another in Palestine and go see one of the
Bisan: women who embroider you could spend hours on checkpoints. So this is also something, you know, that like makes it even harder. Let's talk about Gaza, for example, Gaza was a huge source, for, like embroidery and handmade embroidery, and a lot of people professionally, you know, handcrafted a lot of things in Gaza.
Bisan: and all of that was gone. The struggle that Gazans are facing wherever they are, not only in Gaza, even a lot of them
Bisan: who had to start from scratch all around the world. Let's talk about, for example, the Majdalawi fabric they're still facing a lot of. And this is just an example of, you know, a Palestinian handicraft, and what you face on daily basis as a Palestinian. So when someone, an outsider and we we emphasize on this, when an outsider. Someone who's
Bisan: who is not Palestinian has 0 roots. To this culture they easily come and basically treat people as like business. You know.
Bisan: they appropriate the culture, and they they use people with like very cheap labor. And then they make a lot of money by not telling the real story behind it. They're mostly unable to tell the real story because you cannot come, as you know, a pure, like American investor in the West Bank, and just start selling Palestinian products
Bisan: and pay people very little money and then make loads of money out of it, and then say, you're creating women empowerment through selling embroidery. This doesn't make sense, you know, and that's what's really happening.
Bisan: Most of the projects or businesses that are able to maintain or succeed. They're not run completely by Palestinians at the moment or not Palestinians in Palestine, because of all of those hardships and struggles.
Amanne: Yeah, I know you touched on it, Bisan, but I would love to understand, and I'd just love to emphasize for the readers.
Amanne: or sorry the listeners. You know what you talked about the restriction of movement. I have purchased a number of beautiful handmade thobes from you, and I know, as you said. It is a struggle for you on how you're going to get the money from outside, and how you're going to actually send the thrones? Could you explain to people what that is like when someone is purchasing a thobe all the things that you have to go through to get that thobe out of Palestine, and to them, wherever they are in the world.
Bisan: You know. Let's say, let's say the process of making the thobe getting to. You know any village or town was doable. Let's say, like that day, like the checkpoints we were able to pass, and we can make it. We can get the things sent.
Bisan: you know that we, since since the genocide on Gaza we have not been able to receive money into Palestine. So if you're lucky enough, and you do have relatives or friends, or nice, you know, kind people abroad who would help out by receiving money and then collecting money and then sending them.
Bisan: you know, in any sort of way in cash and like in, you know, money transactions. A lot of money is like, you know, lost on the way. A lot of of that money is basically, it goes as services. And then, once you have that money to to give to the woman, it has gone less than what was paid for the item
Bisan: in addition to how expensive everything has become, because everything that we use and that we depend on to create items has risen in a crazy amount and a lot of people around the world. Maybe they don't really understand that. And that's if you're lucky enough. That's if you're lucky, and you have an
Bisan: way or source to bring money in to pay to people. But more than half of the people are not even able to do that. Not everyone is able to travel abroad. Palestinians, a lot of them are bound by occupation to travel, or to, you know, commute between places so.
Lina: And I mean, we again like emphasize. This is not the 1st time right? And I know Selma, for example, before you changed your social media name, actually, because you started focusing on not even different content, but just not the previous content that you were having before. Did you want to share any like anecdotes from when you were running Anat international and kind of your experience, because I remember you were selling handmade things from Gaza as well.
Salma: Yeah, we were selling embroidered denim jackets that we would make in Gaza from like A to Z, and it was very difficult, I think the most difficult part was obviously shipping them because of the blockade, and so many different steps were involved in order to get them out to people like that process took.
Salma: Sometimes people would place an order, and they'd get the jacket like a year later, if if not more so. It really was extremely difficult. And then every time that it was, you know, getting a little bit smoother, there would be an aggression like something is happening in Gaza. Everything shuts down.
