Taybeh Brewery sits overlooking the hills and olive groves of the West Bank and, with approximately 1m pints produced and shipped annually, the Middle East’s first microbrewery has become the toast of the region’s beermakers.
Behind the family-run business is Madees Khoury, a 37-year-old Palestinian woman. Taybeh’s general manager and probably the region’s only brewmaster, she is setting a precedent in a society with very few women in the workforce.
“I’ve observed that men here are often intimidated by successful and strong women like me,” Khoury says. “They want to get married and start a family, but this is not what I want. I’m independent and strong-willed and I want to move this business forward.”
While the number of working women has increased markedly across the West Bank and Gaza in the past decade, figures show that nearly 82% of Palestinian women remain outside the labour force, compared with 30% of men. And barely three in every 100 working-age women set up their own businesses, according to a Bethlehem University study.
Khoury has big plans for Taybeh Brewery – including international expansion – but since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, production has slowed down.
The brewery has not been able to obtain export permits needed for international shipping through Israeli ports, and several of Khoury’s employees have been injured in attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
“We’re also just filled with grief – and even fear,” says Khoury, who has family in Gaza. She is determined to keep going, however, hoping for a more peaceful future.
“To build our state and economy, we have to invest our knowledge and money,” she says. “And that’s exactly what my family and I are doing.
“Our brewery is not just about great beer, but about the image of Palestine – one of the most liberal Arab countries. That’s one of the messages I’d like to share with the world.”
Located just outside Ramallah, Palestine’s de facto capital, the brewery opened in 1994 in Taybeh – one of the West Bank’s few remaining Christian villages. Khoury’s father, Nadim, who had been brewing small batches of beer in his bedroom as a student in the US, decided to turn his hobby into a business with his brother David.
He returned to his native Taybeh with his young family after the 1993 Oslo peace accords. The brothers’ venture has since become a sophisticated family brewery that exports to 18 countries.
Khoury joined the business after university in 2007 and later took over its management. “At first, I worked in a variety of jobs; from cleaning and visiting customers to accounting and eventually management,” she says, sitting in the airy brewery surrounded by colourfully labelled bottles of beer.
Moving to the West Bank at a young age had its challenges, but Khoury adjusted quickly. “As a child, you don’t see the occupation so much. My grandfather tried to make our transition from the US easy. He built us a treehouse and a swimming pool.
“But several years later, the second intifada happened,” she says, referring to the 2000-05 Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation. Her 20-minute drive to school would often turn into a two-hour ordeal. “At times, I had to walk through teargas to get to my classes.”
Today, running a business that relies on exports while living under occupation is difficult: permits are difficult to obtain for Palestinians – and are often only granted at the last minute, leaving no time to process orders or load a lorry, Khoury says.
Even at the port, Palestinian products are stored separately and cannot be transported in shipping containers. “We’re using open pallets instead, but it’s difficult and limits the amount we can ship,” says Khoury.
Just weeks before Hamas attacked Israel, Khoury and her family had celebrated the Taybeh Oktoberfest: among hundreds of visitors, a handful of Israelis, most of them brewers, had attended. “We all came together, sharing our love for beer and brewing,” Khoury says.
Then the war started, and in Taybeh settler violence escalated.
“The problem is that the majority of Israelis don’t know us. We live side by side, but they don’t treat us as equals,” Khoury says, but adds: “I’m not willing to give up.
“I want to see more women running businesses across Palestine; I want to see peace and equal rights. I have hope – and no one can take this from me.”
