Culture of Palestine
The folklorist revival among Palestinian intellectuals such as Nimr Sirhan, Musa Allush, Salim Mubayyid, and others emphasized pre-Islamic cultural roots.
[6][7] Foreign travelers to Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries often commented on the rich variety of traditional clothing among the Palestinian people, and particularly among the fellaheen or village women.
Until the 1940s, a woman's economic status, whether married or single, and the town or area they were from could be deciphered by most Palestinian women by the type of cloth, colors, cut, and embroidery motifs, or lack thereof, used for the robe-like dress or "thoub" in Arabic.
[8] The 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight led to a disruption in traditional modes of dress and customs, as many women who had been displaced could no longer afford the time or money to invest in complex embroidered garments.
There are a cast of supernatural characters: Jinss and Djinns who can cross the Seven Seas in an instant, giants, and ghouls with eyes of ember and teeth of brass.
Over three decades, the Palestinian National Music and Dance Troupe (El Funoun) and Mohsen Subhi have reinterpreted and rearranged traditional wedding songs such as Mish'al (1986), Marj Ibn 'Amer (1989) and Zaghareed (1997).
Palestinian theater started in the "context of a cultural renaissance" across the Levant and particularly in the 1920s, with productions based on Arab texts or translated European plays.
A second period a "rebirth" occurred in the late 1960s, and after the Six-Day War of 1967 "a clear, but uncoordinated, desire was expressed, both within Palestine and abroad, to develop theater with a Palestinian identity", according to Elias.
[26] Traditional Palestinian architecture covers a vast historical time frame and a number of different styles and influences over the ages.
Nonetheless, the Palestinian townhouse shared in the same basic conceptions regarding the arrangement of living space and apartment types commonly seen throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.
The rich diversity and underlying unity of the architectural culture of this wider region stretching from the Balkans to North Africa was a function of the exchange fostered by the caravans of the trade routes, and the extension of Ottoman rule over most of this area, beginning in the early 16th century through until the end of World War I.
These clubs had a tremendous impact on the lives of Palestinian young people, shaping their character and preparing them for social and political involvement.
[35] The original Bedouin Arabs in Syria and Palestine had simple culinary traditions primarily based on the use of rice, lamb and yogurt, as well as dates.
After the Crimean War, many foreign communities (namely the Bosnians, Greeks, French and Italians) began settling in the area; Jerusalem, Jaffa and Bethlehem were the most popular destinations for these groups.
[35][37] Nonetheless, until the 1950s and 1960s, the staple diet for many rural Palestinian families revolved around olive oil, oregano (za'atar) and bread, baked in a simple oven called a taboon.
Galilee inhabitants specialize in producing a number of meals based on the combination of bulgur, spices and meat, known as kibbee by Arabs.
It consists of a roasted chicken over a taboon bread that has been topped with pieces of fried sweet onions, sumac, allspice and pine nuts, cooked and finished with a generous helping of olive oil.
[39] A dish native to the Gaza area is Sumaghiyyeh, which consists of water-soaked ground sumac mixed with tahina, which is then added to sliced chard, pieces of stewed beef, and garbanzo beans.
[citation needed] Chick-pea based falafel, which substituted for the fava beans used in the original Egyptian recipe, and added Indian peppers, introduced after the Mongol invasions opened new trade routes, are a favorite staple in Mediterranean cuisine.
[42] Entrées that are eaten throughout the Palestinian Territories include waraq al-'inib, boiled grape leaves wrapped around cooked rice and ground lamb.
Palestinian handicrafts include embroidery and weaving, pottery-making, soap-making, glass-making, and olive wood and Mother of Pearl carvings.
[46] Claude Cheysson, France's Minister for Foreign Affairs under the first Mitterrand Presidency, held in the mid eighties that "even thirty years ago, [Palestinians] probably already had the largest educated elite of all the Arab peoples.
"[47] Diaspora figures like Edward Said and Ghada Karmi, Arab citizens of Israel like Emile Habibi, and Jordanians like Ibrahim Nasrallah have made contributions to a wide number of fields, exemplifying the diversity of experience and thought among Palestinians.
From among those Palestinians who became Arab citizens of Israel after the passage of the Citizenship Law in 1952, a school of resistance poetry was born that included poets like Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, and Tawfiq Zayyad.
