Dear All,
Be aware that all the following Kafiyeh designs are not original prints. These are not true Palestinian Kafiyehs, and are mostly made in Israel with an objective to reduce the popularity of the original one.
You may check the tag and you will find written on it “made in Israel “, despite the colorful designs , please don’t give up on the original Palestinian Kafiyeh since it like identifies us to the world, resembles our struggle with the enemy and strengthens our ties with the land.
Taking over our traditions and folklore is something we all know about the Israelis, starting from our traditional dress which the Israeli airlines hostess are wearing it, to taking over our houses and ending with our food , but here is another attempt from them to demolish and steal our tradition by copying our Kafiyeh, if you don’t believe it, then look carefully to the following pictures:
All of us know the Israeli flag with the Star of David in the middle, so look carefully at the following pictures.
They copied our kufiya, but with star of david prints on them and they even called it Kaffia.
Remember how they took over our cities, they changed their names, from Haifa to Yafo, and Acca to Acco and so on …… its exactly the same method and the same strategy as with the Kafiyeh.
So , please be careful of what your are wearing. Wear the original Palestinian Kufiya not the fake ones.
Here is Dalal Mughrabi wearing the Kafiyeh, the famous Palestinian fighter.
Dalal Mughrabi
Dalal was one of the earliest known Palestinian freedom fighters.
Born in 1958 in a refugee camp to a family that lived in Jaffa until 1948, when the Israelis won the war, killed and chased out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and established their current state, Dalal was raised in Beirut and secretly joined the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization).
In 1978 just before she turned 20 and having had received proper military training, Dalal was chosen to carry out the Kamal Al ‘Odwan Operation (the Israelis called it the Coastal Road Massacre) in retaliation for the assassination of several PLO leaders.
According to the plan, Dalal and her squad were to land near a coastal road heading towards Tel Aviv, hijack one of the military buses driving in that direction and head for the Knesset and in the process kill as many soldiers and Israeli leaders as possible.
The mission was never accomplished. Half way through the process the
Israeli soldier drags the dead Dalal before the media
Israeli military learned of what happened and a chase took place on the coastal road leading to the death of several civilians in the cross fire. After many hours of a vicious street war in which tens of Israeli soldiers were killed, the 11 Palestinian fighters ran out of ammunition and finally the Israeli army squad, led by Ehud Barak, shot all of them to death.
When journalists arrived to report on the incident Ehud Barak shot several bullets on the already dead Dalal for the benefit of photographers and then proceeded to disarm her from the empty ammunition belt she had on and pulled her by the hair to allow for a better view of her face! — from Hatshepsut — Women, Society and Academia.
Also here is Andaleeb Taqatqeh another fighter wearing the Kufiya.
Here is the difference between the fake and the original, it is the real difference between the natives and the settlers, between the owners and the thieves.
always be devoted to, only and only the Palestinian Kafiyeh
samar and yousef
all people have a home to live in, except us, our home lives inside us.
The Kufiyeh Project seeks to promote the kufiyeh as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle for justice and to support its continued production in Palestine. See http://www.thekufiyehproject.org/about.html
The Hirbawi factory, located in Hebron (Al-Khalil) is the only kufiyeh factory in Palestine. Even while the kufiyeh enjoys a surge of popularity around the globe, the family-run company that produces this symbol of the Palestinian national struggle has been slowly grinding to a halt. “It’s the Chinese imports,” explains Yasser Hirbawi, the 76 year-old factory owner. “In the 70’s we could barely keep up with demand, but by the mid-90’s cheap Chinese scarves started coming in, because of globalisation and Gatt. We were forced to lower our prices and today we are working to a fraction of our capacity because we cannot compete.” The factory used to produce more than 1,000 scarves a day, but now makes less than 100 – and struggles to sell those.
The Kufiyeh Project aims to ensure that Palestine’s only kufiyeh factory stays in business (and hopefully help it grow), by regularly buying from them in bulk and distributing worldwide.
The black-and-white keffiyeh is a symbol of Palestinian heritage. The red-and-white keffiyeh is most strongly associated with Jordan (although leftist groups of Palestinians often prefer the red-and-white keffiyeh too). Traditionally worn by Palestinian peasants, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s. Its prominence increased in the 1960 with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Arafat.
In 2008 Yasser Hirbawi, who for five decades had been the only Palestinian manufacturer of keffiyehs, told Reuters that, “Two years ago I had to close down my factory because I couldn’t compete with Chinese-made Hattas (keffiyehs) that sell for 40 percent less. The keffiyeh, especially the all-white version, can also be called a ġutrah, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain (where the skullcap is confusingly called keffiyeh), but is also known in some areas as shmagh or ḥaṭṭah.
[Editor’s Note: Thanks to Ray for this story and the link.]
Maybe the Kafiyehs that are sold here in Australia are Israeli but I am sure the ones I get from Lebanon are made in Lebanon.
Plus the way people look at it in the middle east is different to the way people look at here … in Lebanon when people see you wearing Kafiyeh (no matter what color you are wearing) they actually know that you are a person that is against an illegal and oppressive situation “not necessarily the Palestinian cause only, so it can incorporate other unjust causes and acts” because the black and white Kafiyeh in the middle east does not only represent the Palestinian suffering, however it represents historically Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi suffering.
