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Introduction
In studying folk creativity, unexpected day-to-day encounters sometime point the way to new research projects, while the emotions relating to such discoveries can become indispensable as analytical resources. Such was the case when during a casual chat at a sports center I happened to mention a research project in which I was involved, focusing on needlepoint embroidery (Salamon). Upon hearing the topic of my research, the man sitting next to me dismissed this kind of embroidery, only to go on to enthusiastically describe an embroidered wall hanging he recently came across in a Palestinian home in one of East Jerusalem's refugee neighborhoods.1
My interlocutor, an Israeli man in his seventies, was impressed by the wall hanging's aesthetic style as well as, to use his own phrase, by "its surprising, even daring" theme: an embroidered picture, composed entirely of Arabic written names of pre-1948 Palestinian villages in Jerusalem and its surroundings, which now formed part of the State of Israel.2 When he asked whether the piece was for sale, the owner answered that this piece, embroidered by his wife, will never be sold. It is priceless (see figure 1).
Living in Jerusalem, I was familiar with a wide and varied range of Palestinian embroidery: dresses, pillows, handbags, and even wall hangings, mainly preserving traditional patterns (as seen in figures 2 and 3). Yet it seemed to me that this vivid story was describing an object that lay at the intersection between the craft of embroidery, memories of a lost patrimony, and the uncompromising declaration of ownership-all wrapped up with intense emotions. Naturally, this provoked my curiosity. Asking Palestinian friends about this form of embroidery, I learned they were all familiar with it and, in addition, were not surprised to hear that non-Palestinians rarely got a glimpse of this type of handicraft. Moreover, they introduced me to an even more explicit design-that of an embroidered map of Palestine, called Tatrïz khartat Falastïn (¿^k^iè jjjki), Embroidered Palestine Maps, made to be framed and hung on the walls of Palestinian homes.3
Embroidered Palestine Maps are a loaded spectacle. The needlework is colorful and large, describing the borders of pre-1948 British-Mandate Palestine; place names and images are located in their respective geographic locations. The names of towns and cities...