The Nation: “Everything You’ve Heard About the Keffiyeh Is Wrong”
A pro-Palestinian protester wearing a keffiyeh in New York on June 13. 2024. (Fatih Aktas / Anadolu via Getty Images)
On June 27, the “Unmask Hate” coalition, made up of a group of lawmakers who are trying to criminalize masks at New York City protests, stood outside Columbia University to explain why they thought covered faces were such a threat to public safety. One of their key targets? The iconic Palestinian scarf known as the keffiyeh.
Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz claimed that “there is no difference” between a protester wearing a keffiyeh around their head, and a Ku Klux Klan member with a hood. He urged lawmakers to return to a special session to pass his legislation reinstating the protest mask ban.
Dinowitz subsequently walked his statement back, though he simultaneously doubled down on the smearing of pro-Palestinian protesters. “To be clear—the issue here is intent and masked intimidation. I should have been clearer and spoken more artfully,” he said. “No offense was intended. I absolutely do not equate the two in and of themselves. Full stop.”
Dinowitz is not alone. An increasingly long line of prominent people have demonized the keffiyeh in recent months by comparing the scarf to hate symbols donned by white nationalist groups.
Clearly, these comments are deluded and bizarre. But what they highlight above all is the depth of anti-Palestinian racism that exists in this society. Attacks against Palestinians and their allies have become so normalized at this point that it’s now open season on banning the simplest acts of solidarity. The vilification of this cultural garment has led to violent attacks all over the country. From college students getting shot while walking around their neighborhood to park-goers getting hot coffee thrown at them to people getting pushed towards subway platforms, it’s clear that the patterned scarf has made people targets of hate crimes, not the perpetrators of them.
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Read the full article on The Nation.
