Politics of food in the Arab–Israeli conflict

A significant facet of the Arab–Israeli conflict deals with a cultural struggle over national cuisines. Foods like falafel and hummus, which originated in Middle Eastern cuisine, have historically been politicized in general expressions of gastronationalism throughout the region. The development of Israeli cuisine occurred largely through the mixing of Jewish diasporic cuisines with Levantine cuisine, including Palestinian cuisine. This effort aided the effective definition of the national identity of Israel as that of a melting pot, but simultaneously prompted claims of cultural appropriation, particularly with regard to the Palestinian people. More specifically, critics of Israeli cuisine's incorporation of dishes that are traditionally seen as part of Arab cuisine assert that Israel lacks recognition for their Palestinian aspects, disqualifying the process as one of cultural diffusion. Opposition to Israeli cuisine in the Arab world revolves around the accusation that dishes of Palestinian origin, or other Arab dishes to which there have been significant Palestinian contributions, are presented by Israel in a way that suppresses or omits the role of the Palestinians in their development.

Although Middle Eastern foods were naturally part of Mizrahi Jewish cuisine before the development of Israeli cuisine, not all of them were exclusively Jewish foods and instead overlapped with Arab foods. As such, from the Palestinian perspective, the downplaying of Palestinian food within Israeli culture is widely regarded as an erasure of Palestinian culture and, as a result, of the Palestinian Arab identity as a whole, although there are Arab citizens of Israel who operate restaurants serving Palestinian cuisine.

Among the arguments put forth by Israeli culinary artists who oppose the Arab accusation of cultural appropriation is the fact that many of the disputed Middle Eastern foods of Israeli cuisine were as integral to Middle Eastern Jewish cuisines (i.e., of the Mizrahi Jews) as they were to Arab cuisines, thus qualifying them as Israeli as well, since they were popularized by Jewish migration from these lands. Israel's inclusion of Levantine cuisine is also regarded as a means of enabling other populations of the Jewish diaspora, such as Ashkenazi Jews, who saw themselves as returning to the region, to further reconnect with ancient Jewish civilization in the sense of recalling Israelite culinary traditions.

The politics of food between Arabs and Israeli Jews have also carried over globally, particularly in parts of the Western world, where some well-known modern Levantine dishes are Israeli, such as Israeli salad, which is closely related to Arab salad. The claiming of some of these foods as national dishes among Israel and the Arab countries has led to legal disputes at local and international levels, and has also served as the basis for culinary competitions between Israeli and Arab chefs. Overall, the phenomenon is ongoing as the subject of extensive debate between culinary anthropologists.

## Background

[edit]

### Food as politics

[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to itadding to it or making an edit request. (November 2024)

|

According to culinary anthropologist Yael Raviv, "David Bell and Gill Valentine, in Consuming Geographies (1997), see a certain paradox in the discussion of nation and food since the two seem 'so commingled in popular discourse that it is often difficult not to think of one through the other' ".[1]

According to Alexander Lee, writing for History Today in 2019, "More often than not, arguments about the origins of falafel are refracted through the lens of political rivalries. Particularly for the Israelis and the Palestinians, ownership of this most distinctively Levantine dish is inexorably bound up with issues of legitimacy and national identity. By claiming falafel for themselves, they are each, in a sense, claiming the land itself – and dismissing the other as an interloper or occupier."[2]

### Between Israelis and Palestinians

[edit]

Particularly after the 1948 creation of the State of Israel, Jews migrated from many parts of the world, where they had many different culinary cultures; these immigrants embraced local ingredients such as olives, olive oil, lemons and lemon juice, and oranges and regionally traditional foods such as falafel and hummus, absorbing these ingredients and dishes into diasporic Jewish foodways to create an Israeli cuisine.[3][4][5]

According to Palestinian writer Reem Kassis, food was one of the items used "to achieve a sense of Israeli nationalism". Writing about the distinction between cultural diffusion and cultural appropriation and explaining the Palestinian objection to an "Israeli cuisine" that includes Palestinian dishes, Kassis says that "presenting dishes of Palestinian provenance as 'Israeli' not only denies the Palestinian contribution to Israeli cuisine, but it erases our very history and existence."[6] Raviv argued that "Israelis' choice of falafel and hummus as markers of identity should perhaps be perceived as a reflection of their wish to become part of the Middle East" and used the development of this cuisine and the foods themselves as unifying symbols.[3][4] Traditional foods of the region were seen as "biblical" foods, the adoption of which would allow Jews who saw themselves as returning to the region of their historical roots to reconnect with the past.[7]

