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The Cult of the Keffiyeh

(Spiked-UK) Brendan O'Neill - Whatever happened to the sin of cultural appropriation? The idea was that no member of the majority group should ever appropriate the cultural habits of a minority group. It's offensive, apparently. It's racial theft. It's parody disguised as authenticity. Yet today, visit any campus in the West and you'll see white youths dressed as Arabs. Keffiyeh chic is all the rage. You're no one unless you have one of these black-and-white scarves that are widely worn in the Palestinian territories. A scarf that has its origins among the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula has become the uniform of the politically enlightened, the must-have of the socially aware. The cult of the keffiyeh falls outside the traditional realm of solidarity. This scarf that is coveted with such relish points to a performative streak in pro-Palestine activism. Pitying Palestine, and by extension hating Israel, has become the "luxury belief" du jour, the means by which one's social worth is measured. The best description of the fad for keffiyeh-wearing is people with privilege taking a custom of a foreign people and turning it into the "hot new thing." The prime role of this garment is as a signifier of virtue. It communicates to your fellow travelers in the universe of luxury beliefs that you, too, have contempt for Israel and compassion for Palestine - an entirely requisite credo for access to the cultural establishment in the 21st century. Finally, there is only one Palestinian weavery left that makes keffiyehs. The keffiyehs we see in the West are mass-produced in China, likely made by hyper-exploited workers in the world's largest unfree state.
2024-12-31 00:00:00
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