أريد كوفية من الخليل

I think my Arabic might be broken above, but I would still love a Made in Palestine real Keffiyeh:

The film may be a few years old now, but it documents one of the more nascent tragedies of the Israeli occupation of Palestine – the economic strangulation. To the point where there are only two real keffiyeh makers remaining, both in Al Khalil. Palestinian importers are now looking to China because the product is cheaper. The painful irony that the production of one of the most poignant and function symbols of Palestine is now outsourced to China is another tragic effect of the Israeli colonization of the land. To the point that an Israeli businessman is now making an Israeli version of the keffiyeh. After 62 years, have they not stolen enough of Palestinian culture? They seem to still be mining it while simultaneously suffocating it.

I’m watching this program while attending an Arabic intensive in the U.S. – a fairly well know one but I won’t say anymore. It is truly absurd to study a language in a vacuum like this, without understanding the places where and the people who speak the language. The occupations of Iraq and Palestine are one of the most important issues in the entire Arabic speaking world, yet we never discuss it on the campus. We go to meetings on clubs and caligraphy and learn the roots of words and attend lectures, yet we don’t really talk. I don’t want to simplify Arabic language or culture to its political manifestations only, but by not talking about politics we seem to miss the nuances and realities.

Meanwhile the colonization of the body continues in Gaza. This report from Al Jazeera is heartbreaking because it clearly illustrates the incredible vulnerability of people in Gaza. To be dependent on aid is not to live, and to be dependent on aid that is far far less than nutritionally adaquet is a crime. Israel does not allow Gaza to feed itself. The colonization is so thorough that people have no control over their own bodies