December 17, 2024

Photo: Courtesy of Yasmeen Mjalli/Nol Collective/

Yasmeen Mjalli doesn’t recognize the hills in the occupied West Bank anymore. Their red soil and the trees that once stood on their crests have been replaced with the white trailers of new illegal settlements. Sometimes, she racks her brain: “What did that look like last year? Why did I not take a video?”

But Mjalli, 28, doesn’t have much time to dwell on it. She has about 40 artisans — tailors, weavers, and embroiderers — who rely on her and her clothing line, Nöl Collective, for a steady income stream. Since the siege on Gaza began in October 2023, Palestinians in the West Bank have been denied entry to work in Israel, which subsequently froze about 80,000 work permits, leading to a ripple effect of financial strife. As a result, women in the West Bank have turned to skills like embroidery to support their families. “Our production coordinator, her phone is constantly going off with new people contacting her asking about work. We’re still not at a level where we can accommodate everyone, but that’s why we started trying to incorporate even more embroidery,” Mjalli says. “We need to support these women.”

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

By Madame Clairevoyant

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A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.