Hummus Wars: All We Are Saying Is Give Chickpeas a Chance
The latest addition to the litany of Israel's unforgivable crimes: "stealing" hummus and falafel from the Arabs.
The first time I was accused of “stealing food” was back in the late 1980s. It was World Fair week on my Boston-based college campus, and representatives from several of the other Middle Eastern student groups accused us, the Israelis, of “stealing” their national food and claiming it as our own. That food was, of course, hummus, and we, of course, were not impressed by their position. As I recall, we thought it was, in fact, a rather preposterous accusation, and I’d like to think we let them know we thought so.
And here we are in 2009, where hummus libel is an issue once again. There was great joy in Lebanon recently as a group of Lebanese chefs broke the world record for making the largest plate of hummus, and rightly so. After all, it isn’t everyday that Guinness world records are broken, especially records of such unique, tasty distinction. What made this record-breaking moment so special, though, what really made the organizers happy, was that not only had they made history, but by doing so, they’d emerged victorious and brought pride to Lebanon. And what was it, exactly, that made this particular achievement so sweet, do you ask? It’s quite simple, really. The previous world record for creating the largest plate of hummus was held by a group in Israel.
Reading the online Arab press coverage of the event (and the following day’s tabouleh salad followup) and even some of the mainstream media coverage, one would think that a battle no less important than the summer of 2006’s Second Lebanon War had been hard-fought and won, that the innocent little chickpea in all its spreadable glory had suddenly become the latest secret weapon in the ongoing struggle against the “Zionist entity.” Here was yet another opportunity for victory against the enemy, and clearly an evil one at that. This was an enemy whose cunning and deceit obviously knew no bounds, for not only have they occupied land, but they have also occupied a plate. And seriously, isn’t it just a tad disturbing to think that a legume is being cynically exploited for political gain?
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Liza Rosenberg is an Israel-based freelance writer. She blogs at Something Something.
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27 Comments
1. latin guy:lol
Nov 8, 2009 - 2:35 am 2. Ytzik:I remember some latin american fellows telling me that the swiss have “stolen” their chocolate… Well, I guess we’ve stolen the french fries… Yes, And Marco Polo did steal the pasta from China and so on…
This kind of argument is really ridiculous, it has only historic value only if not anecdotal.
“Welcome to globalization” is the usual answer I give to that.
if all the conflicts/rivalities between lebanese and israeli people can be reduced to a “who make the largest plate of humus”, I DO welcome that kind of war.
Nov 8, 2009 - 2:42 am 3. Hal R:I hate chickpeas. I love hummus. How is it possible
Nov 8, 2009 - 4:15 am 4. Ruvy:to hate “the parents” but love “the child”.
The Parisians have the Eiffel Tower, the English, Big Ben. And all we have is falafel.
(from a very popular song in Israel decades ago, v’lánu yesh faláfel).
Nov 8, 2009 - 4:17 am 5. Raymond in DC:Ruvy relates, from the popular Israeli song, “The Parisians have the Eiffel Tower, the English, Big Ben. And all we have is felafel.”
It was only a few years ago that the felafel was similarly deemed to have been “stolen” by the Israelis. Seriously, we’re dealing with dysfunctional societies desperate for something, anything, they can be proud of.
Nov 8, 2009 - 5:36 am 6. Lynn:I think you have even stolen the olive branch that you offer to them. Ha! Why don’t you just cooperate and let them sweep you into the sea.
Nov 8, 2009 - 6:07 am 7. Billy Hammil:it does really say a lot about how the arabs claim everything as their own.
even their religion is a perversion of previous religions.
Nov 8, 2009 - 6:15 am 8. Ruvy:I looked it up on You Tube and found this tune, a tune nearly as old as me. It was the first song I learned about Israel that was not hava negila or something of that nature.
Some of the lyrics (in Hebrew) are as you see them below:
לכל מדינה כאן בעולם,
מאכל לאומי המוכר לכולם,
וכל ילד בגן יודע כי
האוכל מקרוני הוא איטלקי.
לאוסטרים בוינה שניצל טעים,
והצרפתים אוכלים צפרדעים.
