 The Khoury family got the seed capital for Taybeh by selling their property in Brookline.The idea of a Palestinian brewery was controversial in 1994, as Palestine is majority Muslim, and many Palestinian Muslims consider drinking alcohol to be "haram" (forbidden).According to Nadim Khoury, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was an early supporter of the brewery, on the grounds that it would help break Palestine's dependence on alcohol imported from Israel.