For the Arabs, especially the Middle Eastern Arabs the “kafiyeh or hata” has a lot of meaning to it not just fashion.
The Kafiyeh means a lot to Arabs… especially the Arabs that went through historical occupation being by Israel, Britain or France.
However, it became more significant with the Palestinian cause because they still suffer from illegal occupation and injustice till this day…
I hope this clears things up more from an Arab point of view…
Want to have a good feed at the same time as promoting solidarity with Palestine?
Then come along to UQ this Thursday for a
HALAL & VEGETARIAN BBQ LUNCH
Thursday 7th May, from 11am
Outside the UQ Union building
Students for Palestine at UQ will be selling Halal and vegetarian sausages to raise funds for our future activities, including a photo exhibit to commemorate Al Nakba (to be held at UQ on Thursday 14th May)
For further enquiries or to volunteer assistance, please call Jo on 0422 212 760 or email students4palestineUQ@gmail.com
The next Justice for Palestine meeting is on this Wednesday (May 6), 6:30pm at the TLC Building (2nd floor), 16 Peel St, South Brisbane.
The meeting will start planning the action outside Kevin Rudd’s office to present the petition calling for sanctions on Israel. As part of this we want to get an idea of how we are going with collecting signatures, so if anyone has any filled petitions, please bring them to the meeting. If you have filled petitions but can’t make it along, please let me know and I can arrange to pick them up.
There’s an article on kufiyyeh at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh
The Kufiyeh Project seeks to promote the kufiyeh as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle for justice and to support its continued production in Palestine. See http://www.thekufiyehproject.org/about.html
The Hirbawi factory, located in Hebron (Al-Khalil) is the only kufiyeh factory in Palestine. Even while the kufiyeh enjoys a surge of popularity around the globe, the family-run company that produces this symbol of the Palestinian national struggle has been slowly grinding to a halt. “It’s the Chinese imports,” explains Yasser Hirbawi, the 76 year-old factory owner. “In the 70’s we could barely keep up with demand, but by the mid-90’s cheap Chinese scarves started coming in, because of globalisation and Gatt. We were forced to lower our prices and today we are working to a fraction of our capacity because we cannot compete.” The factory used to produce more than 1,000 scarves a day, but now makes less than 100 – and struggles to sell those.
The Kufiyeh Project aims to ensure that Palestine’s only kufiyeh factory stays in business (and hopefully help it grow), by regularly buying from them in bulk and distributing worldwide.
The black-and-white keffiyeh is a symbol of Palestinian heritage. The red-and-white keffiyeh is most strongly associated with Jordan (although leftist groups of Palestinians often prefer the red-and-white keffiyeh too). Traditionally worn by Palestinian peasants, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s. Its prominence increased in the 1960 with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Arafat.
In 2008 Yasser Hirbawi, who for five decades had been the only Palestinian manufacturer of keffiyehs, told Reuters that, “Two years ago I had to close down my factory because I couldn’t compete with Chinese-made Hattas (keffiyehs) that sell for 40 percent less. The keffiyeh, especially the all-white version, can also be called a ġutrah, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain (where the skullcap is confusingly called keffiyeh), but is also known in some areas as shmagh or ḥaṭṭah.
[Editor’s Note: Thanks to Ray for this story and the link.]
Dear Colleagues
I think this report in the NY Times nails (refutes) the lie that Hamas is the warmonger.
Read the full report Addressing U.S., Hamas Says It Grounded Rockets
In solidarity
David A
Hi everyone!!
Maybe the Kafiyehs that are sold here in Australia are Israeli but I am sure the ones I get from Lebanon are made in Lebanon.
Plus the way people look at it in the middle east is different to the way people look at here … in Lebanon when people see you wearing Kafiyeh (no matter what color you are wearing) they actually know that you are a person that is against an illegal and oppressive situation “not necessarily the Palestinian cause only, so it can incorporate other unjust causes and acts” because the black and white Kafiyeh in the middle east does not only represent the Palestinian suffering, however it represents historically Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi suffering.
For the Arabs, especially the Middle Eastern Arabs the “kafiyeh or hata” has a lot of meaning to it not just fashion.
The Kafiyeh means a lot to Arabs… especially the Arabs that went through historical occupation being by Israel, Britain or France.
However, it became more significant with the Palestinian cause because they still suffer from illegal occupation and injustice till this day…
I hope this clears things up more from an Arab point of view…
Peace out!!!
Salam el-Merebi
Want to have a good feed at the same time as promoting solidarity with Palestine?
Then come along to UQ this Thursday for a
HALAL & VEGETARIAN BBQ LUNCH
Thursday 7th May, from 11am
Outside the UQ Union building
Students for Palestine at UQ will be selling Halal and vegetarian sausages to raise funds for our future activities, including a photo exhibit to commemorate Al Nakba (to be held at UQ on Thursday 14th May)
For further enquiries or to volunteer assistance, please call Jo on 0422 212 760 or email students4palestineUQ@gmail.com
Hi all,
The next Justice for Palestine meeting is on this Wednesday (May 6), 6:30pm at the TLC Building (2nd floor), 16 Peel St, South Brisbane.
in solidarity,
Kathy