1

Politics of Palestinian Cuisine Within Israel

Leanne Chambers
Anthropology 419: Anthropology of the Middle East
December 9, 2014

2
Everybody eats. Regardless of race, religion, sex, or geographical location, food plays a central
role in everyone's lives. Our culture and heritage often determines what types of food and flavors we
eat on a Monday, at a party, during a holiday, on the weekend, or even at a funeral. In America, it has
become a cultural expectation that one eats a hotdog at a baseball game, popcorn at a movie theater,
deep dish pizza in Chicago, and turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans and
pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. These traditions and cultural expectations are able to connect an
ethnically diverse country such as the United States. In addition to this, food is often deeply rooted in
our sense of identity and self.
It is no wonder then why food has been at the center of so many different political agendas past
and present. In America, during World War II, for example, women were encouraged to do their duty
and plant victory gardens in order to provide troops overseas with more rations. In fact, any woman
who was able to plant a garden but failed to do so was often seen as unpatriotic.1 In more recent years,
when France refused to support the United States' desire to enter into a war with Iraq, several members
from the House of Representatives renamed French fries, freedom fries, and French toast, freedom
toast in the Capitol's cafeteria in order to show dissatisfaction with France.2 Today, Michelle Obama

Char Miller, "In the Sweat of Our Brow: Citizenship in American Domestic
Practice in World War
IIVictory Gardens," The Journal of American Culture, Proquest (200609294).
Accessed November
24, 2014, http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/docview/200609294?
accountid=12598.

Richard Nangle, "McGovern: 'Freedom Fries' Tasteless," Telegram and Gazette

(Worcester, MA),
March 14 2003, Proquest (268864342), Accessed November 24, 2014,
http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/loginurl=http://search.proquest.com.
proxy1.cl.msu.edu/doc
iew/268864342?accountid=12598.

3
leads the fight in putting more fruits and vegetables into kids' school lunches in an effort to fight
childhood obesity.3
The politics of food are also present in different ethnic restaurants throughout the United States.
Nestled into the back corner of a shopping plaza, La Pita is easy to miss if one is not intentionally
looking for it. La Pita markets itself as, your local Middle Eastern restaurant4, and in a place like
Saint Joseph, Michigan, it is the only Middle Eastern restaurant. La Pita sits beside an old Hollywood
Video that went out of business years ago, and a Game Stop that was recently converted into a Little
Caesars. The side of the building was once painted white, but like everything else in the plaza, it has
decayed into a yellowish patina. If not for the bright red sign that reads La Pita, Mediterranean
Cuisine, it would be hard for one to discern what type of food La Pita even serves. It is not until one
steps inside, however, that it becomes clear that La Pita specializes in Middle Eastern, specifically
Lebanese, food. The atmosphere reflects this as well; a Lebanese flag hangs on the wall behind the
counter next to a large painting of a cyprus tree. The lights are draped with little beads in deep hues of
blue, purple, red, and yellow; and an oud plays softly in the background as people poke at their falafels
in curiosity before they decide to take a bite.
La Pita provides more than great food, however. La Pita provides a glimpse into social relations
between the majority culture and the Lebanese minority culture within the United States. In her book,
Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in Israel, Liora
Bill Thomson, "U.S. News: Schools Told to Lighten Up LunchesNew Rules for
Federally
Subsidized Meals Set Limits on Calories, Saturated Fat; Pizza, Fries Survive,"
Wall Street Journal, Jan.
26, 2012, Proquest (917837940). Accessed November 24, 2014.
3

http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/loginurl=http://search.proquest.com.pro
xy1.cl.msu.edu/docview/917837940?accountid=12598.
4 Dinner Menu, La Pita, Accessed November 24, 2014.
www.lapitarestaurant.com.