Salma: And that's besides the production process itself, because the materials were so limited. One day you could find the same buttons or the same fabric that you used around the jacket, and then the next day, you don't have it so. Then there wasn't consistency with what was being shown on the shopify store versus what a customer might receive because of those small discrepancies based on, like what I'm able to find and what my mom was able
Salma: to source in these conditions. So it was very much an imperfect product. And you can't compete in those conditions like you can't actually make it and succeed. Which is why I guess a Kickstarter, like
Salma: the one that Yosi and Basil are working on, can actually succeed, because Yossi has the privilege of being an Israeli citizen and not having to deal with a checkpoint. He can just dhl everything just like any other person in the world, because he's not dealing with the occupation. And that's where the problem is. And I think
Salma: if you take a deeper look into the Kickstarter and the video, for instance, the Palestinian women that are working on the shoes. I mean, it's textbook exploitation, and the things that the women are saying. I mean not to like
Salma: not to be mean to the women. It's just, I think, just objectively analyzing the things they're saying. One of the women said, my dream is to buy a car. Be the 1st woman to buy a car in my village, and it's like, Why are we diluting
Salma: the business and, like the Palestinian cause and culture to your biggest goal, is buying a car. I think there's something to be said about this mindset that the Kickstarter is pushing, because that should not be the biggest goal like, I want to know if these women are going to have their ancestral homes intact because they're working on this business with an Israeli? Are you going to guarantee that? Or are the Israelis gonna bulldoze
Salma: in, you know, in a year from now a month from now. These are the actual root problems that we should be addressing and talking about, and the Kickstarter isn't talking about them because it's about profit, you know.
Bisan: Yeah. And also sorry. I want to add that also, like the way they still like, represent us to the world. I travel all around like almost Palestine and I meet women. They are very strong. They teach me a lot. They can teach the world so the the like. The narrative that
Bisan: also, they try to say, as Sora said, is like, it's not a woman's dream to, you know, to buy a car just to buy a car, and women are not like weak, and they're not like they're not waiting for like a colonizer or an occupier, to come and empower them. So most of those women I work with are very empowering themselves.
Bisan: They empower me. And they're, you know, they do a lot of amazing stuff. So this is also another narrative that I personally like wouldn't accept to be represented anywhere
Bisan: as a Palestinian woman.
Amanne: Yeah, as you're talking, Bisan Selma, as you were just like talking about the women that are working in our showcase in this Kickstarter, it
Amanne: takes my mind to this idea of Orientalism, you know. It's very. It's it's very rooted in this. Oh, these poor Arab Muslim oppressed women, but not actually acknowledging who's doing the oppressing. So I think it's really important to call that out. And you know, also, as you guys are both talking in my mind, I'm just thinking about this idea of like, Wow, this is also Peak.
Amanne: Because, Bisan to your point earlier, you know, Tatreez wasn't necessarily something that women were creating to sell. It was something that women were creating for themselves to tell their stories. It was just a part of their lives, and as a result of occupation. They are now having to sell Tatreez to survive. So you know, I think
Amanne: I would love to hear from both of you if somebody hears this, and they kind of have this idea of like. Well, I don't understand the issue, like, isn't it good that Palestinian embroidery is being shared with a wider audience. It is being shared by the world. And isn't it good that Israelis and Palestinians are collaborating? You know. What would you say to kind of that idea?
Salma: I've been thinking a lot about. This is going to be a little bit more like political history, I guess, of stuff that happened in Palestine, but I think this is very much in line with. So Salam Fayyad was a Palestinian that had a caretaker government in 2,007,
Salma: and his whole idea for Palestine was that he wanted to prepare Palestine for statehood by targeting the economic aspect without ending the occupation, and he thought that by doing that the occupation would end by having this sort of like economic interdependence with the Israelis.
Salma: And the whole concept was that he actually thought, we're going to have statehood by 2011, like Palestinian statehood by mid 2011 was the slogan and his whole development plan. You can look it up. It's called Palestine, ending the occupation, establishing the State, and it just
Salma: fails. It's so flawed. And it's I mean, it's 2025 now, and we know that it has failed, because you cannot do that without addressing the occupation, and the Kickstarter follows in the footsteps. And the same concept of instead of liberation, we're going to liberalize like
Salma: just push liberalization, neoliberalism, instead of addressing the politics that's happening. And you can even go back to Oslo, because that's when this problem actually begins, and when the Plo became absorbed into not a liberation project, but just normalization. And it was all about collaborating with the Israelis. So you can even trace it back
Salma: to Oslo, where the political prescription Oslo gave did not make sense. Given the material conditions that were happening
Salma: on the ground in Palestine.
Salma: and the Kickstarter follows this ideology of like. We can achieve peace by using the liberal market like liberal market discipline.