## Dishes

[edit]

See also: Mizrahi Jewish cuisine

See also: Cuisine of Jerusalem

The cuisine of Israel includes Mizrahi Jewish cuisine, the cuisine of the Jews of North Africa and the Middle East, who arrived in large numbers after 1948.[8] Many restaurants in Israel also serve Palestinian cuisine and cater to Arab citizens of Israel as well as the other citizens, who eat there together.[9]

As well as hummus and falafel, other dishes such as ka'ak, shakshuka, labneh, knafeh, tabouleh, maftoul, za'atar, and fallahi salad have been incorporated into Israeli cuisine, often being renamed.[6][10][7] Some of the dishes, including hummus, falafel, msabaha, baba ghanoush, and knafeh have come to be considered national dishes in Israel; according to Palestinian cookbook author Reem Kassis, Israeli scholars Ilan Baron, Dafna Hirsch, Yonatan Mendel, and Ronald Ranta have determined that the dishes were likely learned from Palestinian cooks.[6]

In some cases, migration of Jews was from areas where these foods were already traditional to the local food culture.[5]: 24 Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi write that hummus "is undeniably a staple of the local Palestinian population, but it was also a permanent feature on dinner tables of Aleppine Jews who have lived in Syria for millennia and then arrived in Jerusalem in the 1950s and 1960s".[5]: 24

### Falafel

[edit]

Main article: Falafel

Preparation of falafel at a Palestinian shop in Ramallah, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 2007

The origin of falafel is uncertain.[11] The dish most likely originated in Egypt, possibly influenced by Indian cooking.[12]

Arguments over the relative importance of falafel in various cuisines is an example of gastronationalism.[13] In particular, discussion centers around the adoption of the dish into Israeli cuisine as an example of cultural appropriation.[13] The Palestinian version of the falafel, made with chickpeas, has been adopted into Israeli cuisine, where it now features prominently and has been called a national dish of Israel – an attribution that Palestinians and other Arabs have criticized.[14][15]

While according to author Claudia Roden, falafel was "never specifically a Jewish dish" in Syria and Egypt, it was consumed by Syrian and Egyptian Jews,[11][7] and was adopted in the diet of early Jewish immigrants to the Jewish communities of Ottoman Syria.[15] As it is plant-based, Jewish dietary laws classify it as pareve and thus allow it to be eaten with both meat and dairy meals.[16]

Journalist Dorothy Kahn Bar-Adon wrote in 1941 that “since the outbreak of war domestic science institutions have been advocating the use of local products" but that there was a "wall of resistance", and that many Eastern Europeans were reluctant to use local foods. Dafna Hirsch of the Open University of Israel, wrote that despite this initial reluctance, "several ingredients from the Palestinian repertoire did penetrate many Jewish kitchens by the early 1940s, mostly vegetables like olives, tomatoes, eggplants, and squashes. Prepared dishes, however, were rarely adopted, except for falafel, which became a popular street food in Tel Aviv by the late 1930s. Excluding consumption by immigrants from Arab countries, both falafel and, later, hummus seem to have been adopted mainly by the first generation of Jews born in the country."[17] Some authors have disagreed on the politics of food and its relative merit as a topic in the conflict.[18]

The Association of Lebanese Industrialists in 2008 brought a lawsuit against Israel seeking damages for lost revenues, claiming copyright infringement regarding the branding of Israeli falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, and other foods.[19][20][7]

Jennie Ebeling, writing in Review of Middle East Studies, argued that "food in general is sacred in the Middle East and falafel specifically is loaded with issues of national identity."[21] Some Palestinians and other Arabs have objected to the identification of falafel with Israeli cuisine as amounting to cultural appropriation. Kassis wrote that the dish has become a proxy for political conflict.[6][22] Joseph Massad, a Jordanian-American professor at Columbia University, has called the characterization as Israeli of falafel and other dishes of Arab origin in American and European restaurants to be part of a broader issue of appropriation by "colonizers".[10] Israeli chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi told Anthony Bourdain that Israelis had "made falafel their own, and everybody in the world, and everybody in the world think falafel is an Israeli food, but in actual fact it's as much a Palestinian food, even more so".[23][24]