הסינים אוכלים אורז דק ורזה,
והקניבלים אוכלים זה את זה
ולנו יש פלאפל,
פלאפל, פלאפל,
לאבא מתנה
גם אמא כאן קונה,
לסבתא הזקנה
נקנה חצי מנה.
וגם החותנת היום תקבל
פלאפל, פלאפל
עם הרבה הרבה פילפל.
פעם כשבא יהודי לישראל
נשק לאדמה וברך ה”גומל”.
היום, הוא רק יורד מן המטוס
וכבר קונה פלפל ושותה גזוז.
אצלנו אין מלך, יש רק נשיא,
אבל במלוכה כבר השגנו שיא.
אצלנו כל יום קם מלך חדש -
אחד “מאושר” השני “מיואש”.
כי לנו יש פלאפל,
פלאפל, פלאפל.
כי כאן מוכרים לרוב,
מריח כל הרחוב
ריחות של שומשומין
ושמן פרפין.
וגם צרבת אפשר פה לקבל
מפלאפל, פלאפל
עם הרבה הרבה הרבה פילפל
פלאפל לעשות זה לא פשוט,
פלאפל לעשות זאת אומנות,
ויוכל להבחין כל בן תימן
בין פלאפל של חובב או של אמן.
המצחיק ביותר הוא, אללה אל עזים,
פלאפל עשוי בידי אשכנזים!
בפלאפל כזה תמיד תרגיש
מין טעם מוזר של געפילטע פיש.
In this tune you see some really old Hebrew words, words from a bygone era – the word gazóz was the word for carbonated water. At the time, carbonated water was served separate from the syrup (as it had been in the United States a decade earlier in the 1940’s), and mixed together – voilá – soda.
Nov 8, 2009 - 7:09 am 9. Descans:The problem (and it is largely unacknowledged) is that the Arab mind (for lack of a better term) and Arab culture (ditto) is largely influenced by Arab emotions, reinforced by tyrannical societies that encourage emotionalism instead of thoughtful reflection, spawned by a religion that refuses to tolerate thoughtful restraint on even the most murderous of emotions.
Nov 8, 2009 - 8:13 am 10. spindok:Of course it is an arabic food. But Hummus Shmummus.
You havent lived until you have walked the entire promonade along the beach from Tel-Aviv to Jaffa in the wee hours of the morning to end up at Abulafia, the legendary 24-hour Arab bakery, to feast on warm fresh sambusac (sort of a calazone filled with eggs, potatoes and other stuff).
Food is something we can agree on. Good food is a celebration of life. On the walk down the beach you might have also stopped for an american style burger, some italian gelato, and maybe a few shots of russian vodka, all of these are popular there.
Silly of these people to turn it into something negative. Eat, enjoy, maybe with full bellies nobody will feel so much like throwing rocks or worse.
Spindok
Nov 8, 2009 - 8:18 am 11. steven:“Are people really so full of loathing, so full of revulsion that they find it necessary to turn even the most innocuous of happenings into a point of contention?”
Yes.
Nov 8, 2009 - 8:26 am 12. X:woah I love falafel
and swiss chocolate too
Nov 8, 2009 - 8:35 am 13. Gary Ogletree:I don’t respect any Greek restaurant that doesn’t serve hummus and falafel. Greek origins according to Homer. Simpsonopolis. Famed writer of Epics.
Nov 8, 2009 - 9:38 am 14. Delia:I’ve never had hummus that tasted good to me. I love chickpeas so there has GOT to be a recipe out there that will turn me into a hummus addict.
Nov 8, 2009 - 9:52 am 15. Amy:The so-called theft of food is “small potatoes” (sorry) when you compare it to Mohammed’s wholesale theft of Judaism, which he then proceeded to twist into a form which mirrored his own mental pathology and such predelictions as consummating a marriage with a six-year-old when she turned nine. Just sayin’…
Nov 8, 2009 - 11:13 am 16. Bill:And Chicken Tikka Masala is the now the dish of the UK.
What’s their point?
Nov 8, 2009 - 11:26 am 17. ReNae:The point? It’s funny!
Nov 8, 2009 - 11:39 am 18. Fat Man:The Arabs learned how to cook from the Byzantine empire, which they over-ran in the 7th century C.E. Before that they were just a bunch of nomads wandering the desert.
