For years, cultural appropriation was treated as a serious offense. Hairstyles, costumes, traditional clothing, and religious symbols were all policed in the name of respecting other people’s cultures.
But somehow, the rules disappear when the symbol is a keffiyeh.
The keffiyeh is not a fashion trend invented by Western activists. It is a traditional Middle Eastern garment with roots across the Arab world. The name is commonly linked to Kufa, Iraq, and for centuries it was worn as regional dress, not as a campus protest accessory.
The black-and-white keffiyeh became more closely associated with Palestinian nationalism in the 20th century, especially through figures like Yasser Arafat and militant groups that turned it into a political symbol. Over time, it became part of the visual language of anti-Israel activism.
And that is where the hypocrisy becomes impossible to ignore.
A non-Native person wearing a headdress as a costume? Appropriation.
A non-Black person wearing certain hairstyles? Appropriation.
A Western activist wearing a Middle Eastern garment at an anti-Israel protest? Suddenly, it is “solidarity.”
The point is not that no one can wear a keffiyeh. The point is that the same people who built an entire moral framework around cultural appropriation seem to abandon it the moment the symbol can be used against Israel.
Western activists love accusing Israelis of colonialism while wrapping themselves in a culture many of them do not belong to, do not understand, and often reduce to a political costume.
There is a word for taking someone else’s history and turning it into your own fashion statement.
They just do not like applying it to themselves.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
