Posted on 05/15/2013 5:34:10 AM PDT by SJackson
Manufacturing in the West Bank has collapsed due to a flood of cheap Chinese imports and the effects of the Israeli occupation. But one family is holding the line as the last local producer of a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
No one told the looms at the Hirbawi Keffiyeh factory that business is slow in the West Bank.
Some are as old as the factory, bearing the inscription “1961.” But they still churn out the fabric for traditional Palestinian head scarves, and at a deafening pace.
This is the only Palestinian factory that still produces keffiyehs, popularized by the late Yasser Arafat as a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle. All other keffiyehs sold in the West Bank these days are made in China, which many blame on the Palestinian Authority’s liberalization of trade policies over the past two decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
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In the ‘West Bank,’ manufacturing hardly matters anymore because the people are drowning in “relief” dollars from all over the world.
Estimates north of 10 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR for maybe, maybe, 3.5 million people.
Chinese or not, slipping on that Keffiyah and slamming Jews can earn you some serious cash.
Hey, it works in Boston!
Same-same the US military?
Dave Barry once said of Arafat, "Pizza Hut called and they want their tablecloth back."
I bet manufacturing is Israel is going strong...don't blame the Israeli occupation, blame the TERRORISTS in Gaza and the West Bank...
Spengler alias David P. Goldman crunched the numbers and found the the palis have the highest per capita income in the Middle East (Israel excepted, of course). Article can probably still be found over at atimes.com.
The palis are a big scam.
Well crap, I bet the two keffiyehs I bought in the Old City as souvenirs are Chinese crap. I know that the small Israeli flag I bought and some Israeli patches had China on the label. Doesn’t anyone make their own stuff anymore?
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