What are you afraid of: International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People

What are you afraid of? 

The real threat is the live-streamed genocide, not the keffiyeh.

Yet a quick Google search for “what scarves do terrorists wear?” lists the Palestinian keffiyeh as the top result. When a symbol rooted in Palestinian history, resistance and solidarity is algorithmically framed as “terror,” we must ask: who benefits from this manufactured fear? 

The keffiyeh exists in many forms across the South West and North Africa (SWANA) region. It carries generations of Palestinian memory, pride and anti-colonial struggle. Its patterns come from labour, land and community: fishnets from the sea, bold lines from historic trade routes, and olive leaves woven like the communities who rely on one another to survive. Today, it travels across borders, representing Palestinian visibility, solidarity, and as resilience of communities living under genocide.

Calling the keffiyeh  a ‘symbol of terror’ is a racist and dehumanising belief that treats a piece of fabric as more threatening than the mass killing, starvation, and forced displacement of Palestinians. It deflects attention from the reproductive violence Palestinian women and girls face as access to safe childbirth, contraception, and emergency care is deliberately stripped away to destroy Palestinian futures. 

Across campuses, workplaces, and public institutions, Western governments and institutions that uphold colonial power routinely police, censor and criminalise Palestinian identity and  resistance. Big tech companies deepen this erasure. Google’s biased search results, Meta’s suppression of pro-Palestinian content, and algorithms that amplify mis- and disinformation all reinforce racist narratives that weaponise anti-Palestinian sentiment and distract from how public money funds this genocide.

To recognise the keffiyeh today is to honour a history of survival, labour, land, and collective resistance. Attempts to delegitimize it aim to erase the people and the struggle it represents. 

So —  what exactly are you afraid of? 

On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, IPPF reaffirms our commitment to justice and stands with the visibility, dignity, and humanity of Palestinians and with the keffiyeh that carries their story.