Revealing the richness of Palestine's multi-layered heritage and communities before colonialism in Naseej: Life Weavings of Palestine

One of the effects of Zionist colonialism has been to narrow down the perspective of Palestine according to the colonial lens. Palestine is associated with what is presented in mainstream media and, most of all, disconnected from the rest of the region and the world.

Israel’s genocide, in particular, has perpetuated a restricted image of Palestinians, helped by decades of ethnic cleansing and erasure.

Naseej: Life Weavings of Palestine (Pluto Press, 2025) imparts the vibrant richness of Palestinian history, life and culture, showing how, before Zionist colonisation, the land was thriving and connected to the rest of the world.

Starting with a reference to Refaat al-Areer’s final poem before he was killed in the genocide in December 2023, editors Arpan Roy and Noura Salahaldeen write that despite the prominence given to Palestine since the genocide, “To faithfully tell the Palestine story is to displace it from its present afflictions.”

Roy and Salahaldeen explain that their choice of naseej in the book title, which means tapestry, was “the metaphor by which to tell the story of a diversity of forms of life in Palestine, a diversity that nonetheless does not negate the collectivity of the Palestinian people.”

A hub of civilisation, Palestine became home to many visitors whom the Palestinian people welcomed. The editors note that through Palestinian hospitality, “the stranger was made familiar and adopted into a local mode of belonging”.

The 1948 Nakba and subsequent colonisation ruptured the natural flow of immigration, which at times also consisted of people fleeing from genocide, such as the Armenian refugees.

The book presents several points to ponder, many of which deal with the diversity one finds in Palestine, the concept of who or what makes a Palestinian, and the anthropology of Palestine, from the various communities that make up Palestinian society.

It also notes how Zionism eliminated the different religious communities’ recognition to impose Judaism as an ethnonational category that excluded Palestinians.

With attention to language and careful to impart these narrations from within Palestine, the book discusses four themes — itineraries, directions of prayer, topographies and familiar places — written by intellectuals and artists spanning several fields.

The book also notes that the arrival of Islam as well as the Arabic language represent inclusivity and decentralisation, as opposed to the exclusionary politics of the colonisers.

From this inclusivity, the 18 chapters of the book narrate several histories. Armenians in Palestine, for example, participated in the Palestinian nationalist movements. Armenian immigration to Palestine also spans different timeframes — some were born outside of Palestine, while others were born in Palestine during the British Mandate.

Palestinian Armenians are treated as ‘non-Jews’ by Israel, and they are also similar to Palestinians in that they have experienced living in a diaspora.

The Armenian experience mirrors that of Palestinians, as both are subjected to racist attacks and violence by Jewish settlers, and their churches are vandalised.

The Romani communities in Palestine, we learn, were also affected by the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa, suffering displacement alongside Palestinians. Contrary to the past, however, the Romani travellers will now find they cannot enter Palestine as a result of Zionist colonisation.

Indian Sufis in Palestine have also suffered from Zionist colonial violence — only three Sufi lodges remain in Jerusalem out of an estimated 36. Once central to Sufism, the book notes that the Nakba and the Naksa cut off the pilgrimage routes to Jerusalem, while Judaisation of the city is also encroaching upon the community.

One chapter that stands out is a discussion of Syrian geographer Adib Souleiman Bagh’s topography of Palestine, in which the Golan Heights takes centre stage. This is due to the geographer growing up on the Golan Heights and witnessing the impact of the Nakba and the refugee trajectories of Palestinians who found refuge there.

A discussion of Palestine’s heritage through various civilisations is also deeply rooted in political narratives. “While Palestinians have been busy coping with the colonial everydat brutal measures, the enduring consequences of the Nakba, and the continuing loss of the remaining territories of the homeland since 1967, Israeli have made archaeology into a ‘national hobby’ – the bible in one hand and the shovel in the other digging for it.”

Another chapter of the book discusses Bosni Herzegovina Muslims living in Palestine since 1878 and how their waves of emigration to Palestine shaped their communities and integration with the indigenous Palestinian population.

The 1948 Nakba was also a factor in their eventual expulsion, although the communities still exist in Tulkarem, Nablus and Ramallah. “In the eyes of their new neighbours, they are today part of an Arab Middle Eastern people – the Palestinians,” the book notes, explaining that despite maintaining their ethnicity, they assimilated with Arabs in Palestine and in the region.

These are just a few examples embodying the richness of Palestine’s multi-layered heritage.

Besides expanding the readers’ understanding of Palestine and its communities before colonialism, it also enables a deeper grasp of the destruction of Palestine as a result of Israel’s colonial violence.

For anyone with a specific interest in anthropology, the book will bring much nuance and depth.

As for celebrating Palestine and its inclusive character, the book stands as a testimony for what was and what has been destroyed, as well as exposing how Jewish and democratic, in the Zionist narrative, meant the destruction of Palestine’s interconnected, multicultural and embracing character.

Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger specialising in the struggle for memory in Chile and Palestine, colonial violence and the manipulation of international law. Follow her on X: @walzerscent