Salma: But the thing is, Palestine isn't even in the liberal market discipline in this way, I mean, we have a blockade. So it's not like Israel is allowing Palestinians to even participate in it, because we were just talking about shipping and trade restrictions. So how is it possible that Palestinians can even believe that this liberal market ethos is going to free us? I think it's just super super dangerous.
Salma: And that's what I would say to people. I think it's important to understand the root of when this even began like this idea of Palestine can be free, or we can free certain parts of it like the West Bank and Gaza, by economic interdependence with the Israelis. It just it's not going to work.
Bisan: Yes, I think liberation comes when we know how powerful we are, and we don't keep being hesitant about how powerful we've become. And we are, and I don't think we need the occupation as a partner to talk about Tatreez around the world
Bisan: as Palestinians. I believe that we've never had actual, whether like a governmental or like a proper institute representation. So we've always did that ourselves as individuals, and we've done that very well the past few years. And with Tatreez. Specifically, I think
Bisan: the occupation is actually using our culture in order to make their benefit, to benefit out of it. So to think that like, we will need them to actually talk about our culture and make the whole world see it and appreciate it.
Bisan: I don't think that, like it's necessary. They're doing the opposite. They're using our culture just like any colonizer uses indigenous cultures just to make money business and become more powerful. So if we just believe, like how strong it is, and we actually understand it. Then we will understand that liberation
Bisan: is never, never, ever connected with collaboration or normalization. You know this can never happen.
Lina: Yeah, 100% agree with both of you. So let's maybe pivot. Now, now that we understand what the Kickstarter is, which, by the way, we haven't actually mentioned the name. It's called the Resolute Rgl sneaker Startup. So I want to be very clear. This is the Kickstarter that we're trying to combat or fight against. So now that we know kind of what's wrong with this particular Kickstarter, let's talk about what we can actually do right like
Lina: amongst ourselves. We're starting to raise awareness, and we're starting to talk about what's wrong. We've identified like, thank you. To Selma and others. What is wrong with this Kickstarter, but for someone who's listening, and who perhaps has already invested in the Kickstarter, but didn't realize that there's issues with it. What are some of, like the next steps that they can take to help us fight against this becoming successful and becoming a thing.
Salma: I think if you've invested in the Kickstarter, just know that you could pull back your investment
Salma: as long as the Kickstarter doesn't re like end. There's a deadline. So pull it back right now, if you're listening, and I think that's like a perfect 1st step.
Bisan: Yes, I agree with that as well as actually, you know, raising awareness, because I really understand that a lot of people actually follow or support certain Kickstarters or businesses without really looking deep into the source or where it comes from. So I think it's very important for people to actually give it some effort and time.
Bisan: whenever they have information about such things, is to raise awareness, because we can't always expect everyone to already know, you know. So
Bisan: raising awareness is very important, and we also talked about it, and all the struggles about, you know, Palestinians being able to, you know, succeed in any of the businesses they they make and try to sell all around the world. And I think it's very important to ask people to be very patient. So when you want to purchase something made by a Palestinian. Whether this Palestinian
Bisan: was still in Palestine or around the world, people must understand that it's it's 10 times harder for a Palestinian to sell one of their products, so don't expect it to be as smooth as when you go online, and you just shop from, you know, an online shop most of the easier, you know. Shops that you buy things from
Bisan: are not really owned by Palestinians. So just keep that in mind, and be patient, and try to really support Palestinians wherever they are with Tatreez.
Amanne: Yes, wholeheartedly, agree definitely support Palestinian artists and uplift Palestinian artists and their work. I also want to, because I know that there has been chatter already online, and I'm sure there'll be chatter around this of like.
Amanne: oh, but we want to support Palestinians like, you know, this is a collaboration with Palestinians, and we want to support the Palestinians that are involved. What would you say to people who kind of have that reaction? And you know, kind of why, this isn't really supporting Palestinians.
Amanne: can you? Can you repeat the question again? Sorry? Yeah, of course.
Bisan: Yeah.
Amanne: No, no, of course I was thinking I did.
Amanne: I know a lot of people have already kind of counteracted the backlash around the Oscar win. And this normalization, because this idea of like well, we still want to support Palestinian artists right? And with this kind of specifically as well for people who have this idea of like. But I want to support Palestinian artists. And why is this like, you know?
