Melia

	Nora Court of the Arab Orthodox charitable Association

A couple of years back I happened across this women's cooperative, so when I was in Jerusalem in May, 2005, I hunted them up and secured an interview.

The shop is up by the New Gate and I didn't really expect it to be open; I was just looking to check that it was still in business. I was surprised and delighted to find the chairwoman of the Arab Orthodox Association there with a couple of her colleagues and very grateful when they consented to suspend their board meeting and talk to me.

I bought my wife a lovely scarf which was made by women from Jenin. If you want to help the ordinary woman-in-the-street, as opposed to the professional seller of souvenirs, you could do worse than get in touch with Melia.