Originated from the Palestinian village of Al-Majdal (Israeli city of Ashkelon today), the Majdalawi fabric is a traditional Palestinian cloth woven by a male weaver on single treadle looms, using black and indigo cotton threads combined with silk threads in fuchsia and turquoise. Today, the fabric is woven at the Atfaluna Crafts, and the Arts and Crafts Village in Gaza City as a part of cultural preservation project.
http://www.sunbula.org/crafttrad.shtml
About al-Majdal Depopulated Town
Al-Majdal is an Aramaic word meaning fortress. The town was known as Majdal Jad during the Canaanite period to the god of luck. Located in the south of Palestine, al-Majdal had become a thriving Palestinian city with some 11,496 residents on the eve of the 1948 war. Al-Majdal lands consisted of 43,680 dunums producing a wide variety of crops, including oranges, grapes, olives and vegetables. The city itself was built on 1,346 dunums. During Operation Yoav (also known as 10 Plagues) in the fall of 1948, al-Majdal suffered heavy air and sea attacks by Israel which hoped to secure control over the south of Palestine and force out the predominant Palestinian population. By November 1948, more than three quarters of the city's residents, frightened and without protection, had fled to the Gaza Strip. Within a month, Israel had approved the settlement of 3,000 Jews in Palestinian homes in al-Majdal. In late 1949 plans surfaced to expel the remaining Palestinians living in the city along with additional homes for new Jewish immigrants. Using a combination of military force and bureaucratic measures not unlike those used today against the Palestinian population in Jerusalem, the remaining Palestinians were driven out of the city by early 1951. Palestinian refugees from al-Majdal now number over 71,000 persons of whom 52,000 are registered with UNRWA. Like millions of other Palestinian refugees, many of whom live close to their original homes and lands, they are still denied the right to return.
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Added: June 2006