Supermarket staff wearing a keffiyeh

[Alpaccas]

I saw a member of staff wearing a keffiyeh today in Sainsbury’s. Do you think it’s a bit too political for a member of staff to be wearing, whilst wearing their work uniform?

It’s a bit like Trump supporters - not every Trump supporter is a racist POS. But EVERY racist POS is a Trump supporter

Not every pro-Palestinian watermelon wearing keffiyeh sporting person is an anti semite. But every anti semite wears this stuff.

What happens when an oppressed group say it DOES incite hate?

Some would say the fact terrorists love next door to the very people they want off the face of the earth is a good reason why the two can’t coexist

What’s anti semitism got to do with Muslims wearing a hijab?! That’s a religious dress and it’s different.

No it wasn’t, it was agreed with no input whatsoever from the people who actually lived there.

I can assure you I don’t hate Jews, I don’t hate any group of people on the basis of race, religion or anything else, the holocaust was horrifying and I can’t even begin to imagine it, but it doesn’t justify the genocide of Palestinians.

And you don’t seem to know the difference between immigration and occupation.

Maybe some do, but many have agreed to two states and I think at this stage the priority is probably more about trying to stop the genocide. Israel doesn’t want two states though, they want it all.

The point I've been repeatedly making is that people are making assumptions about people's Muslims' reasoning for wearing particular items of clothing, whether that be religious or cultural items. This was another example. You're doing it too - you assume the keffiyeh is an indication of anti-Semitism, and refuse to consider that a Muslim may be wearing it for any other reason. And even if people are wearing them in solidarity with Palestine, that doesn't automatically equate to anti-Semitism. Multiple Jewish posters on this thread have argued themselves that they aren't offended or frightened by it and that they too support a safe and free Palestine. The fact that non-Jewish people choose to ignore these viewpoints because they don't fit their narrative just screams Islamophobia, dressed up as false concern for the Jewish community.

Anyway, I'm tapping out of this conversation now, I know there's no reasoning with prejudice. I just hope that anyone on the fence can read the debate and make informed choices for themselves. To reiterate what I said earlier though, an anxious population is exactly what those in power want and need. Fear leads to division and submission, which helps maintain the social order for governments who hide in their ivory towers whilst sending young people to risk their lives fighting for their country safeguarding the powerful.

Yes there are bad people in all walks of life and communities, I'm not oblivious to that, and it's fine to exercise caution if you see someone, from any background, acting suspiciously or being threatening. But if we spend our short time here feeling hate and fear towards others based on things such as how they dress, that's a pretty sad existence in my eyes.

I’m not anti Jewish people having their own state. I suspect most on here expressing empathy for the Palestinians aren’t either. But l’m most definitely against the suppression of another race and the occupation, and ultimately stealing, of their land in order to achieve it.

No, sorry. It wasn’t fair or legal. Legal according to who exactly ? Balfour ? He declared for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, while also ensuring the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities were not prejudiced. That’s what Britain signed up to.

Glad you mentioned settlers - the illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as in the Syrian Golan Heights, are illegal under international law. They breach the Geneva Convention, and many other international declarations. So Israel pretty much blew any fairness and legality out of the water by not only allowing them, but giving them military protection and effectively creating an apartheid system of Jewish only access roads.

So despite the original intentions of the agreement, what the Palestinians have ended up with is a fragmented territory, which has destroyed thriving communities and has had a serious knock on effect on economic development and freedom of movement. That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what was agreed. I don’t have a problem with Jews. I don’t lack empathy for what they have suffered at the hands of Hamas. But l really object to shouts of anti semitism and anti Zionist when people try to point out fact.

Oh, and edited to say, you appear not to know the difference between immigration and occupation.

It's also very interesting you don't seem to have the slightest bit of empathy for the Palestinian people, I've said it once and I'll say it again, empathising with the Palestinian people is NOT antisemetic, no matter how much you want it to be

That’s totally untrue. There are plenty of anti semites that couldn’t care less about Palestine, just as there are plenty of Islamophobes that don’t care about Isreal.

People can be racist without having any knowledge of the people they are being racist about.

Give over that's not true and I don't think anyone on here believes it to be true. I haven't seen the far right Nazi supporting Germans sporting any keffiyahs recently.

Leave your politics at home when you go to your place of work, unless it's a political organisation or a left or right leaning publication.

I know longer listen to one sided rhetoric ~ anyone who doesn't condemn hamas attacks or who doesn't condemn Israeli genocide in Gaza
Silence is not a neutral act.

Really gets up my nose when people compare this conflict to Ukraine. It just shows you have absolutely no geopolitical awareness or understanding.

Can you explain this? What “geopolitical awareness” are you talking about?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/13/israels-attacks-on-reproductive-healthcare-in-gaza-genocidal-un

Israel has carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during its war on Gaza and using sexual violence as a war strategy, United Nations experts have said.

On Thursday, the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a new report that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” Gaza’s main fertility centre while simultaneously blocking medicine for pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care from entering the enclave.

In its report, the commission found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed … the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”, it said in a statement.
It added that this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched after the attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.

For its part, “Israel categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”, its mission in Geneva said in a statement.

The report said maternity hospitals and wards had been systematically destroyed in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Centre, the territory’s main in-vitro fertility clinic.

It said Al-Basma was intentionally shelled in December 2023, destroying about 4,000 embryos at a clinic that served 2,000-3,000 patients a month.
The commission found no credible evidence that the building was used for military purposes.

It said the destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act”.

So if you don't think Israel should exist, what do you think should happen to it?

And more importantly to the millions of Jews who are in Israel having been ethnically cleansed from across the Middle East and whose families fled Europe after the holocaust. Where exactly is it safe and welcoming for them to go?

I just popped back to say that since following this thread if started to notice people wearing these. I don't think I paid attention to it before. I'm not sure what to think when I see it. Following all the views on here with interest.

You don't need to think anything, it's their choice and doesn't affect you. And I remember them being worn a lot in the 80s,90s and noughties. I didn't feel the need to "think" anything.

Yes they were, worn by both sexes, they were fashionable then.

Well these days, as opposed to the 80s, you are sympathising by wearing that scarf with a gang of violent, sadistic men who raped and tortured hostages that they snatched from Israel and young women raped and murdered being paraded around on the back of trucks to whoops of joy from Palestinians. Shani Louk, remember her? Then in the last few months, hostages who look like they've just been released from Auschwitz paraded before whooping, gleeful Palestinians and dancing around the coffins of murdered babies. That's who you are supporting with your scarf.

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No, my scarf just supports human rights for Palestinians and celebrates a deep, longstanding culture.

It wouldn’t bother me as such

But I would think the person wearing it (unnecessarily as it’s not a required religious item of head gear) is purposefully being difficult towards their employers and enjoying putting them in a awkward position and that in itself would make me cautious towards someone needing to make a personal statement and making some shoppers feel uncomfortable. I would see them as getting a kick out of that. Which concerns me.