by Fatima Aruri
RAMALLAH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Palestinians wearing traditional local costumes join public celebrations on the streets this weekend in many cities in the West Bank to show pride in Palestinian heritage.
In Ramallah city, hundreds of men and women, children and elderly, marched across the city center singing traditional chants and songs of love, hope and happy celebrations, while wearing traditional costumes from different regions in Palestine.
Shireen Shalalfeh came from the southern West Bank city Hebron to take part in the march in Ramallah city. She told Xinhua that wearing her heritage makes her feel proud and closer to her identity.
"Our heritage is our identity and culture that we are trying to safeguard through holding such festivals, exhibitions and enriching our archive with visuals of our traditional Palestinian costume," Shalalfeh said.
Less Palestinians wear the traditional costume in their daily life. But many have adapted it into modern-day costumes, particularly amongst women, and Palestinians are keen to attend wedding celebrations in traditional wear.
One of this year's event organizers Lana Hijazi said "today we are celebrating our heritage wear to deliver a message to the world that we care about our heritage and we want to continue wearing it, taking care of it and we will continue to do this every year so that nobody can steal our identity or our land."
The march has grown to become an annual practice, expanding each year, said the organizers.
The march began as a small initiative, and five years later, the organizers registered their goals into a non-governmental organization specialized with archiving and documenting Palestinian national wear.
From Nablus, Rafeef Malhas, came wearing the special traditional Bethlehem dress known as "Al-Malak dress." She said this public march is a way to show Palestinians' devotion to their identity, which is under attack by Israel.
"This is the only identity for all Palestinians all over the world," she said, "the Israeli occupation tries to take it and tell the world it is theirs, so, we are fighting to say to the whole world that this is our tradition."
