Palestinian women have long used tatreez as resistance. During the First Intifada, women responded to the Israeli occupation by embroidering explicitly nationalistic motifs onto their dresses using Palestinian flag colours—red, black, white, and green.1 Tatreez became a language of defiance, proving that Palestinian visual culture adapts while maintaining its resistant core. This tradition of combining traditional patterns with contemporary political expression established a precedent for using embroidery as an act of cultural sovereignty.
For Palestine National Day, the 8-pointed star offered both cultural depth and strategic advantages. Its overall geometric clarity also translates across scales better than more intricate tatreez patterns where individual stitches become illegible at small sizes. Its existing recognition—even divorced from proper attribution—creates an opportunity for re-education. And reclaiming this appropriated pattern through contemporary design honours the tradition of Palestinian women who transformed their tatreez into acts of resistance.
Intifada thobe featuring nationalistic motifs in Palestinian flag colors, late 20th century. Courtesy of the Textile Research Centre, Leiden.