Al-Ma'mal and Goats

Meaning ‘workshop’ or ‘small factory’, Al-Ma'mal not only referred to the Tile Factory building itself, but was also the name given to the whole area by the local inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Considering where the Foundation was to be based and what it wanted to do, keeping this name was the obvious choice. The next step was to design a logo. Shireen Mazzawi, the wife of one of Al-Ma’mal’s founders, Samir Srouji, originally proposed the idea of having a goat as a logo and the team realised it made sense on many levels.

First, the presence of goats usually indicates an environment verging on desert and goats are great survivors. They are animals that can feed on anything, can climb or walk on any terrain and they have great perseverance. Whenever the economic situation is dire, more goats start to appear because they are easy to look after and still a form of economic security. According to Jack Persekian:

With Al-Ma’mal we had this sense of being on the verge and the allusion to difficult terrain was very appropriate for Jerusalem. We could envisage Al-Ma'mal as a goat in the desert or navigating the intricate terrain of Jerusalem and regardless of whether we had resources or only plastic bags to feed on we would survive. Lastly it is a beautiful animal and a strong symbol in Palestinian culture so it was also a marker of our identity.