Amanne: It's not their fault, and I want to uplift them. Why is this not that? Why is supporting this type of collaboration, not actually supporting Palestinian artists?
Bisan: Because simply, I think, like, I've seen that a lot of people use that narrative of Oh, oh, you can't like attack this person, because their idea was different. You have no right to represent us as Palestinians by saying, Yeah, we all. We are all normalizers. So we like with us Palestinians. It's very specific when you talk.
Bisan: or you represent to the world as a Palestinian, you need to be very aware that it's not only you you're representing all of Palestine. You're representing people under occupation who don't agree with this with this thing. You're trying to say so.
Bisan: It's very important for people to understand that we're not really attacking this person who was after this topic. But we are basically trying to explain to people that it's not okay to represent Palestine this way. And also it's not acceptable that after a year and a half of genocide on Palestinians and on Gaza, that you go on stage when you have a platform to tell
Bisan: the world about Palestine that you go and present it this way, it's not acceptable. So, in my opinion, if people really want to support Palestine like there's
Bisan: 100 other people, and there's 100 other ways. They don't even have to look a lot into it like. Wherever you look, you'll find something Palestinian. Maybe maybe people need to be more aware that when they want to support something Palestinian they need to look a little bit into it, so they don't fall into the trap as the the
Bisan: the Kickstarter that we talked about, for example. So maybe we ask people to look into who they're supporting.
Salma: Yeah, definitely similar. I have similar thoughts to Bisan, I think.
Salma: especially the last year and a half. With so many people learning about Palestine. It's become much easier for people to get taken advantage of, and I think the best reminder is just because something is branded as Palestinian. It doesn't mean that you're not supposed to dig more and research it. I mean, I went and did the research. And I think everyone should, especially when you're putting your money somewhere, you should research it, even if it says Palestinian. And this is coming
Salma: from a Palestinian who's seen a lot of things related to our cause, whether it's the culture, the politics, whatever being taken advantage of by so many actors, so.
Bisan: Yes, and I think we can be stronger as a community in general. If people actually start mentioning, maybe people can recommend like I'm sure each one of us knows at least 50. You know people who are trying to make it as a Palestinian. Whether it was people still in Palestine, in Gaza, in the west bank, in the 19 forties.
Bisan: as well as all the Gazans who had to leave Gaza. All around the world a lot of people are trying to, you know, make it so. We can all share information. If we have, we can support those people, we can, you know, be try to make a stronger community.
Lina: Thank you both. This has been in it like a really really important conversation. To have so really appreciate your time and joining us. Is there anything else that you want to say before we kind of sign off a key? Takeaway last minute? Thought that you didn't get to share previously any last thoughts.
Bisan: I think I always like to tell people to. Actually, you know, be very, very happy and proud with our culture. It's beautiful, it's rich, and it's very important that we understand the importance of understanding our culture knowing more about it. And you know, teaching the world about it.
Salma: I love that. I think she said it all. Thank you both for organizing this.
Amanne: Thank you both for being here, and just to reiterate again to anyone listening. You know, if you have participated in the kickstart, if you have seen the Kickstarter. If you have thought about it, you know there is definitely ways that you can stand up against this normalization. If you have donated like Selma said, you can withdraw your financial support. Please please do that immediately.
Amanne: Spread the word. If you have seen it. If you've heard about it through this podcast please spread the word and make sure that people in our community and outside understand what this kickstarter actually is and then of course, as we have said over and over again in this episode, make sure that you are supporting Palestinian artisans directly.
Amanne: Bisan is somebody that works directly with Palestinian artisans in Palestine. There are other people. So please please get involved in the community. Talk to Palestinians, learn from Palestinians, and really make sure that you are supporting Palestinians and Palestinian culture, so that we can continue to keep our stories alive. Thank you both again for joining us. This was an amazing talk, and thank you both for all the work you do to uplift Palestinian voices.
Salma: Thank you.
Lina: Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Tatreez talk. We want to hear about your Tatreez journey, so please please share your stories with us at tatreeztalk@gmail.com. And we might just have you on an upcoming episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast on your favorite listening platform, and be sure to leave a five-star review. You can follow me @linasthobe, Amanne @minamanne, and of course you can follow the pod @tatreeztalk. We will talk to you soon.
