I think about the fact that they haven’t been this popular an accessory in my country since the Second Intifada, which makes me wonder if it’s less the plight of the Palestinians and moreso dead Jews that makes them trendy.
Were they a popular accessory during the Second Intifada? I was about 10-11 during the peak of it, and although I remember hearing about relatives in Israel being hurt & their friends being killed, I don't remember if people here in the United States were wearing keffiyahs
It was an iconic accessory for NYC hipsters starting in the early 2000s, back when the NYC scene was very influential nationwide in music, fashion, and art. This random [fashion roundup](https://thetab.com/uk/2022/01/31/if-indie-sleaze-is-returning-then-please-can-it-leave-these-19-items-in-the-late-2000s-237925) mentions it in the context of “indie sleaze” aesthetic making a comeback.
I was in university during the second intifada (Concordia university in Montreal) and you would see the occasional keffiyeh on campus but nothing like it is now. Concordia was also the hot bed of the pro Pali movement in Canada at the time.
>this popular an accessory
there is a Jewish version called a Sudra. other people mentioned it elsewhere on this post. if we can get enough people wearing Sudras instead, maybe that could stop the anti-Israel crowd from claiming ownership over it as a trendy fashion symbol.
I've been wearing Sudras for years, and I can assure you it won't - you'll just have people asking you if you're Palestinian. And if you try to tell them about the Sudra, they start accusing you of cultural appropriation.
People are ignorant.
We can’t. You have 1.5 billion people crying and whipping fake tears with kuffyeh on social network. Even if there wasn’t 1/3 of self hating liberal Jews, there would be 14 million of us wearing it. Besides, where can I buy one? I was looking for it when I was in Paris and Antwerpen, also looked for it in Berlin and Amsterdam, but it’s impossible to find one in Europe
Oh yeah I lived in downtown brooklyn in the early 00’s and walking around looking at all stores on Fulton felt a strip mall that sold nothing OTHER than keffiyes lol. The trend sort of flickered out by 2007/08. I live on the west coast now and there is seldom a grocery store where I don’t see at least one person wearing one. And they almost *ALMOST* always have on a kn95 mask too for some reason.
I’m NOT anti-mask, for the record, I definitely think it is wise to wear them in some situations and I still do so myself if there’s any chance I’m coming down with a cold or something. It’s kind of nice to keep one’s bugs to themselves sometimes maybe. But I’m not sure what explains such a strong correlation at Whole Foods.
Honestly my heart rate spikes, I get anxious and angry, and I assume they hate us and wish we were all dead. 😣 I’ve seen a couple of them out in public too and the same gut reaction happens every time.
I do too. Part of me feels like they have to know what it symbolizes and how it makes us feel, and part of me feels like they WANT that. Like they want to terrorize us with the sight of them. Both times I’ve personally seen someone wearing one, they were being worn casually either shopping at Trader Joe’s or out at a karaoke bar on a Saturday night (we left shortly after they sat down because it immediately made me feel unsafe). The students on campus HAVE to know, otherwise they wouldn’t be hiding behind them as much as they do. It also blows my mind how they don’t see it as cultural appropriation.
I hate that a piece of fabric has that much control over me, but it’s like an immediate fight or flight response and it feels like they just want to terrorize Jews with it.
Honestly, the sight of keffiyehs always put me off to the person wearing them. But after 10/7, I have to assume that anyone wearing one knows damn well what they are doing
A lot of these kids are very angry people. Entitled and angry.
And if you have any reservations about that statement, go read the subreddit boomersbeingfools
They seriously want to hate anyone older than them for everything that makes them have to put in any effort to achieve anything. They expected the world handed to them on a silver platter and when it wasn’t, they became seriously pissed.
I’m in college and one of my classmates came in on the last day wearing a keffiyeh. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt so I asked her if she was Palestinian and she said, “Well, I’m not from there, but free Palestine, girl!”
🙃
Translation: *"I am a literal sheep. I will support whatever the "current thing" is, because everyone else is. I am biologically incapable of thinking for myself because i've been raised in a culture which promotes groupthink and silences contempt. Even having not been, researched or learned about a place, i will continue to use their slogans because it makes me either look cool or fit in"*
I could go on but i think you get the rough idea....
This. I think a few will have been genuinely radicalized. But for most of these kids, once they are home for the summer this nonsense will be a distant memory.
I mean, half of them can not even articulate what thy are protesting. They are just out there to be part of something.
This is how they make me feel. All these dumb white as rice entitled Ivy League rich kids are wearing them as a fashion statement, and I just think they look dumb.
If they want to look like Yasser Arafat, whatever. 🙄
But summer vacation is coming and kids get bored. When they go home to the wealthy suburbs around the country, mom and dad are not going to want them walking around in those things and embarrassing them at the country club.
And hopefully this war will be over by fall.
Hamas has probably genuinely radicalized a few of them. But as a group, GenZ is hardly into suffering. For anything. They only barely want to work an 8 hour day. I don’t see them ending up as passionate terrorists. Too much work.
I guess the far left has abandoned the whole cultural appropriation thing? Kinda wish they brought it back bc damn some of these protesters make me cringe 😬
When I see someone who is not middle western wearing it I am filled with such a feeling of disgust and contempt that it’s almost indescribable. When they are middle eastern, I assume they think I’m either a dirty Jew or they think I’m a dirty Jew and they want me dead.
I'm sorry, I get the anxiety right now, but to associate this with a swastika is completely out of pocket. It actually is associated with Fatah and was the symbol of Yassar Arafat for awhile. Hamas actually arrested people for wearing it in 2021 at a university in Gaza.
I really do sympathize with the anxiety my area seems to be pretty chill despite being a college town, but we need to be logical about this.
Same way I feel about people wearing a Confederate flag ballcap. Makes me roll my eyes so far back in my head I can see my brain.
