How The Palestinian Keffiyeh Became A Global Symbol Of Resistance

Over Thanksgiving weekend in November, three Palestinian college students were in Vermont. They were miles away from Gaza, their home. A home that has been under an unprecedented attack since October. Of the trio – Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed – two were wearing the keffiyeh. The black and white scarf that has been indelibly linked with Palestinian struggle for over half a century. The two were allegedly approached by Jason J Eaton, who, without uttering any words, began firing rounds from a pistol at them. One of them is now paralysed from the chest down.

The keffiyeh is a square-shaped cotton headdress or scarf with a distinctive chequered pattern. The most common type of this scarf, which dons the black and white colours, has come to represent the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. Each minute pattern on the scarf symbolises a part of the Palestinian culture – the olive leaves represent perseverance, strength and resilience; the fishnet pattern represents Palestinian fishers and the people's connection to the Mediterranean; the bold pattern represents trade routes with neighbouring merchants of Palestine.

Once worn by nomadic farmers and shepherds in the Middle East to shield themselves from the sun, the keffiyeh has become a garment of political statements and resistance.

From a piece of clothing to a symbol of Palestinian resistance 

It was during the Arab Revolt in Palestine between 1936 and 1939, when white and black keffiyehs were worn for the first time as a symbol of steadfastness. The revolt demanded Arab independence and an end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchase. 

Rebels started wearing the keffiyeh, draping their face and mouth, to avoid being identified and arrested. The British, in response, imposed a ban on wearing the scarves. Palestinians nationwide started wearing the scarves in protest, which made it impossible for the British to identify rebels. 

The garment’s prominence soared when Yasser Arafat, the former president of Palestine and Leila Khaled, a revolutionary freedom fighter and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) adopted the keffiyeh and made public appearances with it.

Arafat addressed the United Nations in 1974 while wearing the keffiyeh. Draping it distinctively over his head and shoulders, symbolically resembling a map of Palestine before the Nakba, Arafat delivered his speech, which has since then been referred to as the ‘gun and olive branch’ speech. "Today I come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

Similarly, Khaled, a former militant known for her role in a 1969 plane hijacking and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was also often pictured wearing a keffiyeh wrapped around her hair and neck in the 1960s and 1970s – which then inspired women of all ages to wear it too.

With the coming of digital and social media, keffiyeh made its way into the fashion industry of major countries: luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton sold a version of it in 2021; Urban Outfitters made ‘anti-war woven scarf’ in 2007 etc. In one episode of Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw sports a tank top mimicking the design of a keffiyeh.

However, many Palestinians have warned that stripping the garment from its original context could prove to be detrimental to the cause of solidarity. They urge people to familiarise themselves with the history of the garment and appropriate it in the fashion world by culturally attributing its origins to Palestine.

Use of keffiyehs in current protests

Ever since Israel’s war on Gaza escalated in October, many across the world are donning the keffiyeh to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause. 

According to a report by Al Jazeera, US distributors said that the demand for these scarves has risen sharply. Unit sales of keffiyeh scarves have risen 75 per cent in the 56 days between October 7 and December 2 on Amazon.com compared with the previous 56 days, data from e-commerce analytics firm Jungle Scout showed.

Globally, activists and supporters are using the keffiyeh in distinct ways to show solidarity with Palestine. 

In Bethlehem, the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church changed its traditional nativity scene to show baby Jesus lying in rubble while wearing a keffiyeh. 

A student in University of Melbourne wore a keffiyeh on his graduation day, in protest against their University’s silence over the ongoing war.

“Wearing my keffiyeh to take my civil rights exam. Law school is a trip,” another student said in a post on X.

But if one wears a keffiyeh, whether of Palestinian descent or not, they are directly in the line of attack for verbal, racial and Islamophobic abuse (as has been documented in many cases.)

A video on X shows a Harvard graduate student wearing a keffiyeh, being subjected to Islamophobic harassment on campus by a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School and a former Obama Admin advisor.

A woman in New York allegedly accused a man wearing a keffiyeh of supporting Hamas and attacked him. 

The mother of one of the students who was shot dead in Vermont,  told CBS News that she believed they would not have been targeted if they had not been “dressed the way that they were and speaking Arabic.”