Yasmeen Abouremeleh Serves Palestinian Olive Oil Wrapped in Hot Pink

A tin can of Ya Albi extra virgin olive oil is hot pink.

Shipped from Palestine and packaged in California, 30-year-old founder Yasmeen Abouremeleh thought of her Y2K upbringing and Barbie dolls when designing the brand.

“I wasn’t interested in making something that felt frozen in ‘heritage.’ I wanted it to feel current, lived-in, and part of everyday life,” Abouremeleh said about her atypical Palestine branding. “I think Palestinian identity can show up in design in a softer, more everyday way. It doesn't always have to be explained.”

Abouremeleh founded Ya Albi with her mother in 2024. Olive oil, paired with za’atar, drizzled over hummus, or infused in soap, had always been integral to their Palestinian identity, but it gained new significance in the past few years.“In the months after October 7th, I felt a growing urgency to do something,” Abouremeleh said, recalling how she went home to her parents’ house for a couple months, where her mother helped her shape the initial idea. She saw that people were searching for ways to connect headlines about Palestine to something more tangible. “Olive oil felt like the most natural place to start.”

In school, Abouremeleh remembers having to hide her Palestinian identity. She remembers the confusion on classmates’ faces when she said where she was from. “You mean Pakistan?” they would ask. She remembers teachers flat-out stating: “Palestine doesn’t exist.”

Abouremeleh was raised between two worlds, spending months at a time with her family in Palestine before returning to the US for the school year. Abouremeleh is originally from Hebron, or al-Khalil, but her great-grandfather later moved to East Jerusalem. She has memorised a family history shaped by displacement and loss—how her great-grandfather was killed in his home and her grandfather left Palestine for the US following the 1967 Six-Day War, or the ‘Naksa’.

The last time Abouremeleh tried to go to Palestine, she was turned away at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. “Have you been to protests?” Israeli soldiers questioned her during hours of interrogation, before sending her back on the next flight to the US. They let her father through without her.

“They’re not just interrogating my parents’ generation anymore,” she said. “It’s something my generation is navigating, too.”

Since Israel's genocidal war against Gaza started, she said, the conversation about Palestine has opened up.

“Now, people are actually open to learning about Palestine—they see it in headlines, and it makes them curious, like they want to know more, ask questions, and understand what’s really going on,” Abouremeleh said. “With Ya Albi, I wanted to create something that feels approachable and beautiful, versus just seeing Palestine on the news.”Indeed, olive oil is something everyone can connect with. Especially when the tin is customisable, and the collection extends to sticker packs, track suits and disposable cameras. Ya Albi has amassed a community of Palestine supporters and Gen Z olive oil lovers—Arabs, non-Arabs, and just really cute grocery stores.

Abouremeleh made it clear: “Ya Albi isn’t meant to sit on a shelf. It's something you live with, cook with, and pass around.”