6/12/2023–|Last updated: 12/6/202308:05 PM (Mecca time)
American distributors say that sales of the Palestinian keffiyeh have jumped in an unprecedented way since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, even as security forces forcibly removed the keffiyeh in some protests, and its makers reported being targeted with verbal and physical abuse.
An increasing number of Americans wear the keffiyeh to demand a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli attacks on Gaza or to signal their support for the Palestinians.
The American distributor of the Al-Harbawi factory for the Palestinian keffiyeh, Azer Agayev, said, “Suddenly, we had hundreds on the website at the same time buying everything they could buy.”
Agayev added, “Within two days, the stock we had ran out. Not only did it run out, but it was sold at a higher price than its official price (due to huge demand).”
The Al-Harbawi factory opened in 1961 and is the only one remaining in the occupied West Bank to make the keffiyeh.
Al-Harbawi Keffiyeh, which holds a patent for its trademark, is sold globally through its websites in the United States, Germany, and Amazon.
Agayev said that all 40 versions available on the American website, which include many bright colors in addition to the traditional black and white, have been released.
Completely sold out.
Jungle Scout e-commerce analytics data showed that keffiyeh sales increased by 75% in 56 days between the seventh of last October and the second of this December on Amazon compared to the previous 56 days.
Searches for “Palestinian scarf for women” increased by 159% in the three months until December 4th compared to the previous three months.
Searches for “military shemagh and scarf” increased by 333%, “Palestinian keffiyeh” by 75%, and “keffiyeh” by 68%.
The keffiyeh is widespread throughout the Arab world, and its roots go back to 3100 BC. It initially became a symbol of Palestinian resistance during the Arab Revolt against British rule in 1936, and later became the main distinctive uniform of the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat.
While Al-Harbawi is the most famous factory, there are others, including small craftsmen and international imitators, and luxury goods manufacturer Louis Vuitton sold its own version of the keffiyeh in 2021.
Americans who support the Palestinians or Israel have faced threats and attacks since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, as Jewish Americans are witnessing an increase in anti-Semitism, while Muslim Americans are witnessing a rise in Islamophobia.
Hizami Barmada (38 years old), a former United Nations official who lives in Virginia, recently put on a Palestinian scarf while protesting outside the White House and in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington in support of the ceasefire in Gaza.
She said that wearing the scarf gives her “tremendous strength,” as it reconnects her with her Palestinian heritage and provides a symbolic link to children in Gaza, but it also exposes her to verbal abuse.
Security target and shooting
During the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City last November, a security officer removed the keffiyeh from an attendee who was wearing it.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations documented several cases of people being targeted for wearing the keffiyeh, including a father who was assaulted on a playground in Brooklyn, and a graduate student at Harvard University who was told she was wearing a “terrorist” scarf.
Three university students of Palestinian origin, two of whom were wearing keffiyehs, were also shot in Berlin, Vermont, when they were hiking last November.
Students for Justice in Palestine, an activist organization for Palestinian university students in the United States, has been encouraging students to place their keffiyehs since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) attack on Israel last October 7 in solidarity with the students who were shot.
However, Anna Rajagopal, a member of the group, said in Houston, Texas, that she and other members have not placed the keffiyeh outside places that they consider to be supportive of Arabs and Muslims since last October, after people waving Israeli flags surrounded a café they were in and began raising their voices with insults.
Rajagopal (23 years old), a freelance writer who graduated from Rice University last May, and also a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace, a group calling for Palestinian independence, added: “A friend and I used to take off our keffiyehs after leaving (supporting) Palestinian and Arab places to be… In safety”.
However, Palestinian keffiyeh sellers say demand does not stop, and Marjan Totah, founder of a company in Ramallah that sells Palestinian handicrafts online, said that if they had been able to stock 20,000 keffiyehs, they would have sold them.