Here is the correct method of handling claims of artistic priority:
Just before we go, I’d like to mention Junior Wells*
We stole his thing from him, and he from someone else
He plays the blues like few before, may he play forevermore
‘TIGHTEN UP YOUR WIG’ from “The Second” by Steppenwolf (1968), Words and music by John Kay
Junior Wells (1932 – 1998)
Nov 8, 2009 - 12:42 pm 19. doppelganglander:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Wells
Thanks for a funny article with serious undertones. How pathetic that Arabs feel the need to start a fight over something as stupid as hummus. Humor is the right weapon to deal with them, since they seem to be born with no sense of humor at all.
Nov 8, 2009 - 2:48 pm 20. Mo-ha-med:What you fellows don’t realise is that – you’re making a much bigger deal about the “Hummus world record” than the Lebanese do. Seriously. It’s actually quite amusing.
And, PJM, well done removing the clause banning hate speech. That really determines what kind of website you are. Bravo.
Nov 8, 2009 - 3:01 pm 21. Noga:Israeli humus and felafel are different in taste and texture from Lebanese h&f. Lebanese humus is like a thick paste. Israeli humus is more like a dip in texture. Lebanese felafels are bigger, denser and saltier than their Israeli counterpart. Israeli felafels are spherical, airier and more delicate in flavour. Israeli felafels are served in a thick pita which opens like a pocket. Lebanese felafels are served in thin pita like a wrap.
Israeli felafel and humus bear the same evolutionary relationship to their Arab cousins that the American pizza bears to original Italian pizza.
Many Arabs like to call Israeli Jews thieves and express contempt towards them upon the filmiest of excuses, as illustrated by Mo-ha-med. Arabs are also eager to find grievances and would never miss a chance to be insulted or feel wronged. Someone might have suggested to them that imitation is a form of praise, and the fact that Israelis have adopted these foods might be seen as a compliment to Arab culinary savvy. But no. Better get into a fine dudgeon and whip up some anger and sarcasm, why not.
Nov 8, 2009 - 5:24 pm 22. william b travis:hummas is soylent green
Nov 8, 2009 - 5:53 pm 23. Alex Bensky:This sort of thing is not uncommon, alas. There is an on-line magazine, The Gilded Serpent, devoted to Middle Eastern dance and music. Several years ago its letters column featured one in response to an article about belly dance in Israel by accusing Israel of stealing this dance form, wrenching it away from its true culture.
They do belly dance in Sweden and China and the writer didn’t seem to find that a cultural assault.
Nov 8, 2009 - 6:05 pm 24. Chef Dan:Many foods have made transitions from one culture to another, especially in their names. Most people think “Pumpernickle” bread must be German, but in fact, it was an Austrian pronunciation of what they heard Napoleon say when, served the peasant fare instead of bleached-flour white bread while conquering part of that country, he declamed this as “Pas pour moi! Ca c’est pain pour Nicole!” (Nicole, for whom the bread/pain was for/pour was his commoner concubine, you see.)
Meanwhile, the obvious answer to the question “Why do radicalized politicized Arabs complain about Israeli hummus?” is obviously the classic “Because they don’t know the words….for peace.”
Nov 8, 2009 - 7:37 pm 25. Class Clown:Hummus sure is tasty, in any case. It’s the perfect snack to eat while you sit back in your air conditioned room watching a Hollywood movie.
Nov 8, 2009 - 9:59 pm 26. ExPat:I love hummus but can I be certain the vendor I buy it from will not someday blow me away with a strapped on explosive device? Not really. That is how Islamic jihadists are messing with our minds. I think that’s more important than worrying about the ethnicity of chick peas, garlic and olive oil, etc.. I make my own hummus and it’s damn good. And I’m Scots-Irish!
Nov 9, 2009 - 1:58 am 27. Keren Ausralia:Liza, you’re on the right track, now let’s deal with deliberate war loser hyper-estrogenated old woman Barak, drooling slobbering insane person Peres, and the dangerously treacherous Tsipimonster who’s just waiting in the wings…
Nov 9, 2009 - 10:14 am