FOR MORE THAN half a century, Israel has denied the narrative of the Palestinian people, their millennial attachment to the land of Canaan/Palestine, the cultural depth of their society and even their humanity. Now, an exhibition in Los Angeles, Sovereign Threads: A History of Palestinian Embroidery, validates the unique Palestinian identity through the needlework patterns produced by its women over countless generations.

More than 150 pieces from the most extensive collection of Palestinian embroidery in the US will be on view until 8 October at the city's Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM). Exquisite examples of regional Palestinian ceremonial dresses, jackets, scarves and embroidered pieces are on loan from Hanan and Farah Munayyer, founders of the Palestinian Heritage Foundation.

The Munayyers, both born in Palestine in the 1940s, have a mission to educate westerners about Palestinian culture, through its millennium-old tradition of needlework which thrives to this day.

The couple live in New Jersey where they have assembled more than 1,500 museum-class works of Palestinian embroidery. Professionally, the Munayyers are pharmaceutical research scientists who, over the years, when they vacationed in Palestine, purchased traditional dresses of the Jerusalem area. However, they did not become serious collectors until 1987, when they learned of a collection of about 100 embroidered works - including 67 dresses - was about to go on the market. Rather than see the pieces sold separately, the Munayyers mortgaged their home in order to buy the entire assemblage.

Three years later, they acquired the collection of Rolla Foley, who traveled to Palestine in 1938 to teach at the Friends' School in Ramallah. During his stay in the area he collected more than 500 pieces of embroidery, which he systematically catalogued according to village and date of origin.

Hanan Munayyer began researching archaeological and historical tombs to document the origins of Palestinian garments and embroidery. After founding the Palestinian Heritage Foundation in 1992, she and her husband went on to produce a video on Palestinian regional costumes and embroidery.

Circumstances leading to the inauguration of the Los Angeles exhibition began in February 2005 when Craft and Folk Art Museum director, Maryna Hrushestska, visited the Venice Beach home of Lebanese-American artist Huguette Caland. Hrushestska, whose ancestral roots lie in Ukraine, noticed the beautifully embroidered pillows in Caland's studio and remarked on how much they resembled her grandmother's needlework.

She was surprised to learn they were not Ukranian needlework but embroidery produced by Palestinian women in refugee camps. Caland, whose father, Bishara Al Khouri, was the first president of Lebanon from 1943 to 1952, explained she co-founded INAASH (Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps) which creates jobs for refugee women and sells their embroidery.

Months of preparation went into the exhibition which has been largely funded by the Arab American community. Nonetheless, it took courage on Hrushetska’s part to present a Palestinian show on Wilshire Boulevard’s Museum Row, an area that also is home to the highest concentration of Jews in Los Angeles.

Since the exhibition opened July, Hrushetska says attendance has increased by 25 percent “and many guests sign up as members which is the highest compliment we can receive.” she added. The title, “Sovereign Threads,” is a comment on the displacement of Palestinians throughout the world. Hrushetska states in the exhibition brochure: “The term ‘sovereign’ describes self-rule, autonomy and independence – all still painfully absent for Palestinians in the political sphere.”

She explains how the threads of Palestinian tradition are passed through generations, weaving a fabric of cultural cohesiveness that testify to the fact that neither war, conflict nor displacement can erase national identity.

“As they revive a culture in peril, the Palestinian women who create embroidery in refugee camps are preserving their own imperiled dignity,” she concludes. “War afflicts the deepest scars upon women, so it is truly remarkable that it is women who seek to beautify their world even in the most dire conditions.”

Hanan Munayyer, explains the origins of proto-Palestinian attire from the Canaanite period circa 1500 B.C. when Egyptian paintings depicted Canaanites wearing A-shaped garments. The distinctive silhouette is observed in a 1200 B.C. ivory engraving from Megiddo, Palestine, identified as a “Syrian tunic.”

When Damascus artisans perfected steel blades from the 8th century onward, fine needles also were manufactured which made it possible to embroider geometric designs rather than to weave them into fabric. Munayyer noted that the square chest piece and decorated back panel so ubiquitous in Palestinian dresses are documented in 13th century Andalusia.

Each hamlet and village created motifs that were an identity badge for its female inhabitants. The eight-pointed star, the moon, birds, a diamond-shaped icon to ward off the Evil Eye, palm leaves and stair steps were common patterns.

Her research led Munayyer to many revelations including the fact that the tall cone-shaped hats, often associated with women of King Arthur’s court, were not imported into Lebanon, but rather, the Crusaders saw these hats on Levantine women and exported them back to Europe.

Similarly, Hanan Munayyer was able to tell Hrushetska that she had been entirely incorrect when she assumed Palestinian pillow covers were from Ukraine. From the 15th century onwards, Orthodox Christians made pilgrimages to the Holy Land and returned with embroidery techniques learned there.

Munayyer says that for centuries, girls learned to embroider from the age of six or seven years of age. Women relatives would assist each teenager in sewing three to eight embroidered dresses for her trousseau, which would last for the rest of her life. An elaborate garment for weddings and holidays could take as long as one year to embroider. However, this may be the final generation to produce Palestinian embroidery which is a tedious, painstaking job that women will gladly trade for work outside of the refugee camps.

Distinctive regional motifs capture the viewer’s attention in the Los Angeles exhibition. Luscious eye-candy is the only way to describe the Ghabani dress from the Jerusalem region of the 1940s. It features a couching stitch in the Bethlehem style on yellow Syrian silk fabric. Contrasting with this is a multi-colored tafsileh dress from the Jaffa and Lydda area of the 1940s. The dress does not have any embroidery on it which leads Hanan to refer to it as a “I need to get married fast dress.”

In the Bedouin region to the south in Khan Yunis is a 1940’s cotton dress with cross stitch embroidery and long tapered sleeves. This contrasts with a costume from the El- Khalil region of the 1940s replete with a wikayet el darahem headdress and a miklab vest of Ottoman coins worn over a dress embroidered in silk thread.

While Ramallah is recognized for its white linen dresses with red or rust-hued embroidery, one of the most beautiful examples of its needlework is a taqsireh jacket from 1950s Ein Karem embroidered on black velvet.

Also on view are ceramics by Najat El-Taji El-Khairy who has replicated Palestinian embroidery designs on porcelain and ceramic tiles. The Quebec-based artist says this is her way to preserve traditional Palestinian motifs on a non-perishable medium.

Sales of the embroidery by women in Lebanese refugee camps are robust at the museum gift shop. The latest word received by Hrushetska was recently informed, mercifully all the women in the camps survived the Israeli blitz of Lebanon.