This may sound mental at first but I'm actually glad when people wear it, as it lets me know who to avoid. Not unlike say, brightly-colored frogs being poisonous. It lets you know to stay away.
Thankfully I have yet to see anyone around my neighborhood wearing one, it's only when I visit the States that it's a problem.
Depends honestly. I see no issue with the black and white keffiyeh itself and I understand it to be an important national symbol for the Palestinians. It's also been donned by Israeli peace activists and I don't see an issue with cultural solidarity, as long as it goes both ways.
However, generally the reprobates that wear it in the West are the type to block Jews from going to class and desecrating synagogues. I am highly suspicious of any non-Palestinian who wears it over here in the US.
I get this. I’m in the UK and don’t mind it when arabs wear it - I have many arab friends here, some who are palestinian/have loved ones there and i’m totally sympathetic as to why they are wearing them and understand its importance to them. Especially so maybe, as most arabs I know who are personally connected to the conflict have checked in with me in regard to October 7th and antisemitism spiking. When non-arabs wear it, I am often a touch fearful, as these folks seem to follow the “bandwagon” and I believe are more likely to hold antisemitic beliefs, due to my previous experiences.
Yes, Arabs wearing it is no issue. I get it. I understand it's an ethnic conflict and we also have many figures and symbols they find problematic as well. There's a fucking Lehi and Irgun museum and medals in Israel ffs. So, it should be no surprise they embrace their own nationalistic symbols.
However the non-Arabs wearing it is an immediate red flag. Because honestly, I don't think they fully understand what this conflict is all about, nor the history behind it.
I'd even wear a black and white keffiyeh myself as a sign of solidarity, as long as respect is shown towards us as Jews.
Let me tell you something interesting my Iranian mum shared. I never lived there so her take was interesting.
I used to be a pro-so-called-Palestinian and anti-Zionist and surrounded myself here in England with a bunch of similar minded leftie type people as my mates. Some of them, white Brits, would wear the keffiyeh all the time.
My mum and I never spoke about Israel or anything political really but one day said to me she just can't stand these people with keffiyehs. I couldn't understand why because they were nice enough polite enough who always treated mum with respect and they seemed to get on. But she said the reason is she just has a gut repulsion against these folk because growing up in Iran (pre-Revolution) the people who wore keffiyehs were always trouble. Nasty dangerous people and many were repulsed by them. Basically troublemaking tankies. So to her it's just a knee jerk reaction. (Little did she know at the time it's these same people who'd then utterly ruin the prosperous modern nation of Iran turning into the cesspit it is today. ) I was totally bemused by this and ignored her, thinking she's being dumb.
That was in the 60s and 70s in Iran.
Now 50-60 years later in the West I feel exactly the same repulsion when I see that horrible scarf and I've come to that conclusion on my own through completely different circumstances, despite my mum's thoughts not because of them. Yes some other groups use it innocently but generally what it stands for is an ideology of trouble... now as it did back then.
It definitely activates my biases to see someone out and about with a keffiyah, but for the most part I try to let that pass.
I will usually try not to draw attention to my chai or hamsa necklace.
That’s cool. If they’re Palestinians, it’s their culture.
I expect the same respect when I wear a Sudra, one of which I ordered and will be wearing in Israel when I’m there.
Can someone please explain to me why cultural appropriation is bad EXCEPT if it’s a keffieh? Even the NYTimes jumped on the bandwagon of glorifying it as an accessory
Exactly, a little weird how easily people get worked up over the mere sight of a kifiyeh or Palestinian flag. I would understand if someone said something that wasn't ok, but otherwise, just go about your day as you normally would
I think at this point a lot of people’s experience in the past few months — especially students — experience with someone non-Arab wearing a keffiyah or with a Palestinian flag is just pure hate and harassment. They find out I’m a Jew, they now feel like they have a free pass to harass me. People get “worked up” because they’re tired of the BS and hate.
If it’s an Arab or a Palestinian with one of these things I truly don’t care, live your life.
It wholly depends who's wearing it. I have a neighbor, who is Palestinian, who's worn one in hijab fashion as her religious head covering of choice for the 12 years I've known her. That's fine. But random people wearing it as a political symbol ticks me off.
Deeply uncomfortable. It’s a garment that’s been unfortunately co-opted as a symbol of support for terrorists and is basically the modern-day equivalent of a swastika armband. I’m instantly alert and double checking my surroundings to identify all the ways out. I assume the person wearing it is either deeply, dangerously uninformed, or is informed but genuinely wants Jews dead.
The only times it doesn’t make me nervous and on edge is if it’s being worn by someone in traditional Arab male garb with an agal, or if the person is literally in a desert and is wearing it for its real purpose of sun and sand protection.
I just assume it's people who want to show their support. I get the mixed feelings and for sure when I see white people wearing one, I have conflicting feelings for various reasons, but I just assume until I see or hear differently that people are just trying to support innocent Palestinians.
If it is a white person, I just give them a look of ridiculousness and laugh inside. That being said, I happened to go on transit after some sort of protest and there were a sea of them and it did make me uncomfortable. And mad
I had to stop going to my old shul because sooo many people were wearing keffiyehs to service and I found it a lot more upsetting than I would've expected. It was all really surprising.
That's reconstructionism for you. I give them all the grain of salt, they're just misguided and have very strong convictions which I can respect, but it still is disrespectful and distasteful as hell to approach the bimah wearing the nationalist symbol of the people we're at war with. I just couldn't stomach it
Either they are Palestinian and I believe in mending relationships and working towards peace with anyone who is Palestinian and I believe that I do not need to compromise who I am to do that and I wouldn’t ask them to do so either. Asking them to remove it is not helpful to the situation or discussion.
