Soap "without Frontiers": A New Carrer for the Naplouse Soap?

Combining both historic and anthropological perspectives, this article seeks to examine the future of Naplouse soap (which served as an engine to the city’s economy for a long time), as well as the current shapes of the heritage industry and economic revival through the portrait of an atypical little soap producer, Mustapha Tbeîla. The itinerary of this little entrepreneur allows us to question the relations between tradition, heritage and modernity in the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as consider the sometimes unexpected ways in which Palestinians can adapt, reclaim or even distort the Israeli policies of border control and separation.