The dish and its politico-cultural significance were the subject of a 2013 documentary by Ari Cohen, Falafelism: The Politics of Food in the Middle East[25][21][26] which attempted to use falafel symbolically to argue that Arabs and Israelis had much in common, including the fact that multiple Middle Eastern cuisines consider falafel to be central to their national identity, but according to Ebeling the film was "ultimately unable to contribute more than anecdotally to issues of Israeli appropriation of Arab cuisine and cultural coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis".[21] According to the Toronto Star, Cohen intended the film to be about "the unifying power of falafel".[27]

In 2002, Condordia University's chapter of Hillel served falafel at an event, prompting accusations of appropriation from a pro-Palestinian student group.[28]

### Hummus

[edit]

Main article: Hummus

Preparation of hummus at a Palestinian restaurant in East Jerusalem, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 2011

Although multiple different theories and claims of origins exist in various parts of the Middle East, evidence is insufficient to determine the precise location or time of the invention of hummus.[29] However, the earliest known mention of hummus was in a 13th-century cookbook attributed to the Syrian historian Ibn al-Adim from present-day Syria.[30] Its basic ingredients—chickpeas, sesame, lemon, and garlic—have been combined and eaten in Egypt and the Levant for centuries.[31] Various academic theories argue the dish has its origins in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, or Egypt.[29]

Hummus is claimed as a national dish by Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon[32][33] in a disagreement sometimes referred to as the "hummus wars".[34]: 3 [35]: 121–123

Hummus is often seen as an unofficial "national dish" of Israel, reflecting its huge popularity and significance among the entire Israeli population,[36] which Israel's critics describe as an appropriation of Lebanese,[18] Palestinian or Arab culture.[37] According to Ofra Tene and Dafna Hirsch, the dispute over ownership of hummus, exposes nationalism through food and the important role played by the industrialization of hummus made by Israeli private companies in 1958.[38][39] Although hummus has traditionally been part of the cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews who lived in Arabic-speaking lands, the dish was also popularized among the Jewish immigrants from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. Historian Dafna Hirsch describes its adoption in their diet as part of an attempt of blending in the Middle Eastern environment,[40] while sociologist Rafi Grosglick points out the importance of its health aspects to their diet.[41] In recent years, through a process of gourmetization, the Arab identity of hummus became a marker of its authenticity, making famous Arab-Israeli villages such as Abu Gosh and Kafr Yasif. Hence, enthusiasts travel to the more remote Arab and Druze villages in the northern Galilee region in search of culinary experiences.[36][42][43]

After Sabra, a US food company, created a marketing event using hummus,[35]: 121–123 the Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI) created "Hands Off Our Dishes", a campaign claiming hummus as Lebanese and objecting to Sabra's marketing of the dish as Israeli.[35]: 121–123 Fadi Abboud, then president of ALI and later tourism minister for Lebanon, threatened legal action against Israel for marketing hummus and other commercial food products as Israeli.[35]: 121–123 Abboud characterized the hummus wars as being not about just hummus but about "the organized theft carried out by Israel" in connection to the culture of the entire Arab region.[35]: 121–123

In October 2008, the Association of Lebanese Industrialists petitioned to the Lebanese Ministry of Economy and Trade to request protected status from the European Commission for hummus as a uniquely Lebanese food, similar to the Protected Geographical Status rights held over regional food items by various European Union countries.[44][45][46] As of 2009[update], the Lebanese Industrialists Association was still "collecting documents and proof" to support its claim.[47]

The 2005 short film West Bank Story features a rivalry between two fictional restaurants, the Israeli "Kosher King" and the Palestinian "Hummus Hut". A parody of West Side Story, the film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.[48] In 2012, Australian filmmaker Trevor Graham released a documentary, Make Hummus Not War, on the political and gastronomic aspects of hummus.[49]

Lebanon and Israel's chefs have been engaged in a competition over the largest dish of hummus, as validated by the Guinness World Record, as a form of contestation of "ownership".[50] The "title" has gone back and forth between Israel (2008), Lebanon (2009), Israel (January 2010),[51] and, as of 2021[update], Lebanon (May 2010).[50][52][53] The winning dish, cooked by 300 cooks in the village of al-Fanar, near Beirut, weighed approximately 10,450 kilograms (23,040 lb), more than double the weight of the Israeli-Arab previous record.[54][55][56] According to local media, the recipe included eight tons of boiled chick peas, two tonnes of tahini, two tonnes of lemon juice, and 70 kilograms (150 lb) of olive oil.[52]