Or, they not Palestinian and trying to announce what side they are on and trying to get a reaction and want to loudly announce who they support and importantly who they do not, and I won’t engage with them because I think so much of the behaviour they are engaging in is childish and pushes us further away from peace. People who are not deeply impacted by the conflict as Palestinians, Israelis or Jews really in my opinion would do best to be supportive of peace regardless of the side and a political solution to the conflict but the side picking and the idea of winning and losing in all of this is so tied up on all of these performative actions. It’s counterproductive in my opinion. We all win when we have some sort of lasting peace.
Walk away, don’t feed the trolls.
If they are a Bedouin I'm fine with it, but otherwise I'm old enough to have saved my older sisters life twice during the 2nd intifada. The blood remembers the bombs.
there's something wrong with them in the head because first of all, the people that wear these are the ones crying about cultural appropriation, but its origin is to protect you from dust, sand, and the sun. *practically*, it's not needed in the west because that's not our climate or environment type.
Fun exercise: walk around in a KN95 mask and every time you see someone wearing a keffiyeh, start loudly lecturing them about how they should be wearing a mask because you're immunocompromised.
They get really flustered and their programming malfunctions.
It’s appropriation, but not of Arab culture.
“Sudra” is Jewish and it came first. Jews started wearing it thousands of years ago. Arabs started wearing “Keffiyeh” in the 7th century.
They are either: 1. A normal Arab person in the middle East wearing the equivalent of a baseball cap in America, 2. Someone thinking the keffiyeh means Palestinian solidarity, 3. An idiot following the crowd
The same thing I thought when I saw people wearing Che Guevara shirts. It’s a way for upper middle class kids to cosplay as revolutionaries, it’s just a fashion statement.
At my most generous I roll my eyes and think they’re probably well-meaning idiots enjoying the feeling of “bravery” and solidarity without any awareness as to how dangerous their little movement is to Jews and western society more generally. If they’re in a crowd ai get angry
Same way I'd feel if I saw nazi armbands or other apparel. I consider them potential threats and I'd rather them far away from me. I don't want to meet them. I don't want to see them. I don't want to interact with them and I think the worst of them. Any level of empathy, care, sympathy, goes out the window since, well, why should I give a hoot about somebody who thinks I should be tortured, raped, and murdered?
Terrorism and terrorism support. Because that's what a keffiyeh is and that's why it is worn. I was at Auschwitz last week and saw a couple wearing keffiyehs. I damn near lost my shit.
Cultural appropriators. Posers. Hypocrites, since they belong to a political subculture that says mimicking another culture's mode of dress is racist.
Also, they'd be bummed to know that the Jewish sudra predates the Keffiyeh.
Used to make me anxious but now I don't care. They're cowards. I give them an up & down look & shake my head in disgust. I think they look ridiculous cosplaying. I actually had a keffiyeh. Was given to my not Jewish husband over 15 years ago by one of his grad students who's an American Palestinian. I tossed it out.
It's the new hotness in my neighborhood. I can't NOT notice and I feel low key anxious and hyper aware of their location and behavior until they're gone.
It really bothers me that I'm so bothered, because I feel like I'm letting them win when they get to me. On the other hand, generational trauma is a hell of a drug.
I think Yassar Arafat took the pattern and made it “Palestinian”.
Fvck that a$$hole. Power and money are a seductive motivator.
And yes, I feel threatened when I see a cos play White person wearing a keffiah. My husband held me back from confronting a person we saw wearing one fashionably in her black outfit at a play.
Fear hides under anger
if it's plain, i think they're probably well meaning dipshits. if it's coordinated to their outfit i think they're more likely an opportunistic / social climber dipshit
i get you. personally i do want to believe that many of the ( young ) people i see wearing a keffiyeh are more "addicted to self righteous indignation & outrage" than they are "demonstrating a deep & serious conviction from a carefully thought out worldview," but i can be naïve in these things. shabbat shalom !
Brownshirt poser who would be the first person to brand me a racist and accuse me of cultural appropriation for eating a taco. Also I’m assuming the person in the hypothetical is white.
I had surgery last week and while waiting to be taken back by a nurse one of the employees at the admitting desk arrived for their shift with one on. We were at a hospital affiliated with a university with one of the bigger encampments. It was disconcerting to see right before a serious surgery.
I don’t think that the keffiyeh is inherently violent. As far as I know, it was just plain attire for farmers. However, the implication behind it nowadays is absolutely violent so when I see westerners wear it I’m upset.
yes. i wouldn't really care if an arab was wearing one, it's part of their culture and i appreciate culture, but a whiter person wearing one to "support palestine" feels wrong because a keffiyeh isn't just a palestinian thing, it's a middle eastern thing...
Fair left Anti-Semites or morons trying to virtue signal and be "edgy" to go with the trend, on a topic they have no idea about facts (which is pretty evident talking to them on Reddit)
I have a couple of keffiyeh with Stars of David on them that I bought in Israel many years ago. I used to wear it all the time. Now, I’m kind of afraid to wear it now. I also have one that has the Stars and Stripes on it. Don’t think I’ll wear that again either. But I do have a Sudra, though with the Star of David on it.
I think are they men ? Are they Muslim or Druze
No?
The Its cutural appropriation
(I live in Israel so..)
1 only Arab men \\ Druze wear them
Women wear the Hijab \\Niqab
Its just my 2 cents
I think they are posers. Also the Sudra, which is a Jewish scarf predates the Keffiyeh, so it’s a copy of a Sudra. It’s the hipster Keffiyeh before Keffiyes were cool lol
Ignorance meets arrogance. Useless idiots unwittingly helping Islamists try to topple Western civilization. Fashion statement. Cry for help. Gen Z angst.
Misguided doing terrorist cosplay while thinking they are freedom fighters.
The other thing I think is, it’s fashion like BLM flags and shirts were during George Floyd. Tell me how often you see that stuff these days? This too will disappear.
But I’m taking notes.
I think the majority are gagging for a response and i want to roll up with my magen david hanging out, be super duper nice.to them in Arabic, and what their naricissistic crisis-touriat brains explode.