4
Gvion notes that,
Restaurants and cookbooks are social texts by which dominant and minority groups write,
rewrite, and construct their pasts and their public images [. . .] Such texts illuminate the
connection between culinary processes and political ones and provide a glimpse into the
prevailing web of power relations. When restaurant menus and cookbooks are viewed as texts,
they reveal the relations of trust, suspicion, and exchange between two cultures. As menus and
cookbooks change, we see how a dominant, majority culture begins to accept a minority
culture.5
No culture is a static, ahistoric entity. Rather, cultures are fluid. This fluidity is best seen in
mediumssuch as restaurant menusthat show how a culture has changed, or adapted to the different
expectations of the dominate culture.
If we look at La Pita's menu, we see this same fluidity. The dinner menu offers items such as
veggie musakaa, baked kibie, stuffed lamb, mujadara, beef shawarma, fatoush, baba ghanouge, sukjuk,
and rice pudding.6 One would think of all of these items as traditional Middle Eastern foods, however,
they all come with a choice of either rice or fries. French fries are typically thought of as American
food, yet, they are still being served at La Pita. La Pita has taken both Lebanese and American food and
sells them together. This illustrates Gvion's point that when menus are viewed as texts, one is able to
see the exchange between cultures.
In addition to this, La Pita also serves hamburgers and subs. These are clearly not Middle

Liora Gvion, Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), [pg #], PDF e-book.

Dinner Menu, La Pita, Accessed November 24, 2014.

www.lapitarestaurant.com.

5
Eastern in origin, yet one can read this as suspicion on the part of minority culture. Perhaps burgers and
fries are included on the menu because there is a suspicion that a member of the majority culturewho
probably did not grow up eating traditional Middle Eastern cuisinewill walk into La Pita and either
find nothing that he/she likes, or find nothing that he/she is willing to try.
This suspicion on the part of the minority culture, can also be read as trust on the side of the
majority culture. Someone who walks into La Pita and sees that burgers are served on the menu may
view this as the minority culture trying to assimilate into the majority culture. This, in return, may lead
to the member of the majority placing more trust in the minority culture because there is a common
connection between the two.
And while the politics of food are pervasive, one rarely thinks about the them on a daily basis.
However, the politics are there. Not only does food play a political role in the United states, but food
plays political roles all over the world as well. No where is the political role of food more pervasive
than in Israel. For decades, Palestinian food has been used in Israel by both Palestinians and Israelis to
promote opposing agendas.
Food has been used as a political tool in the region before the creation of the state of Israel in
1948. Beginning in the 1920's, the Zionist Department of Commerce and Industry began promoting the
use of tozeret haaretz productsfood grown or produced locally by Jewish workers. In 1936, the
Union for Tozeret Haartz formed with the encouragement of Zionist organizations such as the Jewish
Agency, The National Committee, The Union of Industrialists, and the Hebrew Workers Union.
Together these agencies promoted buying local food in order to support new crops, settlements and
Jewish farmers. At times, this meant that the Jewish buyer was forced to sacrifice ease, freshness, and
cost, but to not buy tozeret haaretz products was seen as unpatriotic.7
7

Yael Raviv, "National Identity on a Plate," Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and
Culture 8, no. 4 (April 30, 2002):164, Proquest (235667293), Accessed November 20, 2014.

6
By 1938, The Agricultural Department of the Union for Tozeret Haartz began labeling food
Hebrew if it was grown or produced locally by Jewish workers. Soon watermelons became Hebrew
Watermelon; bananas became Hebrew Banana and eggs became Hebrew Egg. Food without the
label of Hebrew not only couldn't be sold in Jewish markets, but it often sold for less than food
marked with the Hebrew label.8
The labeling of food went beyond economics, however. Jewish consumers who bought food
labeled Hebrew made an intentional political decision. Yael Raviv notes in her article National
Identity on a Plate that, This form of labeling transformed these foodstuffs from everyday objects
into national symbols. Through this campaign, food products were presented as part of the national
project in a very literal way. she continues that, Consuming a 'Hebrew Banana' can be a conscious
political statement, a deliberate action, whereas eating a plain old non-nationalized piece of fruit was an
unmarked everyday act.9 Tozeret haaretz products lead to a internalized sense of nationalism. When
one bought tozeret haaretz products they became part of a larger community that all supported the
Zionist movement.
Tozeret haaretz products not only lead to othering the larger Arab communityspecifically
Palestiniansbut these products also denied the complexity and the history of the foods that became
nationalized. Raviv states that,

The fact that a campaign for the purchase of "Hebrew" products was titled "Product of the

http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/loginurl=http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/d
oc
iew/235667293?accountid=12598.
8

Ibid.

Ibid.

