Palestinian embroidery artist and scholar Susan Muaddi Darraj describes her rage of walking through American department stores and seeing the 8-pointed star tatreez motif commodified as Christmas decorations.² Today, this pattern circulates globally on Western retail products marketed as generic "snowflakes" or seasonal décor, completely severed from its Palestinian origins.
Unlike other tatreez motifs that remain culturally intact, the 8-pointed star appears on mass-produced sweaters, home goods, and holiday merchandise throughout Western retail, with no acknowledgment of Palestinian authorship. Palestinian scholars and community members recognise their own cultural heritage in these products, a recognition that reveals both the depth of erasure and the urgency of reclamation.²
This was the result of colonial processes during the British Mandate period that systematically extracted, renamed, and commodified Palestinian cultural patterns.¹ ⁵ Local Palestinian names like “crushed sugar” were erased, replaced by terms like “Bethlehem Star,” now further decontextualised as “snowflakes.”¹ ² Cultural symbols became commercialised products while Palestinian voices remain marginalised and silenced. This pattern's widespread appropriation makes it both the most erased and the most strategic to reclaim.
Traditional Palestinian thobe from Innabah (between Lyd and Ramleh), early 20th century. © Roba Yusuf via The Thobe Project.
Knitted sweater marketed as “Christmas Ugly Sweater” with the same 8-pointed star sold for USD $33.98 at Walmart.