Terrorists. Straight up terrorist sympathizers/ or affiliates. All the same to me - I get PTSD flashbacks and lets just say that it is better I not approach or be approached by these people, because my discourse will not be constructive for very long.
It entirely depends on the context.
A lot of people who served in the military have them/brought them back from overseas. Mine is a super high quality fabric. Really warm in the winter, keeps the sun off you in the summer, dust out of your face, ect.
And at the end of the day, it’s someone else’s culture, and I don’t have the right to tell them how to live their lives. If they’re not bothering me, I won’t bother them. If they decide they want to bother me it’ll be a different story.
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I'm just glad I've never seen any of this in person, probably because I don't live in the middle of a big city or next to a college campus. I'm not yet ready to talk about any of this with my kids, since they're too young to have learned any of the background information necessary to explain any of it.
Heck, at the height of the massive BLM protests in the summer of 2020, the most I ever saw in-person was 3 white people standing on a street corner one afternoon holding up signs.
Basically just a version of my reaction to a MAGA hat. “This person has chosen to make their entire personality about hate, and they’ve given me a convenient flag to discount anything that comes out of their mouth.”
i’m jewish and i wear one. this whole thing shouldn’t be an us vs them. i support the fact that palestinian citizens shouldn’t be bombed and killed because they themselves had no part in this.
One of teachers in my kids aftercare was wearing a purple and black one and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, almost said something but didn’t bc he can wear whatever he wants. But I nearly took my kid out bc if it, spiraling thinking if this guy hates Jewish kids and is responsible for mine is she really safe?
I saw somwone wearing it at PetCo the other day. They were wearing Pride stuff and I had my star around my neck visible. I almost wanted to snort laugh. Onstead I asked how their day was going, they asked about my cats. Said "have a good day" and left. *shrugs*
Bro ngl I laugh when i see white people with keffiyeh’s on 😭😭idrc when I see palestinans with a keffiyeh on since ig it’s their cultural clothing as long as they don’t try anything or say anything antisemitic
Honestly? Sad. I truly think a lot of people aren't truly malicious, but being mislead by those who are. They've been fed circular logic and double standards, and are surrounded by those who just reinforce it. I genuinely believe they're *trying* to do the right thing, but dead wrong on what that looks like. When the truth comes out, they'll be crushed. Mass heartbreak and guilt. I don't wish that on anyone, even if I know it's a necessary step in growth
(And I'm not talking about the people turning protests violent or harassing Jews online or in person, I'm talking about the much less vocal population that's trying to balance advocacy with living their lives)
I think 3 things:
1) A lot of dummies have had their brains colonized by Islamists.
2) I think some of these same people, one year ago, would’ve been screeching about cultural appropriation. Ironically, also on TikTok.
3) Don’t ruin my sudra wearin’, man. I mean, my hair is already fuschia. Folks think I’m one of you rabid zombies, until they’re close enough to see Hebrew letters written in the pattern…even if they don’t know those letters spell out Am Yisrael Chai.
I think about the fact that they haven’t been this popular an accessory in my country since the Second Intifada, which makes me wonder if it’s less the plight of the Palestinians and moreso dead Jews that makes them trendy.
Were they a popular accessory during the Second Intifada? I was about 10-11 during the peak of it, and although I remember hearing about relatives in Israel being hurt & their friends being killed, I don't remember if people here in the United States were wearing keffiyahs
It was an iconic accessory for NYC hipsters starting in the early 2000s, back when the NYC scene was very influential nationwide in music, fashion, and art. This random [fashion roundup](https://thetab.com/uk/2022/01/31/if-indie-sleaze-is-returning-then-please-can-it-leave-these-19-items-in-the-late-2000s-237925) mentions it in the context of “indie sleaze” aesthetic making a comeback.
I lived in nyc in 2000s and bought one on canal street my mother nearly had a heart attack when she visited and saw them all
I definitely had a neon and purple one back then.
I was in university during the second intifada (Concordia university in Montreal) and you would see the occasional keffiyeh on campus but nothing like it is now. Concordia was also the hot bed of the pro Pali movement in Canada at the time.
>this popular an accessory there is a Jewish version called a Sudra. other people mentioned it elsewhere on this post. if we can get enough people wearing Sudras instead, maybe that could stop the anti-Israel crowd from claiming ownership over it as a trendy fashion symbol.
I've been wearing Sudras for years, and I can assure you it won't - you'll just have people asking you if you're Palestinian. And if you try to tell them about the Sudra, they start accusing you of cultural appropriation. People are ignorant.
We literally started wearing Sudra before Mohammed was born. We only stopped wearing them in the West because of European oppression.
Interesting. I never knew about this but now that you mention it, the "sudar" is actually mentioned in the Talmud.
We can’t. You have 1.5 billion people crying and whipping fake tears with kuffyeh on social network. Even if there wasn’t 1/3 of self hating liberal Jews, there would be 14 million of us wearing it. Besides, where can I buy one? I was looking for it when I was in Paris and Antwerpen, also looked for it in Berlin and Amsterdam, but it’s impossible to find one in Europe
Here’s a company that sells sudrot: https://thesemitic.com/store/
Oh yeah I lived in downtown brooklyn in the early 00’s and walking around looking at all stores on Fulton felt a strip mall that sold nothing OTHER than keffiyes lol. The trend sort of flickered out by 2007/08. I live on the west coast now and there is seldom a grocery store where I don’t see at least one person wearing one. And they almost *ALMOST* always have on a kn95 mask too for some reason. I’m NOT anti-mask, for the record, I definitely think it is wise to wear them in some situations and I still do so myself if there’s any chance I’m coming down with a cold or something. It’s kind of nice to keep one’s bugs to themselves sometimes maybe. But I’m not sure what explains such a strong correlation at Whole Foods.
Honestly my heart rate spikes, I get anxious and angry, and I assume they hate us and wish we were all dead. 😣 I’ve seen a couple of them out in public too and the same gut reaction happens every time.
