Fuel Ghassan's Hope: Help Palestinian Family Business Pivot

I'm Bridget Jensen from Houston, TX, and I'm raising funds to help jumpstart a pivot for a family business in Palestine.

Ghassan’s Gift Shop was an active bright spot on the street approaching the entrance to the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil (Hebron), one of the oldest cities in Palestine. But after October 7, 2023, the Israeli military instituted strict lockdowns, limiting the time that Palestinian residents could be outside their homes to just a couple of hours every few days. Ghassan and his brother Wasim were forced to close the gift shop, which had been their family’s primary source of income.

The family resources have dwindled, so they are setting out on a new venture: to make handmade and machine-embroidered goods out of their home to sell in Europe and the United States. Two machines, at $7000 each, and $5000 worth of material will jumpstart this operation.

I first met the family in 2017 and took a photo across from the shop where Ghassan had written “hope” on the wall because that is what he lives by, even in the circumstances he finds himself today, with the shop closed indefinitely.

Now it is our turn to show that he has reason to hope.