7
Land" (i.e. local products) is significant. In its very title the campaign attempts to ignore the
existence of any other people on this land. The campaign not only promotes local products at
the expense of imported ones, but also Jewish labor at the expense of local Arab workers. When
Schawrtz [author of Zionism in the Kitchen (1940)] states the importance of buying tozeret
haaretz products for the Jewish local economy and creating room for a multitude of new Jewish
immigrants, she disregards the effect on the local Arab economy and population. Growing
watermelons was one of the agricultural branches adopted by the Jewish settlers from the local
Arab population.10

The Zionist denial of complexity and history of both food and people allowed, and continues to
allow, a diverse group of people to form a single national identity while denying the national identity of
Palestinians.
This is perhaps best illustrated with the incorporation of hummus into Israeli cuisine. According
to Janna Gur, editor of "Al HaShulchan" (On the Table), a popular food magazine in Israel, most
Israelis today admit that hummus does have Arab origins: Hummus is Israeli and it's of Palestinian
origin, and that's not a contradiction. It's Israeli because it's in Israel and Israelis love it and they even
export it now, but I don't think there is a single Israeli in his right mind that would claim that it's
anything but Arabic. And I would say not just Arabic, I would modify it and say it's Palestinian.11 And
while hummus' Arab origins are just now being recognized, this was not always the case.
Around the end of World War II, Jewish-owned Oriental restaurants (misada mizrahit) began

10

Ibid.

11

Derva Ferst, "What is Israeli Cuisine?" Forward (New York, NY), Sep, 6, 2013: 22, Proquest
(1470792348), Accessed November 21, 2014, http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1470792348?accountid=12598.

8
serving hummus. These restaurants soon gained popularity during the late 1950's as large numbers of
Jews from Middle Eastern countries immigrated to Europe. These restaurants served hummus along
with falafel, tahini, shishlik, and kebab to the Jewish public. Although there were restaurants owned by
Arabs who sold the same food, it was the Oriental restaurants that introduced hummus to the Jewish
population.12 Dafna Hirsh notes that, It is significant that hummus was not a part of the culinary
repertoire of most Mizrahi Jews prior to their immigration to Israel in the 1950s, as it was consumed
mainly in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine rather than in North Africa, Yemen, and Iraq, from
which most Mizrahi immigrants hailed. He continues that, The spread of Jewish-owned Oriental
restaurants serving hummus supported its 'Israelization.' Its Arabness was subsumed under a more
encompassing category'Oriental'which could then be identified with Mizrahi Jews rather than
Arab.13 The hidden origin and association with Mizrahi Jews enabled hummus to become a staple in
Israeli cuisine.
The fact that hummus was introduced by Mizrahi Jews and not by Palestinians is very
important. Many Palestinians believe that Israelis only eat select dishes from Palestinian cuisine
because there is mistrust between the two communities. Varda, a teacher from Baka al-Gharbiya notes
that, The sentence, 'This is something Arabs eat' often implies that its not worth tasting because it
might be dangerous. I think you are open to food from the entire world except the food of your
neighbors. Theres no mutual trust between us. If you havent eaten in my home, you havent yet gotten
to know me and dont want to know us.14 However, because hummus was introduced by the Mizrahi

12

Dafna Hirsch, '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, no. 4 (2011): 617630, Accessed November 26, 2014. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01326.

13

Ibid.

14 Liora Gvion, Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 136, PDF e-book.

9
Jews to the Israeli population, hummus lost all the negative connotations that Israelis associate with
Arab food and became an acceptableand tastydish that quickly became an Israeli national dish.
Hummus was also able to be appropriated into Israeli cuisine through cookbooks and food
authors who suggested eating hummus as a festive yet informal way to celebrate Israeli Independence
Day. In addition to this, the Telma food company began selling hummus in 1958 with tremendous
successby 1968 Telma had sold its 15,000,000th can of hummus.15 In a popular advertisement, Telma
labeled hummus as an Israeli national dish: Knish or verenikas. Not all your guests are familiar with
these Eastern European dishes. But everybody eats hummus enthusiasticallyhummus, the Israeli
national dish.16 However, Telma failed to mention hummus' origin or history and instead presented
hummus as a purely Israeli dish. In the past, this national cuisine has united the diverse ethnic
population of Israel while denying the existence of Palestinian communities.
Today, hummus is firmly rooted in Israeli cuisine, culture, and tradition. It is not surprising that
hummus was adopted by Israeli cuisine; food is often adopted and modified by a number different
cultures around the world. Take pizza for example, the United States has adopted pizza from Italian
cuisine and have modified it to suite American taste buds. The pizza that one would find in New York
or Chicago hardly resembles the pizza that is served throughout Italy, yet in the process pizza has never
lost its Italian heritage.
The appropriation of hummus in Israeli cuisine not only denies the the existence and
contributions of Palestinians to Israeli cuisine and culture, but it has also been used to create parallels
between biblical Israel and present-day Israel. Originally hummusand other foods such as falafel, ect.
was appropriated in Israeli cuisine because, according to Basem Ra'ad, The Israelis, in search of
local flavor and in need of eating well too, recognize these foods for their indigenous character and
15

Ibid.

