Why ‘Israeli hummus’ infuriates Palestinians on Honi Soit

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

As Israel’s government has been descending into straight-up fascism (far-right nationalist sentiment founded in Jewish supremacy which has been the very basis of the Zionist project from the beginning), it is abhorrent to be celebrating Israeli “culture” founded on the theft and appropriation of Palestinian thaqafa. In the past 8 months, Palestinians have faced the deadliest attempt of systematic genocide since the UN began reporting on Palestinian deaths in 2008. Palestinians don’t get the luxury of resting — both in Palestine and across the diaspora — instead we are constantly re-traumatised by news of raids, evictions, home demolitions, and assassinations of our freedom fighters. One of the only spaces where we can feel a sense of pride is through our culture — our thobes which are carefully embroidered with oral histories through the practice of tatreez, our dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance signifying celebration at weddings, and our hummus which is a simple dip that was able to unite the Levant (or before British & French divisions, balaad al shaam). 

Continue reading at http://honisoit.com/2023/09/why-israeli-hummus-infuriates-palestinians/

Why I Accused Israel of Cultural Genocide by James Zogby

Please TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW and send your letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

It was, therefore, not “who invented hummus” that caused me to react. Rather, it was Israel’s appropriation of Palestinian land, eradication of their presence, and now the effort to be the sole claimants of their culture that prompted my response to Ray’s “Israeli food” tweet. This was cultural appropriation by conquest… And so what troubled me then, and still troubles me, are the parallels with the Native American experience. Their land had been taken, their history and rights were denied, and now their culture was claimed by the very people who dispossessed them. This according to Article 8 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is termed “genocide”.

Continue reading at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-i-accused-israel-of-cultural-genocide_us_5a4feffce4b0cd114bdb3311

‘Israeli’ hummus is theft, not appropriation by Steven Salaita

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State involvement in the pilfer of Palestinian food illustrates that we shouldn’t reduce the issue to individual consumption. It’s a systematic effort to validate settler colonisation.

It’s no shock, then, that Palestinians and their neighbours get salty whenever hearing the phrase “Israeli hummus.” Using Arabic food as a symbol of Zionist identity hands over the day-to-day victuals of the native to the coloniser. It’s a project of erasure, a portent of nonexistence, a promise of genocide.

No state that destroys olive groves and poisons the environment has a right to claim the objects of sustenance harvested for centuries by other people.

Continue reading at https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2017/9/4/israeli-hummus-is-theft-not-appropriation