'Scared for my life': Online activists are harassing people for wearing a scarf

The campaign to punish pro-Palestinian activists, highlighted most dramatically by the Trump administration’s deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, is unfolding alongside an effort by pro-Israel groups to dox a wide array of individuals sympathetic to the Palestinian plight, going so far as to single people out for merely wearing keffiyehs.

Stop Antisemitism, a group that has vocally supported the administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestine activists, has posted photos on the social media platform X that show retail and hotel workers wearing the keffiyeh, a black and white scarf linked to the Palestinian struggle. The pro-Israel group claimed that the garment is associated with “violence against Jews.”

Previously, the group posted a photo of a VA doctor in New Orleans wearing a keffiyeh while standing at a hospital bedside. The group later posted an update claiming that the doctor had been disciplined, and that the government agency clarified its policy to prohibit keffiyehs in the hospital.

In another incident, a woman wearing a keffiyeh was photographed working in a grocery store. The photos were published on X with a caption describing her as a “Hamas sympathizer.”

The social media posts are an example of anti-Palestinian racism, Muhannad Ayyash, a sociology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, told Raw Story.

“It turns Palestinians, even just for wearing symbolic cultural items that symbolize resistance so Palestinians can remain on their land — not killing Jews or anything like that — it turns it all into violence and hatred, and something that should be erased from the public sphere,” Ayyash said.

The keffiyeh was originally worn by Bedouins and fellahin—agricultural laborers—for protection against dust, but Ayyash said it became associated with Palestinian struggle beginning with the 1936 Arab revolt against the British empire and Zionist settlements.

The fellahin and Bedouins “were the first to experience Zionist settler colonialism and the first to resist it through both armed and unarmed struggle,” Ayyash said. At the time, the favored headwear for urban Palestinian men was the tarbush, a round flat-topped hat. Still, Ayyash said the fellahin convinced their urban counterparts to start wearing the keffiyeh so that militants would be more difficult to pick out by the British authorities.

Jawahir Kamil Sharwany, a Palestinian-American woman who grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem, told Raw Story she recalls seeing her father, her uncle and other elderly men waving keffiyehs at funerals and weddings when she was growing up.

During the first intifada — the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the late 1980s and early 1990s —Sharwany said Israeli military authorities would confiscate keffiyehs from Palestinian men while they were going to the mosque.

“When they take our keffiyeh and throw it on the ground, we’re going to fight back,” said Sharwani, who emigrated to the United States in the late 1990s and now lives in Atlanta. “Just like if you’re Jewish and someone throws your kippah on the ground, you’re going to fight back. For us, it’s a big thing. You’re hurting us in what we value the most.”

As a marker of the pride that Palestinians place in it, Sharwany said that when a dispute arises between two families and they want to resolve it without going to court, the keffiyeh traditionally plays a role in establishing trust. She said the father of the offending party might take off his keffiyeh and place it on a table as a gesture of humility.

“Could you forgive me?” he would say, according to Sharwany. “I’m putting my pride down.”

In February, Stop Antisemitism posted a photo of an unidentified man who appears to be a hotel valet wearing a keffiyeh knotted around his neck. The post includes a caption claiming that since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack against Israel, “the keffiyeh has become emblematic of violence against Jews.”

The post concludes, “This is unacceptable,” while tagging the X account of Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora, Colo.

Hamas indiscriminately fired rockets into Israel and carried out deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Amnesty International, which counts the deaths at about 1,200 people, including more than 800 civilians, along with the abduction of 223 civilians and capture of 27 soldiers. Since then, the Israeli invasion of Gaza has reportedly resulted in more than 48,000 Palestinian deaths. A United Nations report found that “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide” — a characterization that Israel rejects.

Gaylord Rockies Resort did not respond to several requests for comment despite Raw Story speaking to representatives in the hotel’s marketing and security departments. An email to Marriott International, the hotel’s owner, likewise went unreturned.

Similar to the post featuring the unnamed Gaylord Rockies employee, two posts by Stop Antisemitism in the past two months target employees wearing keffiyehs who are not otherwise linked to activism.

A post on Feb. 2 shows a young woman with brown hair working behind a counter in a department store.

“Shoppers were outraged to see a Nordstrom employee wearing a keffiyeh,” the post says while indicating that the photo was taken at the store in Skokie, Ill.

Then, on March 3, the account posted a photo of a woman with blond hair with the caption: “Yet again, a Nordstrom employee is spotted wearing the keffiyeh, an appropriated symbol of violence, while interacting with Jewish customers.”

Nordstrom did not respond to emails from Raw Story seeking comment about how the company is handling the complaints.

Last November, Stop Antisemitism posted a photo of a 33-year-old doctor wearing a keffiyeh while standing next to a hospital bed in a VA hospital in New Orleans, along with an image of her photo ID that shows her name. The post claims that Stop Antisemitism “received multiple complaints” about the doctor “treating veterans while wearing a symbol now tied to violence against Jews and hatred of Americans.”

The post tagged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs while asking, “How is this acceptable?”

Last month, Stop Antisemitism published an update to the post stating that the doctor had been “disciplined” and that Fernando Rivera, the medical director for VA Louisiana Southeast Health Care, “has stated keffiyehs are not permitted per hospital policy.”

