This may be my Eurocentricism speaking, but I have never seen such a pattern outside of Europe and the keffiyeh. It looks quite distinct from other patterns on Islamic or traditional Arab clothing. Does the pattern predate Islam? Was its spread facilitated by the spread of Islam, or was it common in the Arabian peninsula before Muhammad?
Someone just posted about this yesterday in r/Israel: http://www.reddit.com/r/Israel/comments/2dwct7/anyone_else_find_this_a_bit_ironic/