16

Ibid.

10
appropriateness to the land, and so take them for their own use. These foods and plants are part of the
environment and the regions character.17 Hummus was adopted by Israeli cuisine because it provided
a connection to the land which in turn gave Israeli culture a sense authenticity.18 According to Hirsch,
Once the appropriated item entered into the more official registers of culture, its Arab identity was
usually suppressed, allowing the item to be presented as a relic of biblical times.19 In a recent news
article from July of 2014, author Devra Ferst mentions that, The dish [hummus] holds a unique place
in the Israeli imagination; there is an entire culture of customs, etiquette and traditions that surrounds
it.20 While this imagination can be linked to present times because of the culture and customs
surrounding it, this imagination can also be linked to biblical times as well due to the prescribed
authentic nature of hummus in Israeli cuisine.
The politics surrounding Palestinian food have been used to promote a single national identity
among the diverse Israeli population, created a more authentic Israeli cuisine and culture, and have
denied the existence of the Palestinian community in and around Israel. However, it is important to
remember that Palestinian food is not a singular, unchanging entity, rather, Palestinian food is quite
complex with recipes varying from region to region. In Palestine today, there are three distinct cuisines:
urban, rural, and nomadic. Urban cuisine usually is classified by the use of aromatic spices, fresh herbs,
17

Basem L Ra'ad, Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean,

(New York, NY: Pluto
Press, 2010), 126, PDF e-book.

18

Dafna Hirsch, '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, no. 4 (2011): 617630, Accessed November 26, 2014. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01326.

19

Ibid.

20

Derva Ferst, "What is Israeli Cuisine?" Forward (New York, NY), Sep, 6, 2013: 22, Proquest
(1470792348), Accessed November 21, 2014, http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1470792348?accountid=12598.

11
and the use of hot chili peppers which is distinct to this cuisine. Urban costal city cuisine is often
classified by the use of exotic spices and seafood cooked with a tomato-based sauce in a clay pot.
Rural cuisine is often found in the interior regions and is classified by the use of seasonal
agricultural products as well as the use of preserved dairy products. Unlike urban cuisine, rural cuisine
is often cooked with minimal spices.21 In her article, Gazan Cuisine: A Journey through Food, Gena
Chung notes that, The striking differences between the rural and urban ingredients are obvious when
comparing two kufta (minced meatballs) recipes found in the [The Gaza Kitchen by Eaila El-Haddad
and Maggie Schmitt]. The rural kufta, Kufta 'al Ghag relies on farm-fresh ingredients and minimal
spice, while the urban kufta, Kufta bi Saniya, adds heat and multiple aromatic spices to the mix.22 The
contrasting ingredients used in different regional cuisines highlights the complexity of Palestinian food
that is often lost or forgotten under a blanket of presumed homogeny.
In addition to urban, rural, and nomadic cuisines, there is also a distinct variation in cuisine
between northern and southern regions. In the Northern region of Gaza, cuisine is often marked by
yogurt based sauces and tart flavors. Cuisine is the Southern region of Gaza is often defined by the use
of tomato-based sauces in dishes.23
Regional variation in Palestinian cuisine continues to exist in part because it enables
Palestinians to form a regional identity.24 According to Ra'ad, [. . .] the Zionist system gradually
appropriated almost everything that is Palestinian: foods, popular heritage, dress, customs, landscape,
21

Gena Chung, "Gazan Cuisine: A Journey Through Food." Azizah, July 2014:, 75-79, Proquest
(1562504624). http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1562504624?accountid=12598.
(Accessed
November 20, 2014).

22

Ibid.

23

Ibid.

24

Ibid.

