You know, of all the things I’ve ever done in the world, you’d never believe that it’s for the most insignificant of them all that I would make my way into the NY Times. But lo and behold, there I am in today’s Style section, mentioned for my post a couple of weeks back on Urban Outfitter’s sale of keffiyehs.

But not everyone finds it so simple a fashion statement. A blogger named Mobius, posting Jan. 16 on Jewschool, a Jewish blog that targets a young audience, blasted Urban Outfitters for selling kaffiyehs. Taking issue with the retailer’s decision to label the item an “anti-war woven scarf,” Mobius posted pictures of terrorists adorned in kaffiyehs.
The same day Urban Outfitters, which had offered the scarves in several color combinations for $20, pulled them from stores. Its Web site posted this explanation: “Due to the sensitive nature of this item, we will no longer offer it for sale. We apologize if we offended anyone, this was by no means our intention.” A spokeswoman for the store, which has 95 branches nationwide, declined to comment further.

I’d be happy about this were it not for the fact that the Times totally mischaracterized my post, and furthermore attributed my post with URBN’s decision to unstock the item, despite the fact that Stand With Us, a pro-Israel campus group, was responsible for pressuring URBN to drop its keffiyeh line, and that I would never have promoted nor sought such an action. In fact, I quite clearly mocked the Jewish community in my post for what I expected would be the surge to suppress the keffiyeh sales, noting, “I’m sure some readers are already ramping up their e-mail clients to send nasty letters to URBN.”
The purpose of my post was not to suggest that the keffiyeh was a terrorist symbol, but rather to criticize Urban Outfitters for degrading a very potent symbol of national resistance (“the kaffiyeh just got 10 TIMES MORE PASSE and 10 TIMES MORE TRIVIALIZED, thanks to Urban Outfitters”). In doing so, I humorously pointed out the irony of calling such a symbol of resistance “anti-war,” when it is quite clearly a modern form of war paint.
The Times’ reporter did not request comment from me, however — probably just read the Jerusalem Post article on the subject without bothering to locate my remarks on Jew School itself, making me out to look like a nutty right-wing douchebag. I have therefore asked the Times to issue a correction, and I apologize if I have given anyone the impression that I regard the keffiyeh as a terrorist symbol.
I reiterate: I view the keffiyeh as a symbol of Palestinian national resistance and respect it as such; and I object to its use as an innocuous fashion item hawked by trendy Republican-owned chain outlets in the USA.
Rather, I am disturbed by the fact that because I am Jewish, my view on this issue was presumed by the author and characterized as it was.
But hey, free publicity, right?
[Update] Hey, wait a sec–What’s up with the Times calling the people in the photos I posted “terrorists”? Don’t they mean “glorious martyrs and resistance fighters”? I thought they were a bunch of left-wing hippies and terror apologists over there…