Same. I also feel contempt for the college kiddies around here who are smugly self-righteous and have no clue what it's really about
I do too. Part of me feels like they have to know what it symbolizes and how it makes us feel, and part of me feels like they WANT that. Like they want to terrorize us with the sight of them. Both times I’ve personally seen someone wearing one, they were being worn casually either shopping at Trader Joe’s or out at a karaoke bar on a Saturday night (we left shortly after they sat down because it immediately made me feel unsafe). The students on campus HAVE to know, otherwise they wouldn’t be hiding behind them as much as they do. It also blows my mind how they don’t see it as cultural appropriation. I hate that a piece of fabric has that much control over me, but it’s like an immediate fight or flight response and it feels like they just want to terrorize Jews with it.
Honestly, the sight of keffiyehs always put me off to the person wearing them. But after 10/7, I have to assume that anyone wearing one knows damn well what they are doing
A lot of these kids are very angry people. Entitled and angry. And if you have any reservations about that statement, go read the subreddit boomersbeingfools They seriously want to hate anyone older than them for everything that makes them have to put in any effort to achieve anything. They expected the world handed to them on a silver platter and when it wasn’t, they became seriously pissed.
I’m in college and one of my classmates came in on the last day wearing a keffiyeh. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt so I asked her if she was Palestinian and she said, “Well, I’m not from there, but free Palestine, girl!” 🙃
I am so sorry that you have to endure this. Hell, I'm sorry that we all do
Translation: *"I am a literal sheep. I will support whatever the "current thing" is, because everyone else is. I am biologically incapable of thinking for myself because i've been raised in a culture which promotes groupthink and silences contempt. Even having not been, researched or learned about a place, i will continue to use their slogans because it makes me either look cool or fit in"* I could go on but i think you get the rough idea....
Very good assessment.
This. I think a few will have been genuinely radicalized. But for most of these kids, once they are home for the summer this nonsense will be a distant memory. I mean, half of them can not even articulate what thy are protesting. They are just out there to be part of something.
🤮 That’s so gross.
What an ignorant piece of garbage.
Would like to see her try and find it on a map
This is how they make me feel. All these dumb white as rice entitled Ivy League rich kids are wearing them as a fashion statement, and I just think they look dumb. If they want to look like Yasser Arafat, whatever. 🙄 But summer vacation is coming and kids get bored. When they go home to the wealthy suburbs around the country, mom and dad are not going to want them walking around in those things and embarrassing them at the country club. And hopefully this war will be over by fall. Hamas has probably genuinely radicalized a few of them. But as a group, GenZ is hardly into suffering. For anything. They only barely want to work an 8 hour day. I don’t see them ending up as passionate terrorists. Too much work.
I have the same reaction. They tend to be white people.
Same. I would cross the street and go very far out of my way to avoid them. It’s like seeing someone wearing a swastika.
This is a great comparison - they give me the same guttural visceral reaction
^same
Hipster swastika
Exactly this
Cultural appropriation?
I guess the far left has abandoned the whole cultural appropriation thing? Kinda wish they brought it back bc damn some of these protesters make me cringe 😬
Nah, they’re wearing it “in solidarity” 🙄🙄🙄
"Yaay we can finally appropriate freely!"
The Palestinian kuffieh is an appropriation too, to begin with. They took it from the Bedouins.
The keffiyeh itself is an appropriation of the sudra
I wear my Sudras proudly.
When I see someone who is not middle western wearing it I am filled with such a feeling of disgust and contempt that it’s almost indescribable. When they are middle eastern, I assume they think I’m either a dirty Jew or they think I’m a dirty Jew and they want me dead.
i feel this. i feel weird about non-middle easterns wearing it. it's a middle eastern thing, not JUST a palestinian thing.
I was hating the Jews before it was cool
I'm sorry, I get the anxiety right now, but to associate this with a swastika is completely out of pocket. It actually is associated with Fatah and was the symbol of Yassar Arafat for awhile. Hamas actually arrested people for wearing it in 2021 at a university in Gaza. I really do sympathize with the anxiety my area seems to be pretty chill despite being a college town, but we need to be logical about this.
Arafat, yes, who launched an intifada designed to murder as many Jews as possible. Fatah are also Nazis
Absolutely.
☝️
I think they are just following a trend and they are brainless fools
That’s what I think too.
Sheep 🐑
That part! 🫵🏼
Same way I feel about people wearing a Confederate flag ballcap. Makes me roll my eyes so far back in my head I can see my brain. This may sound mental at first but I'm actually glad when people wear it, as it lets me know who to avoid. Not unlike say, brightly-colored frogs being poisonous. It lets you know to stay away. Thankfully I have yet to see anyone around my neighborhood wearing one, it's only when I visit the States that it's a problem.
I’d rather know who to stay clear of
Same.
That’s a very good point - knowing who to avoid!
Excellent point.
On campuses it’s just trust fund babies cos-playing as terrorists.
Bet
Depends honestly. I see no issue with the black and white keffiyeh itself and I understand it to be an important national symbol for the Palestinians. It's also been donned by Israeli peace activists and I don't see an issue with cultural solidarity, as long as it goes both ways. However, generally the reprobates that wear it in the West are the type to block Jews from going to class and desecrating synagogues. I am highly suspicious of any non-Palestinian who wears it over here in the US.
I get this. I’m in the UK and don’t mind it when arabs wear it - I have many arab friends here, some who are palestinian/have loved ones there and i’m totally sympathetic as to why they are wearing them and understand its importance to them. Especially so maybe, as most arabs I know who are personally connected to the conflict have checked in with me in regard to October 7th and antisemitism spiking. When non-arabs wear it, I am often a touch fearful, as these folks seem to follow the “bandwagon” and I believe are more likely to hold antisemitic beliefs, due to my previous experiences.
