To the Chanting Boy Wearing A Keffiyeh

Stop chanting and read this.

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

We humans are tremendous. We have travelled to the moon and been to the depths of the oceans. We may not have conquered death, but we have fought it, delayed it, and conquered much of nature. We live in comfort in the extremes of winter. We have conquered hot lands, so humid, so crawling with malaria and mosquitos, so full of death, and allowed people to live there in comfort and peace. We have made the desert bloom.  

But yet, we struggle; we may have conquered bacteria, but we have not conquered the vanity of our delusions.  

“Intifada Revolution, Intifada Revolution, there is one solution,” a man on a Toronto street shouts into a microphone. He leads his angry, keffiyeh-wearing gathering; about a hundred circle him.  

One boy wearing a keffiyeh and  Supreme sweatshirt stands in the third row.  He has found a social circle and no longer worries about being invited to house parties. 

He raises his fist as he joins the chants. 

There is one solution: when did we hear that last in history?  One solution, the final solution: did you ever see those black-and-white films of  Hitler screaming into the jubilant mobs?  And as Hitler howled his threats, his solution, did you see the crowds?  Same type as I see today: caught up in the moment, full of unwarranted conviction on the truth of their chants. 

Intifada,  intifada, revolution. 

Did you know an intifada is an uprising of violence? It was spoken by people wearing kaffiyehs in Gaza as they roared into Israel on Oct. 7, too, with 1200 dead. Did they purge their hatred? Did it bring peace? Did the uprising in Gaza, the breaking of the gates, the jubilation, and their temporary intifada make you proud? 

“One solution”: did you learn that in school? Did you study Hitler’s one solution? Does that sound familiar, or did that get removed from your curriculum - replaced by discussions of the newest and brightest new word that ends in phobia? 

Did you learn about intifada?  It means uprising; it means violence.  Do you remember October 7?  Were you there when the gates were breached? Were you there when young men flew their hang gliders, firing their guns into thousands of teenagers dancing in the grass?  Intifada, revolution.  Were you looking at the schematics provided by the Palestinian workers who, though living in an open-air prison, managed to find work and money for food and labour in the Kibbutz?  Intifada Revolution. 

The killing of the Zaks, Etti Zak, Itai Zak and  Sagi Zak, were not numbers; they were people, and they had names. They were burned alive. 

They were not warriors; they were a mother, father, and boy, intifada revolution.  The terrified teenage girls they raped and brought home in triumph, those crowds chanted intifada revolution too. Do you join them? They were the same age as my daughter. I cannot imagine the parent’s pain. 

Do you know what you are saying?  

You speak of revolution; what revolution was not drenched in blood? Is that what you want?  Is that why you repeat “intifada revolution?”  Did the uprising, the small intifada, on Oct 7 bring peace?  Did the warrior bragging to his proud parents that he had killed ten of those Jews bring a solution?  Or was that revolution?  When your warriors returned home with old women and encouraged children to spit on them, was that your revolution?  Do you know that you are following Palestinians, an Islamized culture, the one that no Arab nation wants anything to do with? They are fanatical on an ISIS level. 

“Palestine is our demand; no peace on stolen land!” I heard the boy with the Keffiyah chant. 

Then, “Free, free Palestine?” 

Gaza was not occupied; it was governed by Hamas, an elected government which got 44% of the vote in 2006. Perhaps Hamas was simply the lesser evil between them and Fatah?

Still, any party in Canada would dream of 44%, and the Liberals have cobbled an effective majority in Canada from 31% of the vote.  And Hamas runs Gaza, from the hospitals to the public services, they are in charge.  Over 18,000 Gazans worked daily in Israel; that is the equivalent of 560,000 Americans crossing into Canada each day to work, not quite a prison.  

Of course, the border to Israel, as well as the southern border to Egypt, are not open; suicide bombers and militants crossing your border tend to make governments leery of undefended borders.

71% of Gazans approved of the massacre of October 7.  

“Palestine is our demand, no peace on stolen land.”  Do you shout this?  Is demanding that a country abandon all its land what you want? Has that ever happened in history?  Yes, countries have given up land, but when has an entire country done so voluntarily?  - it has never happened. 

It is a call for genocide, a call for the destruction of Israel.

It does not sound so good when it doesn’t rhyme, does it? 

Is Hamas looking to help the Israelis, all seven million Jews and two million Arabs, pack and move to Saskatchewan?  Keffiyeh boy, do you ever think that demanding the entire nation of Israel leave is nothing less than a savage call for destruction?  You sound like Hamas keffiyeh boy, and have they changed their tune? 

Hamas official Hamad Al-Regeb, in an April 2023 sermon, prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews, whom he called filthy animals.  I’m sorry, it’s not poetic and doesn’t rhyme, but still - do you want to shout it out? 

But Hamas isn’t that bad, right, keffiyeh boy?  Are they not just a little angry and misunderstood?  When they say they want total war with Israel, is that just anger? Were they having a bad day, or did they not get enough sleep? 

You protest stolen; it is such a nice rhythmic chant. It sounds so good when you say it with your keffiyeh brothers and sisters,  and it works well with your story; did you know that Palestinian Arabs did not even make those accusations?  Why did Arab leadership at the Peel Commission in 1937 say that all Jewish land had been legally acquired, mainly from the British? 

But surely they let it go too cheap? Surely Israel has too much of the Middle East?  But Keffiyeh Boy  - why is one portion out of a thousand too much?  

Then, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Re-adjust your Keffiyah. This is your favourite. Is this what you want? What river, what sea? The land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea does not have much room for Israel. But it has a poetic lilt to it. It sounds lovely, but the geographic reality is quite dissonant.