12
architecture, language, religious heritage, and history. Now the Palestinians are left almost completely
unacknowledged.25 However, in order to be acknowledged, if only among themselves, Palestinians use
their cuisine. In a recent interview, Palestinian author Eaila El-Haddad stated that, [Food] becomes
something that you want to have ownership over, a connection to your past, to your way of life. When
everyone is telling you that you don't exist, and you are not on the mapthis is one way that you can
locate yourself.26 Palestinians use their cuisine in order to maintain their identity and ties to the land.
In addition to this, Palestinians use their cuisine as a means of protecting their unique national
identity. In order to do this, recipes and other culinary knowledge are memorized and passed down
from generation to generation:

The existence of culinary knowledge on a domestic level not only frees Palestinians from the
need to document it in writing; the culinary tradition penetrates political discourse, and in the
hands of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, it becomes a means for enabling them to control the
conditions of their lives, to ensure their existence as a separate cultural and national entity, and
to prevent their culture from becoming the appropriated territory identified with Israeliness that
excludes the Palestinian public.27

25 Basem L Ra'ad, Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean,

(New York, NY: Pluto
Press, 2010), 126, PDF e-book.
26 Gena Chung, "Gazan Cuisine: A Journey Through Food." Azizah, July 2014:, 75-79, Proquest
(1562504624). http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1562504624?accountid=12598.
(Accessed
November 20, 2014).
27

Liora Gvion, Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 160, PDF e-book.

13
Because culinary knowledge is often kept within families instead of being published in
cookbooks, Palestinians are able to not only create their own national identity but prevent that identity
from becoming associated with a culture that generally is exclusive towards them.28
The symbol of the peasant has often come to signify Palestinians, The figure of the Palestinian
peasant has become the epitome of what it means to be smaid, to stay pit, anchored to the Earth with
stubborn determination.29 Palestinians have not only adopted the peasant as a symbol of resilience, but
also as a means of uniting the scattered Palestinian people, Everyone who consumes national dishes
which comes from the village, eats za'ater (thyme) for breakfast, dances the dabka, and savors the
subtle flavors of olive oil, is endowed with the peasant's symbolic power and comes to regard him or
herself as part of the people.30 Those who eat traditional Palestinian dishesone that peasants would
eatbecomes connected to the Palestinian population.
Palestinians preform their peasant identity by cooking with seasonal and local plants as well as
utilizing animals to make butter and cheese. During the early 1950's, during the austerity period in
Israel, Ismail, a Palestinian who owns an auto-repair shop in Jaffa recalls that, We would give the
Jews our ration stamps, and they would pay us. One gave me clothes he had received from America
that were too small for his children. We didnt need the stamps. We had oil from the olives; we would
make zibda [butter] ourselves; we also made cheese and laban ourselves. Everything stayed the
same.31 Because Palestinians had prior knowledge of the land, they were able to fare much better than
28

Ibid.

29

Ted Swedenburg, "The Palestinian Peasant as a National Signifier,"

Anthropological Quarterly 63,
no. 1 (1990): 18-30, JSTOR (3317957), Accessed November 26, 2014.
doi:10.2307/3317957

30

Ibid.

31

Liora Gvion, Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 153, PDF e-book.

14
Israelis during this time.32
Besides uniting Palestinians and preforming their national identity, they also use traditional
dishes to, [. . .] Fight colonization by stressing their rootedness in and love for the soil.33 When Israel
wished to annex Syria's Golan Heights protests soon broke out.34 Amal, a Palestinian political activist
from Galilee who was among the protesters recounts that:

Do you remember how activists of Hadash [the Israeli Arab-Jewish party] traveled with
members of Forum and Campus [political organizations that originated at the University of Tel
Aviv] to bring flour, rice, oil, and milk? Its impossible to starve us because we go out to the
garden, to the fields, pick herbs and greens and cook them. We know our land and know how to
use what there is around us, and you cant break us by cutting food supplies.35

Amal and other protesters showed opposition to the policies put in place by continuing to eat off
the land even after food supplies had been stopped. Liora Gvion states that, When Palestinian citizens
of Israel mobilize their culinary tradition to promote political aims, they emphasize its being a cuisine
of poverty, based on simple and seasonal food.36This is clearly demonstrated in Amal's story. By
32

Ibid.

33

Ted Swedenburg, "The Palestinian Peasant as a National Signifier,"

Anthropological Quarterly 63,
no. 1 (1990): 18-30, JSTOR (3317957), Accessed November 26, 2014. doi:
10.2307/3317957

34

Liora Gvion, Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012), 153, PDF e-book.

