Dozens of Palestinian thobes return home after three decades in US

Fund-raising campaign launched so the traditional embroidered clothing can be displayed at the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit

Dress from Beit Dajan area, c.1900, from the collection of Birzeit University Museum. Courtesy The Palestinian Museum

More than three decades ago, Jerusalemite Abed Al Samih Abu Omar, a collector and antiques dealer, arrived in the US with a collection of traditional embroidered Palestinian thobes and jewellery for a cultural exhibition.

Each one of the 80 garments told a different story of its homeland. The plan was to exhibit them at a gallery in Washington, DC, but the venue had closed when the four trunks containing the collection arrived in the US capital.

"He [Al Samih] was sitting at the hotel not knowing what to do. When we knew about it, we went to visit and look at [the collection]. We could not forget how beautiful and how unique the pieces were," Maha Rabie, who was one of a group of women who went to see the thobes in 1987, told The National.

Amid the confusion over what to do, the women decided to buy the collection, one of them even mortgaging her house to fund the purchase. They formed the non-profit Committee for the Preservation of Palestinian Heritage and began to host fund-raisers, find donors and dedicate their time to exhibiting the collection.

But the plan had always been to return the thobes home, and now, after more than 30 years, their journey back to Palestine has begun.

The curators learnt of the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit after watching an interview with its director on television two years ago and offered to return the collection.

The museum is “an independent institution dedicated to supporting an open and dynamic Palestinian culture nationally and internationally”.

But the journey has been far from straightforward – returning the thobes has a price tag of about $40,000.  A crowdfunding campaign was launched to raise the money for the return.

The clothing items are decades old – most were made before the Nakba in 1948 – and many are in delicate condition. What drove the cost up is the insurance for the pieces, with experts saying the collection is worth more than $250,000, according to Samer Makhlouf, manager of resources mobilisation at the Palestinian Museum.

“For me, it’s a very emotional and a very interesting thing on a very personal level because this is part of my identity and this is my heritage,” he said.

Mr Makhlouf says the lasting image in his mind is of his grandmother, a farmer, wearing a thobe as she went about her day-to-day life.

“It’s part of my history, part of my identity, part of who I am and therefore it is important for us to protect, preserve and also present these thobes.”

He feels it is important to show them to his children, “because, you know, the whole concept of heritage is that you need to move it from one generation to another to protect it and keep it".

For Dr Adila Laidi-Hanieh, the personal connection to the thobes goes back to the early 1990s. The director general of the Palestinian Museum was at that time a master's student at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

As part of the efforts to show the collection in the US, a few of the thobes were displayed at the university during the period.

Twice a week, on her way to class, Dr Laidi-Hanieh would pass through the corridor where the thobes were on display. But she understood their significance only many years later.

“The corridor, on the left-hand side, you had all these offices, and on the right-hand side you had a glass gallery with Palestinian dresses there. They were there for many years and I never understood what these dresses were doing there. Never,” she said.

“I completely forgot about the whole thing and lo and behold, after 30 years, I am responsible for bringing these dresses back to Palestine. Isn’t that crazy?”

The plan was always to return the dresses, but circumstances never allowed for it. In the US, Ms Rabie said the exhibition was quite popular, especially during the First Intifada in the late 80s and early 90s.

“It has been with us for a while and it is sad to see it go but we’re very excited that it’s going to go where it’s going to be appreciated and enhanced and preserved.”

With tensions over Palestinian statehood showing no signs of diminishing, she believes it is more important than ever to preserve cultural symbols.

“With the proper presentation, people can get an education about how those colours were mixed, how those materials were made, what stories the dresses tell.”  According to the curators, it is possible to tell where a dress was made based solely on its colours.

For Mr Makhlouf, the driving force behind the campaign to return the thobes, the mission takes on an even greater meaning given the tumultuous events of 2020.

“I have to tell you, because despite all the negativity that is happening due to Covid, due to the political situation, this was the thing that pushed me to get out of bed, out of my house in the morning and go out and work enthusiastically in order to achieve something.”