A LARGE tapestry made by Palestinian women has gone on display in St Giles’ Church as part of the city’s first Palestine festival.

The 17-panel tapestry, which is not yet finished, could eventually stretch to more than 100m in length and will tell the history of Palestine from pre-historic times to the 20th century.

The separate panels have been brought together in Oxford by Lady Jan Chalmers, who started working on the project with women in the Middle East in 2012.

She will give two talks on the process of making the tapestry, one this Saturday at midday and one on Saturday, June 20 at 12.30pm.

Lady Chalmers said: “It is a Palestinian women’s project and it is about empowering women.

“It is also part of a friendship project because the women do not feel so isolated as they may when they are not working on it.

In 2012, Lady Chalmers finished working with a South African tapestry project that ended up being bought by a bank and put in the parliament building in Cape Town.

She added: “I then began to think about how I could do it with the Palestinian women.

“It is a bit tongue in cheek to say this but I would like to see it displayed in a Palestinian parliament whenever and wherever that may be.”

Dozens have already visited St Giles’ Church to view the tapestry between midday and 2pm every weekday since the festival started last Thursday.

Women from areas such as Gaza and Galilee have worked on the embroidery, as well as people in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

Lady Chalmers said: “We are aiming for a completion date of 2018 but we do not really know how many panels we will have.

“We have 50 pieces in the pipeline at the moment.

“We had a hold up with the group in Gaza because of the conflict there last summer and that group has only started again now.”

The Palestine Unlocked festival runs until Sunday, June 21, and features events such as Palestinian dancing, a film festival at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho and a stand-up comedy night at the Glee Club.

Festival committee member Paddy Coulter said: “So far the festival has exceeded our expectations, right from the launch event at the Phoenix which was a sell-out.

“The point of the festival is to get to a wide audience and I think the evidence shows we have done that so far.

“The hope would be that it will become an annual affair but we will make that judgement right at the end.”

* For more information about festival events, whick are taking place at a range of venues across the city, visit palestineunlocked.com