Phillip Butterfield, a spokesperson, told Raw Story that the healthcare network was working on a statement. On Wednesday evening, he left a voicemail indicating he would not be able to meet the deadline. He did not return a voicemail on Thursday.

Raw Story called a phone number associated with the doctor. The person who answered the phone hung up after using Google Assistant to screen the call. Raw Story is not naming the doctor to protect her privacy.

Emails to Stop Antisemitism seeking comment for this story went unreturned.

Stop Antisemitism is not the only pro-Israel entity that has used X to target workers solely for wearing the keffiyeh.

Last October, Sloan Rachmuth, a conservative activist in North Carolina, posted a photo on X of a woman wearing a keffiyeh while working in the bakery of a Harris Teeter grocery store in Holly Springs, a Raleigh suburb. The post describes the unnamed store employee as a “Hamas supporter.”

“When I asked her why she was wearing a keffiyeh, the store manager asked me to leave!” Rachmuth wrote on X.

Rachmuth emerged as a vocal critic of so-called “critical race theory” and transgender-inclusive policies in public schools in North Carolina in 2021. Last year, she served as campaign manager for Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for state Superintendent who called for the execution of prominent Democrats, including President Barack Obama.

Rachmuth was arrested and charged with cyberstalking for the keffiyeh post, but Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman ultimately dismissed the charge.

Since then, Rachmuth’s social media posts and public advocacy have shifted almost entirely to support for Israel and seeking sanctions against pro-Palestine activists.

“When [people] are engaging in corporate political speech in a public space and handling food, they have no right to privacy, full stop,” Rachmuth told Raw Story. “Also, if someone were wearing a Confederate flag or a swastika, they would also expect to be sanctioned publicly for corporate speech that offends people, which is why most corporations have policies against that composure.”

Harris Teeter did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Raw Story.

Rachmuth also reshared Stop Antisemitism’s X post about the VA doctor in New Orleans. In her re-post, Rachmuth wrote: “Keffiyehs symbolize the death and destruction of Jews. They should never be allowed to be worn in America.”

When asked by Raw Story why she believes that, Rachmuth said, “I’m not going to answer that. That’s a stupid f---ing question.”

Then, she abruptly ended the call.

Rachmuth has made posts on X that appear to deny that Palestinians hold any legitimate claim to their land and that appear to deny that Islam is a valid religion.

“Attention pro-Israel people: Stop referring to Judea and Samaria as the ‘West Bank’ please,” she posted on X last month.

In another post, also last month, Rachmuth wrote: “Anyone, and I mean anyone, claiming that ‘Islamophobia’ is real is enabling Islamic terrorism. // Whether in K-12 schools, in City Halls, or in police departments, proffering this fakery will kill Americans.”

Other recent posts by Rachmuth express support for Meir Kahane, an American-born rabbi who emigrated to Israel and was elected to the Knesset prior to his death by an assassin’s bullet in 1990. The Anti-Defamation League has described Kahane as preaching “a form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism.”

Kach, the political party founded in Israel by Kahane, and Kahane Chai, an offshoot founded by his son, were added to the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997, but de-listed in 2002. According to a 2007 U.S. State Department report, Kach and Kahane Chai were declared terrorist organizations by the Israeli cabinet in 1994. Kahane Chai remains on Canada’s list of prohibited terrorist entities, which was last reviewed in June 2024.

Under Meir Kahane’s leadership, according to the U.S. State Department, Kach’s stated goal was “to restore the biblical state of Israel,” which by definition would subjugate or expel the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Kahane also founded the Jewish Defense League, which, according to a chronology compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, was linked to at least 30 bombings, attempted bombings or bomb plots on U.S. soil between 1970 and 1994.

“It’s time every Jew studied Jabotinski and Kahane,” Rachmuth wrote in an X post last month, also referring the late Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinski. “Time to apply it is long overdue.”

Rachmuth also re-posted another suer, who posted a photo of Kahane, writing, “He was right about everything.”

“100%,” Rachmuth wrote in an appended comment.

In at least one case in the United States, apparent antagonism towards the keffiyeh, as a symbol of Palestinian resistance, has led to violence. In November 2023, a month after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, a white man shot three Palestinian-American students in Burlington, Vt.

The victims were speaking a mix of Arabic and English, and two were wearing keffiyehs. The assailant reportedly didn’t say anything to them before he opened fire.

He faces trial for attempted murder, but state prosecutors ultimately decided against adding hate crimes charges.

Sharwany, the Palestinian-American activist in Atlanta, said she typically wears her keffiyeh everywhere she goes. She frequently attends pro-Palestine protests, where she speaks, chants and emcees. During the protests, she’ll typically keep keffiyehs and Palestinian flags in her car. A couple times, she said, she returned to find egg splattered over the windshield, and once her tire was punctured.

But in daily life, sometimes Sharwany makes the calculation that it’s better to put her keffiyeh away. She made that decision while attending an Atlanta United FC match at a local stadium and when she took her daughter’s dog to a veterinary hospital following a previous visit to another hospital where she believes the staff decided to euthanize her dog because they didn’t like her keffiyeh

“In some places, I put my keffiyeh in my bag,” Sharwany said. “I’m scared for my life.”

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