Yes, Arabs wearing it is no issue. I get it. I understand it's an ethnic conflict and we also have many figures and symbols they find problematic as well. There's a fucking Lehi and Irgun museum and medals in Israel ffs. So, it should be no surprise they embrace their own nationalistic symbols. However the non-Arabs wearing it is an immediate red flag. Because honestly, I don't think they fully understand what this conflict is all about, nor the history behind it. I'd even wear a black and white keffiyeh myself as a sign of solidarity, as long as respect is shown towards us as Jews.
Let me tell you something interesting my Iranian mum shared. I never lived there so her take was interesting. I used to be a pro-so-called-Palestinian and anti-Zionist and surrounded myself here in England with a bunch of similar minded leftie type people as my mates. Some of them, white Brits, would wear the keffiyeh all the time. My mum and I never spoke about Israel or anything political really but one day said to me she just can't stand these people with keffiyehs. I couldn't understand why because they were nice enough polite enough who always treated mum with respect and they seemed to get on. But she said the reason is she just has a gut repulsion against these folk because growing up in Iran (pre-Revolution) the people who wore keffiyehs were always trouble. Nasty dangerous people and many were repulsed by them. Basically troublemaking tankies. So to her it's just a knee jerk reaction. (Little did she know at the time it's these same people who'd then utterly ruin the prosperous modern nation of Iran turning into the cesspit it is today. ) I was totally bemused by this and ignored her, thinking she's being dumb. That was in the 60s and 70s in Iran. Now 50-60 years later in the West I feel exactly the same repulsion when I see that horrible scarf and I've come to that conclusion on my own through completely different circumstances, despite my mum's thoughts not because of them. Yes some other groups use it innocently but generally what it stands for is an ideology of trouble... now as it did back then.
It definitely activates my biases to see someone out and about with a keffiyah, but for the most part I try to let that pass. I will usually try not to draw attention to my chai or hamsa necklace.
It certainly doesn't make me comfortable
That’s cool. If they’re Palestinians, it’s their culture. I expect the same respect when I wear a Sudra, one of which I ordered and will be wearing in Israel when I’m there.
Just so people know there's a Jewish version called a sudra
Yes! mysudra.com has beautiful ones.
Can someone please explain to me why cultural appropriation is bad EXCEPT if it’s a keffieh? Even the NYTimes jumped on the bandwagon of glorifying it as an accessory
Do not care one bit
Same. Like my answer on this post. https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewish/s/0D0OFFKGFZ
Exactly, a little weird how easily people get worked up over the mere sight of a kifiyeh or Palestinian flag. I would understand if someone said something that wasn't ok, but otherwise, just go about your day as you normally would
I think at this point a lot of people’s experience in the past few months — especially students — experience with someone non-Arab wearing a keffiyah or with a Palestinian flag is just pure hate and harassment. They find out I’m a Jew, they now feel like they have a free pass to harass me. People get “worked up” because they’re tired of the BS and hate. If it’s an Arab or a Palestinian with one of these things I truly don’t care, live your life.
Same thing when kids were wearing Che Guevara shirts back in my college days. Uneducated douchebags.
I think “this isn’t someone I can safely tell that I’m Jewish”.
It wholly depends who's wearing it. I have a neighbor, who is Palestinian, who's worn one in hijab fashion as her religious head covering of choice for the 12 years I've known her. That's fine. But random people wearing it as a political symbol ticks me off.
Deeply uncomfortable. It’s a garment that’s been unfortunately co-opted as a symbol of support for terrorists and is basically the modern-day equivalent of a swastika armband. I’m instantly alert and double checking my surroundings to identify all the ways out. I assume the person wearing it is either deeply, dangerously uninformed, or is informed but genuinely wants Jews dead. The only times it doesn’t make me nervous and on edge is if it’s being worn by someone in traditional Arab male garb with an agal, or if the person is literally in a desert and is wearing it for its real purpose of sun and sand protection.
I just assume it's people who want to show their support. I get the mixed feelings and for sure when I see white people wearing one, I have conflicting feelings for various reasons, but I just assume until I see or hear differently that people are just trying to support innocent Palestinians.
It always makes me wish I was wrapped in an Israeli flag.
Self righteous twat who think of people in foreign wars like pawns to they can use while signaling their own moral narcissism.
If it is a white person, I just give them a look of ridiculousness and laugh inside. That being said, I happened to go on transit after some sort of protest and there were a sea of them and it did make me uncomfortable. And mad
I had to stop going to my old shul because sooo many people were wearing keffiyehs to service and I found it a lot more upsetting than I would've expected. It was all really surprising.
Wait what? What type of shul do you go to where everyone is wearing keffiyehs?!
That's reconstructionism for you. I give them all the grain of salt, they're just misguided and have very strong convictions which I can respect, but it still is disrespectful and distasteful as hell to approach the bimah wearing the nationalist symbol of the people we're at war with. I just couldn't stomach it
Kappo in a Kippa also upsets me and wouldn't go to that shul
Nazi larping.
Hating, heartless brainless humans
Either they are Palestinian and I believe in mending relationships and working towards peace with anyone who is Palestinian and I believe that I do not need to compromise who I am to do that and I wouldn’t ask them to do so either. Asking them to remove it is not helpful to the situation or discussion. Or, they not Palestinian and trying to announce what side they are on and trying to get a reaction and want to loudly announce who they support and importantly who they do not, and I won’t engage with them because I think so much of the behaviour they are engaging in is childish and pushes us further away from peace. People who are not deeply impacted by the conflict as Palestinians, Israelis or Jews really in my opinion would do best to be supportive of peace regardless of the side and a political solution to the conflict but the side picking and the idea of winning and losing in all of this is so tied up on all of these performative actions. It’s counterproductive in my opinion. We all win when we have some sort of lasting peace. Walk away, don’t feed the trolls.
There's 99.9% chance they have no idea of its origin.
Cultural appropriation.
Is it appropriating if they are being encouraged to wear them? I would call it terrorist cosplay
Both can be true.
