Visiting Palestine's lasty remaining "Kuffiyeh" factory is a truly special thing to do. The scarf was made famous by Arafat and is an international symbol of Palestinian solidarity.
The first response upon entering the factory was that it was amazingly noisy! How the people can work in there without noise-cancelling headphones is a mystery to me. One person we spoke to had worked at the factory for over 40 years and could now even sleep with the looms running... and apparently he still hears well, at least well enough to have a conversation with us.
Other things we found out about, are that the looms are from Japan, the thread is imported from India and it takes 30 minutes for the loom to make enough cloth for one Kuffiyeh. And apparently Abbas, Palestine's President, still gifts scarves from this factory to important visitors.
The easiest way to get to the factory is by taxi, and you can re-fuel at a great hummus place opposite the factory - it has no name but you'll know when you see it.
