Of all the cottage industries you might expect to find in the West Bank, the crocheting of yarmulkas by Palestinian hands seems one of the oddest. But creating yarmulkas keeps hundreds of women busy in villages like Deir Abu Meshal, which have been making the headgear for their Jewish neighbors for some 40 years.
Almost every house in the village of 3,000 west of Ramallah makes yarmulkas . 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 each.
“Women here can’t sit down without knitting. We’ve gotten used to it,” jokes Ruqaya Barghouthi.
Six Palestinian yarmulkas 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 yarmulkas 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 yarmulkas from some 100 women.
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 yarmulkas for Israel.
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. But much of that business has now gone to China, where costs are lower.
{Haaretz/Reuters/Matzav.com Newscenter}
Gee i hope they are not burned at the stake BY there MASTERS/Husbands
Perhaps I shouldn’t wear my Kippah Serugah anymore! I think this story is a Charedi/Black hat conspiracy:)
This is how Jews and Arabs used to live before Zionism.
Yes AA The Arabs in Tarpat sewed Yarmulkas for the Chevroner Bachurim how revisionisim works! Read the history of how the Arab Mufti’s would come and attack the Yishuv whenever they desired. The Ziyonim are certainly not the answer and never were nut don’t be silly! They are cold blooded murderers who will blow themselves up or use tractors to kill innocent women and children…. Stop fanticising!
Normal, please listen to Reb Boruch Kaplan’s shmuess about the chevron massacre. He was there and he put the blame solely on the Zionists, whom he calls cowards and reshoim. This is what he says about the Arabs:
?????, ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??????, ?? ??? ???? ???? ???, ???? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ?????????? ??????. ?? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ?????????, ?? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?’??? ?????? ???????, ?’??? ?????? ?????.
To AA Time,
The Zionists are cowards!! HaHaHa– that’s why they go into the army while the Chareidi (mostly) don’t. Talk about a legend in your own mind!
That was R. Kaplan, not me. And he called them cowards because first they provoked the Arabs saying there’s nothing to be afraid of, but as soon as the Arabs came after the Jews, they fled on their bicycles.
cherry hill – maybe they dont go to the army because they dont want to eat bisul akum, or have to hear women sing hatikvah, or be in terrible ruchnius atmospheres; and they’d rather bask in kedushash hatorah all day, doing much more for klal yisroel than any soldier, and proitecting more than any squadron – honestly, you people with the army-ism are going to have a hard time answering in shomayim for your utter lack of kovod hatorah and kovod for talmidei chachamim.
AA is 100% right. Before the zionists came, there was little animosity if any between jews and arabs.
‘have a gossip’ – i guess lashon hors doesnt matter to these people; i thought their ‘prophet’ got all his stuff from us? dont they hold lashon hora to be a sin too?
it’s kind of interesting that all the settler-types who want to throw the arabs out get their yarmulkas from the same people they think want to kill them