[AP/Washington Post] Karin Laub and Dalia Nammari - Yasser Herbawi once supplied much of the West Bank and Gaza with black-and-white checkered scarves, but now most of his looms in Hebron stand idle, his product edged out by cheap imports from the world's newest keffiyeh capital: China. After a decade of being flooded with Chinese goods, the West Bank is struggling to compete - yet another obstacle to economic independence for Palestinians. Two-thirds of Hebron's textile workshops have closed and 6,000 shoe factory workers have lost their jobs in the last eight years. Herbawi's son, Izzat, noted that even Arafat's Fatah movement buys some keffiyehs from China.
2008-03-19 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive