Deir Abu Meshal, West Bank – Of all the cottage industries you might expect to find in the Israeli- occupied West Bank, the crocheting of Jewish skullcaps by Palestinian hands seems one of the oddest.
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But creating the colorful cap, known in Hebrew as a “kippah,” keeps hundreds of women busy in villages like Deir Abu Meshal, which have been making the religious headgear for their Jewish neighbors for some 40 years.
Almost every house in the village of 3,000 west of Ramallah makes the little caps. It’s a social event as well as a helpful cash-earner. Women bring their wool and needles to each other’s home to crochet and chat.
“We make qors (the Arab name for kippah translates as ‘disc’) while having a gossip,” said Umm Ali. “We meet each other and we make money at the same time,” added the mother of three, whose husband is unemployed.
The women make around five caps a day, worth about 12 shekels ($3) each.
“Women here can’t sit down without knitting. We’ve gotten used to it,” jokes Ruqaya Barghouthi.
Six Palestinian skullcap dealers distribute the wool, needles and the models to women in this village and 10 neighboring villages.
The finished articles are collected each week and shipped to Israeli retailers. The skullcaps are also exported to the United States.
“The kippah business is what makes my shop busy. Women buy stuff from the kippah money they earn,” said Riyad Ata, whose grocery store serves as a collection point for finished caps from some 100 women.
Observant Jews wear a kippah, which means dome in Hebrew, to cover the head in acknowledgement of the supreme God.
The women of Deir Abu Meshal, known for its traditional dress embroidery, say that to them it’s merely a business.
They say they have no qualms about furnishing skullcaps for the people of the occupying power or the Jewish settler, who may be living on Palestinian land.
They say the work is convenient: they don’t have to travel.
“Without this knitting business, people here would be very poor,” said Nema Khamis, 50, who passed on her skills to her five daughters and daughter-in-law.
Palestinian weavers used to make the traditional keffiyeh, the checkered Arab headscarf that late leader Yasser Arafat made a national Palestinian symbol. But much of that business has now gone to China, where costs are lower.
Maybe the kippah’s should also be made in china? Why support our murders?
yet another reason not to wear those multi coloured toevah looking yarmulkas
there is nothing like good old fashioned capitalism
Same as america outsourcing to china their biggest enemy
Why is that so shocking your petro dollars helps the Anti-Semites everyday, and you have a lot of right-winger who don’t see it that way
hey at least they are not blowing up some isrealis and with the money did you not read that the grocery owner is happy because he/she is busy in the store i guess they use the money for food.
Theme of upcoming yom iyun for chodesh elul-
“My yarmulke is frummer than your yarmulke: Finding ways to endear ourselves to Avinu Shebashamayim”
They weave sinah into every yarmulke . . . with a laugh, too.
How does one feel wearing a kippa when at the time it was knitted the Arabke
discussed how proud she is of her relative who murdered jews, or maybe his own
relative.
Purchasing from Arabs is no different.– It surely is, it finances and supports Arab families and terrorist gas tanks on their way to attacks against Jews.
As long as it’s yamalkas, not tzitzis, there’s no problem at all.
Quote: “They say they have no qualms about furnishing skullcaps for the people of the occupying power or the Jewish settler, who may be living on Palestinian land.”
…as if there is such a thing as “Palestinian” land or people!
Reuters at its best
Better to knit Kippot than make suicide bombs, I think tthis could be a method to encourage economic and maybe eventually other forms of cooperation between our two peoples.
You know of course that all the hadassim and arovos holders made of palm(lulov) leaves have been weaved by arab women forever! When you use it for a dvar Mitzvah, you elevate it to a level of Kedusha. So too the Kippah.
1) Israeli- occupied West Bank, – IT IS ALL ISRAEL
2) Did they weave the yarmulkas “lishma”?
This looks like the start to peace between the palestinians and israelis. Anyone want to start a business with me sewing arabic headgear?!
and Indonesian ovdei avodo zora makes black velvet Yarmulkes ….
The real question is why, in their thirst to maximize profits, Jews employ their mortal enemy. Does profit take precedent to all? Do cheap goods and services from Communist, Jihadist, and 3rd world countries matter more than employing people locally and paying a bit more?
This is the double-edged sword of globalized capitalism: the insatiable appetite for profits often leads to the employment of Communist slave labor or your terrorist-loving neighbor at the expense of basic ethics and integrity.
Yet the sons of these women threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at my car when I drove past the village a year ago! Yes, I lived in the Shomron- BTW- these women live about 15 minutes from Kiryat Sefer, Modiin Illit…