Israeli author Meir Shalev claims that ḥummuṣ was mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, specifically Ruth 2:14, as ḥomeṣ.[57] Even though ḥomeṣ is translated as 'sour wine' in the 1989 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (Ruth 2:14), as 'vinegar' in the 1917 Jewish Publication Society of America Version (Ruth 2:14) as well as the 1985 New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh,[58] and means 'vinegar' in modern Hebrew, Shalev traces ḥomeṣ and ḥummuṣ as well as ḥimṣa "chickpea" to one Semitic root ḥ-m-ṣ and claims that chickpeas are named thus in Hebrew owing to their rapid fermentation.[57] However, Bristol-based author Harriet Nussbaum criticizes Shalev's identification of ḥomeṣ in Ruth 2:14 with ḥummuṣ: while accepting the linguistic connection proposed by Shalev, Nussbaum objects that ḥomeṣ might not be ḥummuṣ but just another dish seasoned or preserved with fermented foodstuffs; and even if ḥomeṣ meant chickpeas, there is no proof that in Biblical times chickpeas were prepared in the same manner as ḥummuṣ is.[59] Moreover, linguists Pelio Fronzaroli (1971) and Leonid Kogan (2011) reconstruct Proto-Semitic root *ḥmṣ̂- for Hebrew חֹמֶץ ḥomeṣ 'vinegar', Arabic حَامِض ḥāmiḍ 'to be sour; acid' and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic ḥmʕ.[60][61][62]

### Israeli salad

[edit]

Main article: Israeli salad

See also: Tabbouleh

Israeli salad, which is more widely known globally, especially in the Western world

Arab salad, one of the Arab salads that is closely related to Israeli salad

Israeli salad is a dish that was adopted by Jewish immigrants to the Levant in the late 19th century. It is akin to the popular Arab salad made with the locally grown Kirby cucumbers and tomatoes.[43]

The name "Israeli Salad" is used mainly outside of Israel.[43] Within Israel, it is commonly referred to as salat katzutz ("chopped salad"), salat aravi ("Arab salad"), or salat yerakot ("vegetable salad").[43][63][64]

In an interview with the BBC, Israeli culinary journalist Gil Hovav said that the Israeli salad is in fact a Palestinian Arab salad.[65] The idea that what is known in New York delis as "Israeli salad" stems from a Palestinian rural salad is agreed on by Joseph Massad, a Palestinian professor of Arab Politics at Columbia University, as an example of the appropriation of Palestinian and Syrian foods such as hummus, falafel, and tabbouleh by Israel as "national dishes".[66]

### Israeli couscous

[edit]

Main article: Israeli couscous

Israeli couscous, which is called ptitim in Israel, is a type of extruded and toasted pasta consciously created as a poverty food in 1953 at the behest of then prime minister David Ben-Gurion during the austerity period in Israel.[67][68][69][70] It is sometimes called "Ben-Gurion rice"[71] or pearl couscous.

Joseph Massad objected to the term Israeli couscous and called it an example of how food in the Middle East had become "a target of colonial conquest", but Haaretz called the dish one of the few foods in Israeli cuisine that had not been incorporated from other cuisines, and it and bamba "more or less the only unique culinary contribution Israel has made to the world".[10]

According to Ottolenghi and Tamimi, the popularity of Israeli couscous in Western countries, including its treatment as a trendy ingredient, "caused some resentment among Palestinians, whose maftoul isn't very different from ptitim, and among Lebanese, whose mograbieh, or Lebanese couscous, is similar to and only a bit larger than ptitim. Mograbieh, which literally means 'from North Africa,' clearly affirms its origin and source of inspiration through its name, while "Israeli couscous", claim the critics, does the exact opposite".[5]: 249

## Characterization as appropriation

[edit]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Over time, Israeli embrace of foods traditional to Middle East cuisine, and particularly those of Arab culture, was seen by many Palestinians and other Arabs as cultural appropriation.[6] Kassis argues the concept of an Israeli cuisine that includes traditional Palestinian foods without acknowledging the foods' origins is an attempt to "[erase Palestinians'] very history and existence".[6]