35

Ibid., 154.

36

Ibid.

15
relying on seasonal food, those affected by the lack of food supplies were able to survive.
Palestinians use their cuisine in order to preserve and promote their national identity, to unite
Palestinians, and to oppose Israeli policies. In contrast to this, Israelis have used Palestinian cuisine to
promote a single national identity among the diverse Israeli population, to create a more authentic
Israeli cuisine and culture, and to deny the existence of the Palestinian community in and around Israel.
There is still mistrust and animosity between the two communities that often manifests in the
culinary sector. However, instead of using food to create further divisions between Palestinians and
Israelis, dedicated individuals are using food as a way to promote trust and understanding between the
two groups.
One way in which these goals are accomplished is through culinary tourism. This idea came
about when Paul Nirens, an Australian living in northern Israel, wanted to teach both Israeli Jews and
foreign tourists about Galilean food. He matches Israeli Jews with Muslim, Druze, and Christian Arab
hosts with the hopes that commonality and understanding may be found between the two.Israelis are
then invited to the homes of Palestinians who cook them a traditional meal. Israelis often travel to
towns that show strong Palestinian nationalism. On a visit to the Arab town of Arabehknown to
Jewish Israelis for its anti-government demonstrationsZilberman, one of the Israeli guests stated that,
"Fear is part of our lives from the day we were born. We had to think twice before coming to this area,
but our desire to learn about the tradition and culture overcame it."37 Fears are put aside in the effort to
gain a deeper understanding about Palestinian cuisine and culture.
About his culinary tourism, Nirens has no misconceptions, "I'm not saying in any way that I'm
37

Joshua Mitnick, "Spicing up Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts," The Christian Science

Monitor(Boston, MA), May 31, 2014, Proquest (1530719061), Accessed November 25, 2014,
http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1530719061?accountid=12598.

16
bringing peace to the Middle East. I'm showing a different side of the Galilee.'' Yet, he does see the
value of his company, "For the Israelis: I call it de-demonization: Suddenly you're bringing people from
Tel Aviv into the home of an Arab Muslim in Arabeh, and they see they don't have horns."38
Misconceptions about Palestinians are erased by one good meal.
Another notable company that is trying to unite Israelis and Palestinians through food is
PeaceWorks. PeaceWorks employes both Israelis and Palestinians in an effort to build cooperation and
trust between the two groups. In addition to Israeli and Palestinian employees, Peaceworks also
employes many other groups of people that have not seen eye to eye in the pastthe most notable of
these are perhaps Sri Lankan employees from both the Sinhalese and Tamil communities.39
Besides promoting cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis, PeaceWorks also promises to
donate at least five percent of their earnings to both the PeaceWorks Foundation as well and the One
Voice Movement, which aims to amplify the voice of moderate Israelis and Palestinians, and to help
them build a human infrastructure and the political environment necessary to propel political
representatives towards a two-state solution.40 This commitment to promoting peace is very
noteworthy.
These companies are an encouraging sign that although food has been used in the past as well as
in the present to create divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, food is also being used to bring
peace and understanding between two communities as well. And while it would be nave to think that
the decades long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians can be solved with food alone, food is
38

Ibid.

39

"Home," PeaceWorks, Accessed December 6, 2014.

http://www.peaceworks.com.

40

Ibid.

17
certainly a good way to build trust and understanding between the two communities on a personal level
that may eventually impact policy on a national level.

Bibliography
Gena Chung, "Gazan Cuisine: A Journey Through Food." Azizah, July 2014. Proquest
(1562504624). http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/1562504624?accountid=12598.
(Accessed November 20, 2014).
Dinner Menu. La Pita. Accessed November 24, 2014. www.lapitarestaurant.com.
Gvion, Liora. Beyond Hummus and Falafel: The Social and Political Aspects of Palestinian Food in
Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. PDF e-book.
Hirsch, Dafna. '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, no. 4 (2011): 617630. Accessed November 26, 2014. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01326.
"Home," PeaceWorks, Accessed December 6, 2014. http://www.peaceworks.com.
Ferst, Derva. "What is Israeli Cuisine?" Forward (New York, NY). Sep, 6, 2013. Proquest
(1470792348). Accessed November 21, 2014. http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1470792348?accountid=12598.
Miller, Char. "In the Sweat of Our Brow: Citizenship in American Domestic Practice
in World War
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