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WITNESS
Made in Palestine
A look at the last remaining factory in the West Bank producing the iconic keffiyeh.
Last Modified: 12 May 2010 13:56 GMT

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The keffiyeh is an ancient Arabic headdress, designed to keep you cool in the hot Middle Eastern summers and warm in the chill of winter.

But it is more than just a practical headdress and over recent decades it has come to symbolise the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

At one time, small factories in the West Bank were producing thousands of keffiyeh's a day, but the forces of today's global economy means that cheap imports are now much more available.

The documentary looks at the last keffiyeh maker in the West Bank: 76 years old, he has finally fallen victim to a cocktail of competition from China, globalisation and Israeli occupation.

Through the factory's story we discover the history and significance of the different types of keffiyeh, and how the colour is an emblem of the particular political faction to which you belong.
Source:
Al Jazeera
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