Kassis wrote that Israeli cookbooks and restaurant menus commonly name and attribute dishes that come from or are inspired by other Arab and Middle Eastern cuisines—such as referring to schug as "Yemeni schug” or to sabich (a Jewish food) as "Iraqi sabich"—but typically not in the case of Palestinian cuisine, since the Palestinian identity is the only one that is "considered by many Israelis as a threat to their existence" because of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[6] She argued that "Food for Palestinians becomes a way to reclaim our country, if not geographically, at least psychologically and emotionally," adding "That’s why referencing traditional dishes adopted from Palestinians as Israeli without regard to their origin is seen as adding insult to injury: First the land, now the food and culture?"[6]

Two dishes in particular, falafel and hummus, were embraced by Israel as markers of national identity.[3]: 24–25 According to Raviv, "political conflict is an unavoidable part of the discussion of Zionist history, even food".[3]: 1 Both dishes are commonly served at Jewish social gatherings outside of Israel.[3]: 24

During a 2008 interview with the BBC at the Palestinian restaurant Abu Shukri in Jerusalem, Israeli food writer Gil Hovav said to his British counterpart Stefan Gates, who had asked him if hummus was originally a Jewish or Arab development: "Humous is Arabic. Falafel, our national dish, our national Israeli dish, is completely Arabic and this salad that we call an Israeli Salad, actually it’s an Arab salad, Palestinian salad. So, we sort of robbed them of everything." He added that during the Second Intifada, "Jews would risk their lives, sneak into the Muslim Quarter just to have a vital, really good genuine humous (from the Arab restaurants)".[72]

## See also

[edit]

