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This is a guest essay written by Ilana Maymind, author of “Exile and Otherness: The Ethics of Shinran and Maimonides.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Bedouins, pastorally nomadic Arab tribes, have for many centuries been wearing the traditional Arab headscarf with its circular rope.
It is not new.
A keffiyeh provides good protection from the Middle East’s harsh desert climate, from sand and sun, and has become standard around the region, much as a suit and tie has in the West.
The name “keffiyeh” is thought to derive from the city of Kufa in Iraq in the seventh century. However, the headscarf has different names in different areas of the Middle East, and comes in a variety of styles. Men in the Persian Gulf states more commonly wear a plain white keffiyeh, while the King of Jordan usually wears a red one. And how about that black-and-white one?
The iconic image of former longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in a black-and-white fishnet keffiyeh has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
But that keffiyeh is as Palestinian as Yasser Arafat — which is to say, not very. Arafat was an Egyptian: by name, by lineage, by birth, and even by admission.
Farid Georges Kassab, an Orthodox Christian from Beirut, was the first Arab recorded to use the term “Palestinian.” In his book from 1909 he wrote, “the Orthodox Palestinian Ottomans call themselves Arabs, and are in fact Arabs.”1 Using the term “Palestinian” to describe a people only began in the middle of the 20th century, and for reasons of gaining political leverage over the already-established Israel.
The keffiyeh then is not exactly Palestinian, but historically has long been a recognizably Arab garment. There are, however, different styles and colors which have meaning and tell a story. The story behind the black-and-white keffiyeh is similar to the story of the Palestinian flag: It is ironically down to an Englishman, back in the time of the British Mandate of Palestine.
John Bagot Glubb had been a Lieutenant General in the British armed forces before founding the Arab Legion that later became the Royal Jordanian Army. The red and white keffiyeh was traditionally worn by Jordanian Bedouin, but Glubb needed a way to distinguish between them and the soldiers from the British Mandate of Palestine under his command. So he came up with a black-and-white alternative.
Sudra: The Jewish Headdress
Even older than the Iraqi keffiyeh from the seventh century is the Israelite sudra (sometimes known also as the sudar), which is the version worn by Jews in ancient Israel. And you know where that is mentioned? In the Gospel of Luke! That means the sudra was around two thousand years ago, in the time of Jesus. Jesus Himself mentioned the sudra in the parable of the talents:
“The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief [sudra]…”2
This last word here, translated as handkerchief or piece of cloth, is sudra in Greek (σουδαρίῳ – soudariō). That’s right, Jesus talked about the sudra in the parable of the talents.
The sudra looks similar to the keffiyeh in many ways — a piece of cloth wrapped around the head as a protection from the elements, and for dignity. Rudy Rochman, a prominent Jewish activist, explained that the sudra is a native Judean headdress and has been a part of Israelite culture for thousands of years. The traditional skullcap worn by Jewish people today is apparently a minimized sudra that Jewish people could hide in order blend in with the societies they were living in.
Due to the persecution Jewish people faced and assimilation they endured, the sudras over time were minimized into smaller head coverings that could be hidden under hats, making Jews less noticeable in foreign lands. These head coverings today can be recognized and commonly referred to as a kippa in Hebrew or yamaka in Yiddish.
Jews with North African and Middle Eastern diasporic experiences were often forced to remove the sudras from their heads as they were dhimmis (Arabic for non-Muslims who lived in Islamic states) and thus could no longer wear them as second-class citizens.
Rochman believes that wearing his sudra is a way of quietly demonstrating the indigenous nature of the Jewish People and their connection to the land of Judea, saying: “This world will once again know it to be a normal part of a decolonized Israelite reality.”
Colonizer or colonized?
The “pro-Palestinian” and “anti-Zionist” protesters wrapping keffiyehs around their faces decry Israel as a racist, colonial project. But the very scarf they wear testifies to the opposite. There was no autonomous Palestinian state to colonize, but rather the vestiges of the Turkish colonialist enterprise that had crumbled.
The Middle East was divvied up and given back to all the indigenous peoples that had previously been ruled by the Ottoman Empire. This included Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as what would become the reborn State of Israel in 1948. They were being liberated from the colonial power of Turkey to become autonomous states.
Muhammad Y. Muslih, a Palestinian historian, affirmed that during the 400 years under the Ottoman Empire, before the British Mandate, there was no political unit known as “Palestine.” Here is how he described it:
“Before the end of World War One, Palestine formed part of the Ottoman Empire. Under the Ottoman regime (1517-1918), there was no political unit known as Palestine. In fact, the country was better known by its Arab-Muslim name of al-Ard al-Muqadassa (the Holy Land). Palestine was also referred to as Surya al-Janubiyya (Southern Syria), because it was part of geographical Syria, namely the land mass that incorporated present-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Transjordan.”3
Palestine has historically been the name of an area, like the Levant, or Mesopotamia. The term was used to describe everyone, of whatever ethnicity, living in the area of Palestine. There were Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs, but there were no ethnically Palestinian people.
