An Open Letter to Keffiyeh Boy

Stop chanting and read this.

Graphic generated by the author using AI software

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This is a guest essay written by professor Paul Finlayson who writes the newsletter, “Freedom to Offend.”

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” ― Charles MacKay, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”

We humans are tremendous.

We have travelled to the moon and the depths of the oceans. We may not have conquered death, but we have fought it, delayed it, and conquered much of nature. We live in comfort in the extremes of winter. We have conquered hot lands, which are humid, crawling with malaria and mosquitoes, and full of death, and allowed people to live there in comfort and peace. We have made the desert bloom.

Yet, we struggle. We may have conquered bacteria, but we have not conquered the vanity of our delusions.

A man on a Toronto street shouts into a microphone: “Intifada Revolution, Intifada Revolution, there is one solution!” He leads his angry, keffiyeh-wearing gathering; about a hundred circle him.

One boy wearing a keffiyeh and “Supreme” sweatshirt stands in the third row. He has found a social circle and no longer worries about being invited to house parties.

He raises his fist as he joins the chants.

There is one solution: When did we hear that last in history?

One solution, the final solution: Did you ever see those black-and-white films of Hitler screaming into the jubilant mobs?

And as Hitler howled his threats, his solution, did you see the crowds?

It’s the same type as I see today: caught up in the moment, full of unwarranted conviction on the truth of their chants.

“Intifada! Intifada! Revolution!”

Did you know an intifada is an uprising of violence? It was spoken by people wearing keffiyehs in Gaza as they roared into Israel on October 7th, too, with 1,200 dead. Did they purge their hatred? Did it bring peace? Did the uprising in Gaza, the breaking of the gates, the jubilation, and their temporary intifada make you proud?

“One solution!” — did you learn that in school? Did you study Hitler’s one solution? Does that sound familiar, or did that get removed from your curriculum, replaced by discussions of the newest and brightest new word that ends in phobia?

Did you learn about intifada? It means uprising; it means violence. Do you remember October 7th? Were you there when the gates were breached? Were you there when young men flew their hang gliders, firing their guns into thousands of teenagers dancing in the grass?

“Intifada, revolution” — were you looking at the schematics provided by the Palestinian workers who, though living in an “open-air prison,” managed to find work and money for food and labour on a kibbutz?

The killing of the Zaks — Etti Zak, Itai Zak, and Sagi Zak — were not numbers; they were people, and they had names. They were burned alive. They were not warriors; they were a mother, father, and boy. The terrified teenage girls they raped and brought home in triumph, those crowds chanted “Intifada! Revolution!” too. Do you join them? They were the same age as my daughter. I cannot imagine the parent’s pain.

Do you know what you are saying?

You speak of revolution; what revolution was not drenched in blood? Is that what you want? Is that why you repeat “Intifada Revolution”? Did the uprising, the small intifada on October 7th bring peace? Did the warrior bragging to his proud parents that he had killed 10 of those Jews bring a solution?

Or was that revolution?

When your warriors returned home with old women and encouraged children to spit on them, was that your revolution? Do you know that you are following Palestinians, an Islamized culture, the one that no Arab nation wants anything to do with? They are fanatical on an ISIS level.

“Palestine is our demand; no peace on stolen land!” I heard the boy with the keffiyeh chant.

Then, “Free, free Palestine!”

Gaza was not occupied; it was governed by Hamas, an elected government which got 44 percent of the vote in 2006. Perhaps Hamas was simply the lesser evil between them and Fatah¹.

Still, any party in Canada would dream of 44 percent, and the Liberals have cobbled an effective majority in Canada from 31 percent of the vote. Plus, Hamas runs Gaza; from the hospitals to the public services, they are in charge. Over 18,000 Gazans worked daily in Israel; that is the equivalent of 560,000 Americans crossing into Canada each day to work — not quite an “open-air prison.”

Of course, the border to Israel, as well as the southern border to Egypt, are not open; suicide bombers and militants crossing your border tend to make governments leery of undefended borders.

“Palestine is our demand, no peace on stolen land.” Do you shout this? Is demanding that a country abandon all its land what you want? Has that ever happened in history? Yes, countries have given up land, but when has an entire country done so voluntarily?

It has never happened. It is a call for genocide, a call for the destruction of Israel. It does not sound so good when it doesn’t rhyme, does it?

Is Hamas looking to help the Israelis — all seven million Jews and two million Arabs — pack and move to Saskatchewan? Keffiyeh boy, do you ever think that demanding the entire nation of Israel leave is nothing less than a savage call for destruction? You sound like Hamas, keffiyeh boy, and have they changed their tune?

Hamas official Hamad Al-Regeb, in an April 2023 sermon, prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews, whom he called filthy animals. I’m sorry, it’s not poetic and doesn’t rhyme, but still — do you want to shout it out?