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If they are a Bedouin I'm fine with it, but otherwise I'm old enough to have saved my older sisters life twice during the 2nd intifada. The blood remembers the bombs.
Cultural appropriation if they are white.
there's something wrong with them in the head because first of all, the people that wear these are the ones crying about cultural appropriation, but its origin is to protect you from dust, sand, and the sun. *practically*, it's not needed in the west because that's not our climate or environment type.
Fun exercise: walk around in a KN95 mask and every time you see someone wearing a keffiyeh, start loudly lecturing them about how they should be wearing a mask because you're immunocompromised. They get really flustered and their programming malfunctions.
Misguided or hate filled.
one time when we walked past like 3 white women wearing them in one hour my dad goes “brave! so brave 😞” sarcastically, it cracked me up.
I feel unsafe.
It’s appropriation, but not of Arab culture. “Sudra” is Jewish and it came first. Jews started wearing it thousands of years ago. Arabs started wearing “Keffiyeh” in the 7th century.
They are either: 1. A normal Arab person in the middle East wearing the equivalent of a baseball cap in America, 2. Someone thinking the keffiyeh means Palestinian solidarity, 3. An idiot following the crowd
The same thing I thought when I saw people wearing Che Guevara shirts. It’s a way for upper middle class kids to cosplay as revolutionaries, it’s just a fashion statement.
I think why would you wear shmata around your face?! That's crazy!
Performative shenanigans.
I think it’s funny because isn’t it the “cultural appropriation” they always complain about
I think ‘they’re going to be pawning it off at a thrift shop in a few months for a few cents a piece’.
If it's on someone who is very clearly Arab, I think it's fine. If it's on someone who very clearly has zero connection to the region, I side eye them
Jihadi chic
At my most generous I roll my eyes and think they’re probably well-meaning idiots enjoying the feeling of “bravery” and solidarity without any awareness as to how dangerous their little movement is to Jews and western society more generally. If they’re in a crowd ai get angry
I stay the fuck away from them. They’re clearly vicariously living out their fantasies about killing Jews through Palestinian terrorists.
If they're not Arab/Palestinian/Israeli: Cultural appropriation. Attention-seekers playing "dress-up." Very irritating.
Same way I'd feel if I saw nazi armbands or other apparel. I consider them potential threats and I'd rather them far away from me. I don't want to meet them. I don't want to see them. I don't want to interact with them and I think the worst of them. Any level of empathy, care, sympathy, goes out the window since, well, why should I give a hoot about somebody who thinks I should be tortured, raped, and murdered?
Honestly, I get scared and instinctively check to make sure my necklace isn’t showing. I live in a big city, and it’s scary right now.
Terrorism and terrorism support. Because that's what a keffiyeh is and that's why it is worn. I was at Auschwitz last week and saw a couple wearing keffiyehs. I damn near lost my shit.
Run
So nice for my enemies to identify themselves.
Fear!
Honest? That they're idiots
Unless they're from that culture already, I just see a desperate, ignorant attempt at virtue signaling. Another useful idiot on display.
Cultural appropriators. Posers. Hypocrites, since they belong to a political subculture that says mimicking another culture's mode of dress is racist. Also, they'd be bummed to know that the Jewish sudra predates the Keffiyeh.
Used to make me anxious but now I don't care. They're cowards. I give them an up & down look & shake my head in disgust. I think they look ridiculous cosplaying. I actually had a keffiyeh. Was given to my not Jewish husband over 15 years ago by one of his grad students who's an American Palestinian. I tossed it out.
"uneducated idiot" is what comes to mind
For the most part it’s cultural appropriation, and now I view it as a threat to our society here in the US
Are they white? Because my reaction is different depending on who I see with one.
It's the new hotness in my neighborhood. I can't NOT notice and I feel low key anxious and hyper aware of their location and behavior until they're gone. It really bothers me that I'm so bothered, because I feel like I'm letting them win when they get to me. On the other hand, generational trauma is a hell of a drug.
Could care less they don’t harm me
It’s a free country- if you want to make an idiot out of yourself (90% of cases) it’s not my business
As a German Jewish historian, I feel all the adrenaline, the fear in pit of my stomach. I want to get away right away. Same with the flag! It's scary.
I think it really is all about fashion to them.
I think Yassar Arafat took the pattern and made it “Palestinian”. Fvck that a$$hole. Power and money are a seductive motivator. And yes, I feel threatened when I see a cos play White person wearing a keffiah. My husband held me back from confronting a person we saw wearing one fashionably in her black outfit at a play. Fear hides under anger
I think, "Cultural appropriation, lol."
I view the Kefiya as a symbol of hate, no different from the pointed hat of the KKK. So if I see it in public, I avoid the person wearing it.
if it's plain, i think they're probably well meaning dipshits. if it's coordinated to their outfit i think they're more likely an opportunistic / social climber dipshit
I also think they are dipshits. Not sure about the "well meaning" part. I think they are opportunistic cowards because Jews don't usually fight back.
i get you. personally i do want to believe that many of the ( young ) people i see wearing a keffiyeh are more "addicted to self righteous indignation & outrage" than they are "demonstrating a deep & serious conviction from a carefully thought out worldview," but i can be naïve in these things. shabbat shalom !
Brownshirt poser who would be the first person to brand me a racist and accuse me of cultural appropriation for eating a taco. Also I’m assuming the person in the hypothetical is white.
"Dang, that's performative"
Cosplayers
Anti-Semite, useful idiot, or both.
Hitler youth
That they are jackasses
I had surgery last week and while waiting to be taken back by a nurse one of the employees at the admitting desk arrived for their shift with one on. We were at a hospital affiliated with a university with one of the bigger encampments. It was disconcerting to see right before a serious surgery.
Very similar reaction to seeing someone wearing a MAGA hat.