Rather, the Arabic speakers of the land were Syrians, Bedouins, Druze, Arameans, Maronites, Egyptians, Arabs from Transjordan, and other neighboring areas. Some of these families have lived in the land for generations, even back to the time of Jesus. Others arrived when more prosperity and infrastructure started appearing around the time of the British Mandate.
An important point to make here is that the term “Arab” can be confusing. Arabs are not necessarily those from Arabia, but the term “Arab” in the Arabic language literally means one who speaks Arabic. That includes an awful lot of people. The reason there are so many Arabic speakers is because of colonization.
From the seventh century onwards, the Muslim prophet Mohammed and his relentless wars of jihad saw to that. A large number of people — Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Egyptians, you name it — were forcibly converted to Islam and to speak Arabic.
What if Israel lost its War of Independence in 1948?
You will often hear that this current war did not start on October 7th, 2023 — but in 1948. The State of Israel’s establishment is seen by some as a travesty, a catastrophe. But let’s imagine what might have happened if the five Arab armies that attacked the new Jewish state had triumphed over baby Israel.
Would “Palestine” be a free state, with all its borders intact? Not even remotely. The Arab army, remember, was not Palestinian. It was Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi. They would have divided the land between themselves. The key concern was maintaining Islamic sovereignty.
Abdel Rahman Azzam, first secretary-general of the Arab League, told a British reporter that the plan was for Transjordan “to swallow up the central hill regions of Palestine with access to the Mediterranean at Gaza.”4 He candidly admitted: “The Egyptians would get the Negev. The Galilee would go to Syria, except that the coastal part as far as Acre would be added to Lebanon.”5
In other words, the land would be divvied up to the neighboring Arab Muslim countries. There was no plan to create an autonomous State of Palestine. It would not have been “free.” It would have simply been occupied by neighboring Muslim countries instead.
During the British Mandate, the Peel Commission (appointed in 1936) tried to find a solution that would satisfy both Jews and Arabs living in Mandatory Palestine, ultimately proposing a partition plan. This was roundly rejected by the Arab Higher Committee in 1937, which explained: “This country does not belong only to Palestine Arabs but to the whole Arab and Muslim Worlds.”6
We see that same mentality nowadays within Hamas. A senior Hamas leader also said: “This … land … is not the property of the Palestinians. … This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world.”7
The Inverted Reality of ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Protests
These protests have revealed a great deal of upside-down thinking, and the worldview that the keffiyeh now represents has become a complete inversion of the truth: The furious keffiyeh-clad protesters are supporting a terrorist organization guilty of the exact crimes for which they condemn Israel.
Some of the Palestinian keffiyeh scarves seen sported by Palestine Liberation Organization dignitaries have a design of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem with the declaration: “Jerusalem is ours.” This is the reason they rage. It is not Western-style freedom they want; it is Muslim control of Jerusalem and the whole of Israel (God’s real estate).
That is not to say the people themselves do not want freedom; of course many do. Many just want peace. But the drive to subjugate the entire area of the Levant, of “Palestine” back under Islamic control is strong. Sadly we have seen it is not just the leaders who are pushing for it and willing to sacrifice for it, but it seems the majority in Gaza and the West Bank feel the same way.
And now they have drawn multitudes of impressionable and eager activists from the West into their battle to reconquer. There will be a huge number protesting who only mean well, who are just responding to what they think are images of innocents dying and in need, and the idea of people living under oppression. The situation is very complex and the optics are not good.
The truth about the lengths that Israel goes to in order to protect innocent Palestinians is often drowned out, sidelined, or censored. Reports from Hamas are believed and reported as fact by many mainstream media outlets, while Israel’s word is constantly doubted and questioned. The outrage is understandable, but many have pointed out that this outrage seems reserved only for situations involving Israel. And in their fury they cannot see the irony of their actions:
They have turned campuses into battlegrounds, even as they demand a ceasefire.
They scream about genocide while supporting Hamas, who features genocide as part of their official charter.
They bully and exclude Jewish students, denying them entry because of their race — while accusing Israel of apartheid.
They rage against expressions of nationalism in the West, yet wave Palestinian flags while shouting about land and borders.
They talk about innocent blood — while defending Hamas who deliberately murders, burns, and tortures innocent people.
They accuse Israel of colonialism — while effectively supporting the return of an Islamic caliphate to rule the entire region.
The keffiyeh has been wrapped up in all this chaos, almost emblematic of such demonic insanity.
“The Invention of the Palestinian People.” Times of Israel.
Luke 19:17-20
Muhammad Y. Muslih. “The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism.” Columbia University Press, 1988, pg. 11.
“The Palestinians, Alone.” The New York Times.
Efraim Karsh. “Palestine Betrayed.” Yale University Press, 2010.
“Palestinian Leaders Don’t Want an Independent State.” Middle East Forum.
“An Interview with Hamas Leader Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahar.” MEMRI.
Excellent post! I will share it widely!
Very good post! Few people realize the goal of the conflict from the genesis in 1948 was/is not a Palestinian state but an islamic state or states. What an interesting lot of history your essay on the origin of the keffiyeh illuminated.
Thank you.