Of course, Hamas isn’t that bad, right, keffiyeh boy? Are they just a little angry and misunderstood? When they say they want total war with Israel, is that just anger? Were they having a bad day, or did they not get enough sleep?

You protest stolen; it is such a nice rhythmic chant. It sounds so good when you say it with your keffiyeh brothers and sisters, and it works well with your story. Did you know that Palestinian Arabs did not even make those accusations? Why did Arab leadership at the Peel Commission in 1937 say that all Jewish land had been legally acquired, mainly from the British?

But surely they let it go too cheap? Surely Israel has too much of the Middle East? But keffiyeh boy, why is one portion out of a thousand too much?

Then, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Re-adjust your keffiyah. This is your favourite. Is this what you want? What river? What sea? The land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea does not have much room for Israel. But it has a poetic lilt to it. It sounds lovely, but the geographic reality is quite dissonant.

Your lyrics sing of the elimination of Israel.

Presently, the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada has suspended me for six months based on complaints from a radical Palestinian activist and fellow professor, a man consumed with hatred against the Jews. So, keffiyeh boy, you might get along.

You might also get along well with the assistant vice provost of the University of Guelph-Humber, a man who shoved the paper in my face, a man full of threats and anger, suspending me as he shook with rage, unable to sit at a table, ramped up, consumed with unmerited righteous fury — and why? The one who said he was suspending me on something he hadn’t read, he took the word of a Palestinian fanatic.

When confronted with his fellow traveller’s call for the elimination of Israel, I said I stood with Israel and did not take kindly to his proposition to murder nine million Israelis: seven million Jews and two million Arabs. Sorry about that.

Perhaps, keffiyeh boy, you do not wear a suit, maybe you do not sit behind a desk, and you at least have the excuse of foolish, uninformed hormonal youth. You show your colours, wear your scarf, and do not hide behind lawyers; you do not always wear designer clothing.

You raise your voice, but do you know what you say? Are you just a follower of the chants? Are they your words? Do you chant for understanding or for actual peace? Does your mention of Jews ever not imply that you want the death of all of them?

You go to a university. Your sainted “oppressed” wants a theocracy. Do you know that your university’s foundation is not built on the glory of Allah, but on reason? Do you have any idea what that means? Your fellow travellers want to return to a golden age 1,300 years past. They reject reason. They want women two steps behind. They want gays dead.

Your sainted “oppressed” may kill Jews first, but Christians will come second. They do not hide their wishes. Your chants could also come from their mouths; they are with you in spirit, and you are with them, too, keffiyeh boy. You have made your choice; you have said the chants. You have staked your land. If you don’t stand for peace, do you chant just because you like the merch?

Do you see Jewish mobs baying outside mosques? Do you see them calling for the death of Arabs? Are they aligned with a mob that praises their children when they spit on old women who were dragged from their beds and thrown into the back of a pickup truck?

“Not just annexation! Not just occupation! Fight for liberation! Bring the whole thing down!”

This says it best, doesn’t it? Keffiyeh boy, bring the whole thing down, destroy the Jews, destroy the state.

It feels good to say, bring it all down. But what do you build it up with? Do you want to build on the bones of Jews? Do you know what team you have joined? Do you also love death more than life? When you have children, will you long for them to die in an attempt to kill Jews? You must; that is your team; you can’t hide behind pretensions of good intentions.

Where was your keffiyeh when 555,000 Muslims were killed in Syria? Do you speak up for Muslims being killed today in Sudan? Did you cry for the 20,000 Chechens killed, the 40,000 killed by your hero Houthis, those bold oppressed victims who shell those evil boats operated by those unarmed Filipinos in the Red Sea who are bringing grain to feed Yemenis?

And contrary to what the Houthis may attempt to claim, their attacks do nothing to help the Palestinians. Their actions are not bringing a single morsel of assistance or food to the Palestinian people. These are facts, keffiyeh boy, so please listen.

Time and time again, the Houthis continue to demonstrate disregard for the Yemeni people. Last year, they attacked a civilian ship and disabled it, risking spillage of fertiliser and fuel into the sea and threatening Yemen’s fishing industry. They also attacked other civilian ships, including the Sea Champion, which was bringing corn and other food supplies to the Yemeni people in Aden and to Hudaydah.

What were your chants when you hit the streets as 500,000 were killed in Sudan? Or was the keffiyeh left in your Amazon shopping cart?

Did the Sudanese or the genocide against the Uyghurs in China not compel you to wear any sympathetic fashion? Did your neck feel chilled? Did you feel naked and empty then?

Is it only about the fashion, keffiyeh boy? Do you understand your cause, or are you just mindlessly repeating hateful words? Are you just following the herd?

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1. The Palestinian political party that operates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank