Our Etsy customers gave us the highest possible ratings on Etsy. At least 65 of you gave us five stars out of five and one four (our lowest rating), all with glowing comments about our prices, quality and service. Many expressed endorsement for the use of our fundraising to support the Palestinian economy and culture, as well as nonviolent resistance in Palestine. We are fairly sure that we were the most popular site for Palestinian products.
Etsy’s complaint against us was that our items are not hand made by us. That is of course only partly true, because nearly everything that we sell requires the time and effort of our group volunteers to finish the product and make it ready for shipping.
A more telling point, however, is that there are nine other Etsy sellers offering keffiyehs for sale, and theirs are not any more handmade than ours. In fact, four of them offer the exact same product as us, from the exact same supplier in Palestine (Hirbawi factory). Why are we being singled out? We think it is precisely because we
are a nonprofit supporting Palestinians and Palestinian human rights. That is the main difference between us and the other Etsy stores.
For those of you that want to buy our products and support our work, please go to our website. It is operational now, but we will be improving and adding to it, so be sure to come back often.
https://www.ism-norcal.org/shop/
integrity@etsy.com (irony unintended)
The ISM Support Group in Northern California