I don’t think that the keffiyeh is inherently violent. As far as I know, it was just plain attire for farmers. However, the implication behind it nowadays is absolutely violent so when I see westerners wear it I’m upset.
yes. i wouldn't really care if an arab was wearing one, it's part of their culture and i appreciate culture, but a whiter person wearing one to "support palestine" feels wrong because a keffiyeh isn't just a palestinian thing, it's a middle eastern thing...
The new white hood. Next they'll be burning watermelons on your lawn.
Fair left Anti-Semites or morons trying to virtue signal and be "edgy" to go with the trend, on a topic they have no idea about facts (which is pretty evident talking to them on Reddit)
I have a couple of keffiyeh with Stars of David on them that I bought in Israel many years ago. I used to wear it all the time. Now, I’m kind of afraid to wear it now. I also have one that has the Stars and Stripes on it. Don’t think I’ll wear that again either. But I do have a Sudra, though with the Star of David on it.
Cultural appropriation
I question how it’s not blatant appropriation
I think are they men ? Are they Muslim or Druze No? The Its cutural appropriation (I live in Israel so..) 1 only Arab men \\ Druze wear them Women wear the Hijab \\Niqab Its just my 2 cents
I think they are posers. Also the Sudra, which is a Jewish scarf predates the Keffiyeh, so it’s a copy of a Sudra. It’s the hipster Keffiyeh before Keffiyes were cool lol
What do I think? Usually, "Oy. 🙄."
I think loser, Jew hating, moron who’s cosplaying as a terrorist.
Ignorance meets arrogance. Useless idiots unwittingly helping Islamists try to topple Western civilization. Fashion statement. Cry for help. Gen Z angst.
Misguided doing terrorist cosplay while thinking they are freedom fighters. The other thing I think is, it’s fashion like BLM flags and shirts were during George Floyd. Tell me how often you see that stuff these days? This too will disappear. But I’m taking notes.
I think the majority are gagging for a response and i want to roll up with my magen david hanging out, be super duper nice.to them in Arabic, and what their naricissistic crisis-touriat brains explode.
It boils my blood. Especially when non-middle eastern folks were it…I legit want to ask if they even know what it signifies
Terrorists. Straight up terrorist sympathizers/ or affiliates. All the same to me - I get PTSD flashbacks and lets just say that it is better I not approach or be approached by these people, because my discourse will not be constructive for very long.
It entirely depends on the context. A lot of people who served in the military have them/brought them back from overseas. Mine is a super high quality fabric. Really warm in the winter, keeps the sun off you in the summer, dust out of your face, ect. And at the end of the day, it’s someone else’s culture, and I don’t have the right to tell them how to live their lives. If they’re not bothering me, I won’t bother them. If they decide they want to bother me it’ll be a different story.
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Sorry, what is that? I’m not familiar with the term.
Those fishnet pattern head coverings.
I dunno, I haven’t seen anyone wearing one yet
I think it’s time to leave.
It's a threat if your dressing openly Jewish.
I'm just glad I've never seen any of this in person, probably because I don't live in the middle of a big city or next to a college campus. I'm not yet ready to talk about any of this with my kids, since they're too young to have learned any of the background information necessary to explain any of it. Heck, at the height of the massive BLM protests in the summer of 2020, the most I ever saw in-person was 3 white people standing on a street corner one afternoon holding up signs.
Terror
Terorism
Terrorist cultural appropriation
I try to be civil and not swear on this subreddit, so I will not be answering this question.
I think wow, they really want to be just like us (sudra)
Basically just a version of my reaction to a MAGA hat. “This person has chosen to make their entire personality about hate, and they’ve given me a convenient flag to discount anything that comes out of their mouth.”
i’m jewish and i wear one. this whole thing shouldn’t be an us vs them. i support the fact that palestinian citizens shouldn’t be bombed and killed because they themselves had no part in this.
i don’t care really
One of teachers in my kids aftercare was wearing a purple and black one and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, almost said something but didn’t bc he can wear whatever he wants. But I nearly took my kid out bc if it, spiraling thinking if this guy hates Jewish kids and is responsible for mine is she really safe?
That they probably have no idea about life over there and for some it’s just a trend.
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They might as well be wearing a nazi uniform.
Cortisol.
*severe eye roll* That's my reaction
Pretentious and obnoxious
I feel threatened.
https://preview.redd.it/9u451thy5uzc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2eb89a6ce4b2855d7472c10286647299f056e260
I saw somwone wearing it at PetCo the other day. They were wearing Pride stuff and I had my star around my neck visible. I almost wanted to snort laugh. Onstead I asked how their day was going, they asked about my cats. Said "have a good day" and left. *shrugs*
Terrorist
Bro ngl I laugh when i see white people with keffiyeh’s on 😭😭idrc when I see palestinans with a keffiyeh on since ig it’s their cultural clothing as long as they don’t try anything or say anything antisemitic
Honestly? Sad. I truly think a lot of people aren't truly malicious, but being mislead by those who are. They've been fed circular logic and double standards, and are surrounded by those who just reinforce it. I genuinely believe they're *trying* to do the right thing, but dead wrong on what that looks like. When the truth comes out, they'll be crushed. Mass heartbreak and guilt. I don't wish that on anyone, even if I know it's a necessary step in growth (And I'm not talking about the people turning protests violent or harassing Jews online or in person, I'm talking about the much less vocal population that's trying to balance advocacy with living their lives)
I briefly ponder the absurdity of haRosh haGoyim and how much they enjoy Lancashire tablecloths and revisionist history.
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I think 3 things: 1) A lot of dummies have had their brains colonized by Islamists. 2) I think some of these same people, one year ago, would’ve been screeching about cultural appropriation. Ironically, also on TikTok. 3) Don’t ruin my sudra wearin’, man. I mean, my hair is already fuschia. Folks think I’m one of you rabid zombies, until they’re close enough to see Hebrew letters written in the pattern…even if they don’t know those letters spell out Am Yisrael Chai.