Department of Kitsch

Deflating Yasser Arafat pillows

Gregg Carlstrom | November 10, 2009 10:05 AM | 0 | recommend (0) |   |      

The New York Times has a darkly humorous feature about the Chairman Arafat Shop in Gaza City, a kitschy shop that sells Osama bin Laden dolls, Barack Obama coffee mugs and other political merchandise.

Goldstone scarf

I say "darkly humorous" because, as the writer notes, you can sort of trace the decline of Gaza and the "peace process" through the merchandise. My favorite bit of detail:

A big seller was an inflatable vinyl pillow imprinted with Mr. Arafat's smiling face. One that was purchased in 1995 deflated after a few months.

An apt metaphor, I think. This is the shop same that started selling Richard Goldstone kaffiyehs last month, by the way.

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Categories: Business, Israel & Palestine, Palestine, Regional News

Tags: Richard Goldstone, Yasser Arafat

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Light blogging today, for a good reason

A quick programming note: Blogging will be sporadic today, at least on my end, because I have a bunch of interviews and events scheduled.

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