* Gastronationalism
* Politics of food

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Raviv, Yael (March 2002). "National Identity on a Plate: Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture". Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture. 8/9 (4/1): 164.
2. ^ Lee, Alexander (1 January 2019). "The Origin of Falafel | History Today". History Today. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
3. ^ a b c d e Raviv, Yael (2015). Falafel nation: cuisine and the making of national identity in Israel. Studies of Jews in society. Lincoln London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9017-4.
4. ^ a b Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of a National Identity in Israel. Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
5. ^ a b c d Ottolenghi, Yotam; Tamimi, Sami (16 October 2012). Jerusalem: A Cookbook. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. ISBN 978-1-60774-395-8. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Kassis, Reem (18 February 2020). "Here's why Palestinians object to the term 'Israeli food': It erases us from history". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 12 February 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
7. ^ a b c d Kantor, Jodi (10 July 2002). "A History of the Mideast In the Humble Chickpea". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 September 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
8. ^ Gvion, Liora (1 January 2016), "Two Narratives of Israeli Food", Jews and Their Foodways, Oxford University Press, pp. 126–141, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190265427.003.0008, ISBN 978-0-19-026542-7, retrieved 24 September 2024
9. ^ Gvion, Liora (22 October 2012). Beyond Hummus and Falafel: Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in Israel. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-95367-3.
10. ^ a b c Massad, Joseph (17 November 2021). "Israel-Palestine: How food became a target of colonial conquest". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
11. ^ a b Petrini, Carlo; Watson, Benjamin (2001). Slow food : collected thoughts on taste, tradition, and the honest pleasures of food. Chelsea Green Publishing. p. 55\. ISBN 978-1-931498-01-2. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
12. ^ Helman, Anat (2015). Jews and Their Foodways. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-049359-2. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2023. "The claim that Indian cooking may have influenced the invention of falafel is reasonable. There are many fried foods in India that predate falafel and that are similar in shape and consistency. British soldiers familiar with vada, ambode, dal ke pakode and other fried foods might easily have experimented and encouraged resourceful Egyptian chefs to come up with a local equivalent."
13. ^ a b Vered, Ronit (13 June 2018). "Israelis or Arabs – Who Owns Falafel – and Does It Matter?". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 25 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
14. ^ Raviv, Yael (1 August 2003). "Falafel: A National Icon". Gastronomica. 3 (3): 20–25\. doi:10.1525/gfc.2003.3.3.20. ISSN 1529-3262. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
15. ^ a b Pilcher, Jeffrey M. (January 2006). Food in World History. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-31146-5. Archived from the original on 19 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
16. ^ Thorne, Matt; Thorne, John (2007). Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite. Macmillan. pp. 181–187\. ISBN 978-0-86547-628-8. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
17. ^ Hirsch, Dafna (November 2011). ""Hummus is best when it is fresh and made by Arabs": The gourmetization of hummus in Israel and the return of the repressed Arab". American Ethnologist. 38 (4): 619–621\. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01326.x.
18. ^ a b Ariel, Ari (2012). "The Hummus Wars". Gastronomica. 12 (1): 34–42\. doi:10.1525/gfc.2012.12.1.34. ISSN 1529-3262. JSTOR 10.1525/gfc.2012.12.1.34.
19. ^ MacLeod, Hugh (12 October 2008). "Lebanon turns up the heat as falafels fly in food fight". The Age. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
20. ^ Nahmias, Roee (10 June 2008). "Lebanon: Israel stole our falafel". Ynet News. Archived from the original on 20 April 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
21. ^ a b c Ebeling, Jennie (2013). "Falafelism: The Politics of Food in the Middle East". Review of Middle East Studies. 47 (2): 228–229\. doi:10.1017/S2151348100058146. ISSN 2151-3481. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
22. ^ Pilcher, Jeffrey M. (2006). Food in World History. Routledge. p. 115\. ISBN 978-0-415-31146-5. Archived from the original on 19 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
23. ^ Bourdain, Anthony (2012). "Jerusalem". Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
24. ^ Fisher, Max (1 December 2021). "Anthony Bourdain explains the Israel-Palestine conflict through food". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
25. ^ Campbell, Lisa (1 July 2015). "Falafelism: The Politics of Food in the Middle East". Library Journal. Archived from the original on 19 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
26. ^ Ghert-Zand, Renee (14 September 2010). "2000 Falafel Balls and Counting, A Mission To Understand the Falafel". The Forward. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
27. ^ Pataki, Amy (17 August 2010). "Falafelism: This movie will make you ravenous". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 19 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
28. ^ Peritz, Ingrid; Ha, Tu Thanh (14 September 2002). "Concordia: A campus in conflict". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
29. ^ a b Spechler, Diana (11 December 2017). "Who invented hummus?". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
30. ^ Shaheen, Kareem (24 March 2023). "The True Origins of Hummus". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
31. ^ Tannahill, Reay (1989). Food in history. New York: Crown Publishers. pp. 25, 61. ISBN 978-0-517-57186-6.
32. ^ "Gastronationalism". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
33. ^ Gaedtke, Felix; Parameswaran, Gayatri. "Food feuds simmer". Aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
