14 · Sitta

In December 2021 UNESCO inscribed the art of embroidery in Palestine — its practices, skills, knowledge and rituals — on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity [1]. Taṭrīz is counted thread by thread on the weave of the cloth: cross-stitches in rows, each village and each region with its own motifs. The cypress, sarw, is the defining motif of Gaza and the south — tall, narrow, repeated along a border [2] [3].

Seen from three metres, a cypress border is a row of small crosses. That is what the nape carries: six of them, eight millimetres each, in one row, drawn by hand with visibly uneven crossing points. They are counted from our own grid, not traced from anyone's chart, and the garment is printed, not embroidered — we say so plainly and never claim otherwise.

No word, no date. The smallest mark in the collection, at the back of the neck, where a collar sits. Six, sitta, is only the count.

This is a +€4 add-on. It adds nothing to what is given: the T-shirt it sits on carries its own €5, the hoodie its €10, given by us from our own revenue to a medical charity working in Gaza and the West Bank — named here once the written agreement is signed, monthly, and published on the ledger. Not a payment by you; not tax-deductible for you.