In order to mark the occasion of the day to commemorate the Nakba (“Catastrophe” in Arabic), which will be remembered on May 15 on its seventy-seventh anniversary, and as part of the project Threads of the Diaspora: Weaving together pieces of Palestinian heritage, with the support of the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), Casa Árabe is organizing this round table discussion about the impact of the Nakba, both the one that took place in 1948 and the one occurring right now, in terms of Palestinian cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the practice and historical development of tatreez (embroidery) and dabke (traditional Middle Eastern dance), as examples of the Palestinians’ intangible cultural heritage, as well as being symbols of identity and forms of resistance by the Palestinian people, in both Palestine and the diaspora.

Participating in the event will be Maysun Cheikh Ali Mediavilla, a Spanish-Palestinian teacher and artist who has been collaborating with Casa Árabe on projects related with Palestinian embroidery over the last two years (Living Tatreez and Threads of the Diaspora), Laura Martínez del Pozo, the designer and director of the PeSeta clothing brand and developer with UNRWA of the project Tatreez, and Francisco Montero Lahsen, a Chilean-Palestinian researcher and dabke teacher, who in the upcoming months will be giving workshops with us called Steps for Palestine: Dabke from the Diaspora.

The round table will be followed by a meeting with participants and collaborators on the occasion of the opening of the collective exhibition “Threads of the Diaspora”, with the frontal panel of a dress from Gaza created using scraps embroidered by participants in the tatreez workshops held last year, along with the pieces sent in by the public, all connected as threads of the diaspora.

The conference will include talks by Miguel Moro, the General Director of Casa Árabe, Eloisa Vaello Marco, Assistant Director of Cooperation and Cultural Action for Sustainable Development at the AECID’s Directorate for Cultural and Scientific Relations, and Maysun Cheikh Ali Mediavilla, a Spanish-Palestinian teacher and artist.

Tatreez, or traditional Palestinian embroidery, placed on record by UNESCO since 2021 as a form of Intangible Cultural Heritage, is a folk art traditionally created by women and has become a symbol of Palestinian culture, identity and resistance. A space for interaction shared along with similar customs and artistic practices from other regions in the Arab world and Mediterranean. Tatreez was used to decorate dresses, with specific shapes, colors and motifs that helped identify the region and place where they were woven in historic Palestine. A map of symbols and memories that was completely turned upside-down after the Nakba, it acquired new forms and uses during the different stages of the Palestinian struggle to recover and return to their land, including a means of subsistence for many women and refugee families. In much the same way, traditional Palestinian dance, ordabke, became one of the most representative cultural expressions of Palestine, connecting people to their land, traditions and community. Both in Palestine and among the diaspora, it has thus reinforced its role in the preservation of cultural identity over the last few decades, acquiring new features and forms of expression as a form of cultural resistance, as well.

The day of the Nakba commemorates May 15, 1948, when the State of Israel declared its independence over nearly eighty percent of what had historically been Palestine. In the process, over 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and land, while 531 Palestinian villages were wiped off the map. The trauma it caused is known as the Nakba, the Arabic word for “catastrophe.” However, Palestinians also refer to al-nakba al-mustamirra, the “ongoing Nakba,” beyond a historical event, to a still continuing process of dispossession and ethnic cleansing, as the last nineteen months of military campaign as has been made apparent by the last 19 months of military campaigns and bombings against Gaza, leading to more than 52,000 Palestinians being killed and 120,000 injured directly by the attacks, as well as 2.3 million displaced persons, all this coming with new threats of expulsion of the local population involving unprecedented levels of violence and impunity, which have already led to talk of a new Nakba right in the middle of the twenty-first century.