34. ^ Michelle Tien King, ed. (2019). Culinary nationalism in Asia. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-350-07869-7. OCLC 1100471127.
35. ^ a b c d e Ichijo, Atsuko; Ranta, Ronald (2016). Food, national identity and nationalism : from everyday to global politics. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-48313-3. OCLC 928396294.
36. ^ a b Raz, Dan Savery (1 August 2015). "Hunting for hummus in Israel". BBC Travel. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
37. ^ Mitnick, Joshua (25 July 2007). "Hummus brings Israelis, Palestinians to the table". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
38. ^ Atsuko Ichijo, Ronald Ranta (2022). Springer (ed.). "Food, National Identity and Nationalism: From Everyday to Global Politics". National Identities. 24 (1): 123. Bibcode:2022NatId..24...74T. doi:10.1080/14608944.2020.1864123.
39. ^ Hirsch D, Tene O. Hummus: The making of an Israeli culinary cult. Journal of Consumer Culture. 2013;13(1):25-45. doi:10.1177/1469540512474529
40. ^ HIRSCH, DAFNA (2011). ""Hummus is best when it is fresh and made by Arabs": The gourmetization of hummus in Israel and the return of the repressed Arab". American Ethnologist. 38 (4): 617–630\. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01326.x. ISSN 0094-0496. JSTOR 41410422.
41. ^ Ishita Banerjee-Dube. Cambridge University Press (ed.). Cooking Cultures. p. 51.
42. ^ Yotam Ottolenghi (29 June 2010). "The perfect hummus debate". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016.
43. ^ a b c d Marks, Gil (17 November 2010). Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. HMH. ISBN 9780544186316. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024 - via Google Books.
44. ^ Karam, Zeina, "Hummus war looms between Lebanon and Israel Archived 15 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine", Associated Press, 7 October 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
45. ^ Wheeler, Carolynne (11 October 2008). "Hummus food fight between Lebanon and Israel". telegraph.co.uk. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018.
46. ^ "Whose hummus is it anyway?", The Times of South Africa, 9 November 2008, archived from the original on 20 November 2008
47. ^ "Lebanese to Israel: Hands Off Our Hummus!". Haaretz. Associated Press. 24 October 2009. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
48. ^ Anderman, Nirit (26 February 2007). "Musical Comedy on West Bank Wins Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
49. ^ Rutledge, David (11 March 2015). "Make hummus not war". ABC Australia. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
50. ^ a b Ari Ariel, "The Hummus Wars", Gastronomica 12:1:34–42 (Spring 2012) doi:10.1525/GFC.2012.12.1.34
51. ^ "Israel takes Hummus World Record", Haaretz January 8, 2010 Archived June 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine; see also Jawdat Ibrahim
52. ^ a b "Lebanon claims latest title in 'Hummus War'". CNN. 9 May 2010. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
53. ^ "Lebanon breaks Israel's hummus world record". Gulf News, GN Media. Archived from the original on 7 April 2017.
54. ^ "Abu Gosh mashes up world's largest hummus". YNet. AFP. 8 January 2010. Archived from the original on 14 January 2010.
55. ^ "Abu Ghosh secures Guinness world record for largest dish of hummus". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 11 January 2010. Archived from the original on 6 March 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
56. ^ Jack Brockbank (12 January 2010). "The largest serving of hummus". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 5 April 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
57. ^ a b Shalev, Mair (12 January 2001) “The Hummus is Ours” Yedioth Ahronoth: Opinion section [in Hebrew], cited in Nussbaum, Harriet (2021) Hummus: A Global History. pp. 19-21. Note: Nussbaum mistakenly dates Shalev's 2001 article to 2007
58. ^ "Ruth 2:14". Sefaria. 1985. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
59. ^ Nussbaum, Harriet (2021) Hummus: A Global History. pp. 19-21
60. ^ Fronzaroli, Pelio (1971). Studi sul lessico comune semitico. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconti della Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, VIII. p. 623, 635, 641
61. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2011). "Proto-Semitic Lexicon". in Weninger, Stefan and Khan, Geoffrey and Streck, Michael P and Watson, Janet C. E (eds.), The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, p. 239 of pp. 179–258
62. ^ "*ḥmṣ̂ - to be sour" Archived 2024-08-13 at the Wayback Machine in Semitic Etymological Database Online
63. ^ "Tasty Israeli Salad". Israel Food Guide.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
64. ^ Levy, Faye (28 May 1992). "A Salad for This Season". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
65. ^ BBC Cooking in the Danger Zone: Israel and Palestinian Territories, Page 6 Archived 2024-03-17 at the Wayback Machine "this salad that we call an Israeli Salad, actually it’s an Arab salad, Palestinian salad….”
66. ^ Joseph Massad, "The Persistence of the Palestinian Question," in Empire & Terror: Nationalism/postnationalism in the New Millennium, Begoña Aretxaga, University of Nevada, Reno Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada Press, 2005 p. 63
67. ^ Crum, Peggy (10 February 2010). "Featured Food: Israeli Couscous" (PDF). Recipe for Health. Residential and Hospitality Services, Michigan State University. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
68. ^ Marks, Gil (2010). "Couscous". Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 315–317\. ISBN 978-0544186316.
69. ^ Doram Gaunt (9 May 2008). "Ben-Gurion's Rice". Haaretz.
70. ^ Martinelli, Katherine (3 November 2010). "Ben Gurion's Rice and a Tale of Israeli Invention". Food. The Forward.
71. ^ Gur, Janna (2008). "Simple Pleasures". The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey. Schocken Books. p. 127\. ISBN 978-0805212242.
72. ^ Gates, Stefan (30 March 2008). "Cooking in the Danger Zone: Israel and Palestinian Territories" (PDF). BBC. p. 6\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 April 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Nath, Debasmita (1 September 2024). "Cooking up Conflict: A Gastronationalist Reading of the Israel-Palestine War". NIICE NEPAL. Retrieved 1 March 2025.