"Lebanon: Whose Hummus?"
A14 (World Briefing), Wednesday, 10/8/08
By The Associated Press
This brief article describes a Lebanese Industrialists Association's plan to sue Israel "for falsely taking credit for traditional Middle Eastern dishes like hummus" and "for marketing... [those] regional dishes as Israeli." The President of the association remarks, “It is not enough they are stealing our land. They are also stealing our civilization and our cuisine.”
Given that this article has such little informative value (Example: In what way has Israel taken credit for these dishes beyond marketing them as Israeli? I doubt it has taken exclusive credit and denied it to the Arabs) and this news has such little regional or global bearing, it appears that the piece was included principally for entertainment value. Depending on how the readers views the contemporary conflict though, it will probably reinforce their views in one way or another.
If the reader believes that Israel is a white-colonial implant among the indigenous Arabs, they will agree with the remarks of the Lebanese trade group's president that Israel is usurping Arab culture after having usurped their land. On the other hand, if the reader believes that Arab rejectionism is at the heart of the conflict, the president's incendiary comments will only serve as further evidence of that view.
Does hummus have to be an exclusively Arab or Lebanese product? Is the land of Israel-Palestine exclusively under Arab province? Interestingly enough, these two questions are closely intertwined as this article indirectly shows.
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Good point that this news only reinforces disparate views. However, I'm not sure most people know the majority of Israelis are Sephardic/Mizrahi.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note the headline from the Metro newspaper October 7:
"Hummus war simmering between Lebanon and Israel over who owns cuisine." There's no "war simmering between" the two countries. There's an ignorant propaganda war declared by a Lebanese association. That's it. That's where it ends. The AP writer Karam even noted that Israeli's food assoc. and gov't declined comment. So where's the "between"?
Today's AM newspaper had a review of local hummus spots. In their fun facts section on hummus, there was a brief rundown of variations on hummus in a few Mideas countries, one of which was Israel:
In Israel, chickpeas are the exclusive legumea because a genetic disease among Mediterranean Jews caused allergies to fava beans.
Of course, average readers could've used this information, that Mediterranean Jews have made Israeli hummus unique among the region.