Fans of Wehidat, the Palestinian-Jordanian Football League Team, wave a huta in the air beside a Jordanian police officer. After the photo was taken, the officer gestured for them to put it down. (Bernstein/TYG)

"We are all Hamas." The graffiti, scrawled across a school in a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, mocked the "We are all Jordan" solidarity campaign launched by the city of Amman in the wake of 2005 hotel bombings. The attacks had been led by Abu Musad al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-Palestinian leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Approximately half of Jordan's citizens identify themselves either as from Palestine or as Palestinian, though they are Jordanian citizens.

Despite 60 years of cohabitation and intermarriage, divisions between Jordanians and Palestinians are visible everywhere in daily life, signaled by details like surname, accent, neighborhood, and employment. Since 1970, when the Palestinian liberation Army clashed with the Jordanian army and thousands of civilians died, relations between the two groups have been strained.

In most places, the tension simmers quietly. To outsiders, the only apparent sign of division lies in the scarves sold in souvenir shops across the country. Kuffiyas, called hutas in Jordan, are tied around teenagers' necks, folded over old mens' heads, and draped across car seats. Unlike in the United States, in Jordan these scarves are more than just fashion statements: The black and white scarf symbolizes Palestine, while the red and white stands for Jordan.

Because of the nationalistic connotations, most Jordanians choose to avoid wearing either scarf, favoring safe neutrality over overt political expression. Hutas usually only appear in large numbers at events where Jordanians and Palestinians compete, like football games.

In 2009, the football team Wehidat, based out of a Palestinian refugee camp, beat the favorite Jordanian team to the finals. At the championship match, Jordanian police kept the Palestinian crowd in check by shouting, threatening, and prodding fans with batons. Attempts by victorious fans to wave the Palestinian flag or huta were short-lived. In a crowd of Palestinians cheering on their team, the black-and-white huta was only visible sticking out of jacket collars.

"I hide the huta when the police pull me over," said Amr, a young Palestinian-Jordanian man who keeps a huta tied around the headrest of his Honda. The Jordanian army and police are recruited specifically from those of Jordanian descent. Amr's brother claims that his police force application was rejected when the hiring board saw that his grandfather's birthplace was in Palestine.

"I'm Palestinian and I don't wear the huta. I don't want people to think I'm biased," said a 21-year-old student at Jordan University. "Most people think that it shows that you want to fight people outside of your group or who don't believe what you believe."

But this same student said that wearing the scarf at a protest filled her with pride: "I felt I was being myself. Wearing the Palestinian huta is saying that people in Palestine are suffering and you want to be in solidarity with them, even if only with this silly thing that you are wearing."

The Palestinian huta evokes contrasting sentiments in Jordanians. Like many Jordanians, 24-year-old Ismail feels frustrated that Palestinians take advantage of the country's resources but are more loyal to Palestine. "Jordan gives them so much," said Ismail. "They have to be proud that they are Jordanian. They have Jordanian IDs, passports. They are sharing our resources."

As more children of mixed Jordanian-Palestinian parentage come of age, the divide is beginning to erode. An 18-year-old Palestinian-Jordanian student at the University of Jordan answered derisively when asked why he was wearing the Jordanian red huta instead of the black Palestinian one: "It was cleaner." He and his friends felt comfortable wearing either, depending on which matched their outfit.

The rainbow-colored scarf that has recently become popular with hipsters across America is also sweeping Jordan. Older Jordanians and Palestinians view the new colorful scarves with some alarm, afraid that they are a conspiracy to weaken Jordanian and Palestinian identity. However, the huta that is just fashionable instead of overtly Palestinian or Jordanian is outselling the classic scarves. Jordan will know by next season whether the new scarves are a passing fad, but the sentiment behind them spells hope for a more united future.

Alyssa Bernstein is a senior Modern Middle East Studies major in Timothy Dwight College.

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