Keffiyeh
كوفية
The black-and-white checkered headscarf that became the most recognizable emblem of Palestinian identity and resistance.
The keffiyeh is a square cotton headscarf, traditionally worn by farmers and villagers across Palestine and the Levant as protection against sun and dust. Its black-and-white fishnet pattern, held in place by the black agal cord, became over the twentieth century a marker of Palestinian rural identity.
During the 1936–1939 revolt, fighters adopted the keffiyeh as a uniform of resistance, and Palestinian urbanites wore it in solidarity. It gained global iconic status through Yasser Arafat, who draped it so its folds echoed the map of historic Palestine. After 1967, and again during the first intifada, wearing the keffiyeh became an act of defiance; Israel at times banned or confiscated it.
Today the keffiyeh is worn worldwide as a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians. Its appropriation as a fashion motif by companies with no connection to Palestine has been widely criticized, and campaigns have promoted keffiyehs woven at the Hirbawi factory in Hebron — the last remaining keffiyeh loom in Palestine, operating since 1961.