Posted on 11/24/2018 10:34:49 AM PST by Impala64ssa
The Palestinians are up in arms, not for the first time, over what they see as Israels theft of what they claim are quintessentially Palestinian foods hummus and falafel. This is one more way to continue the narrative of Israel as a foreign body, stealing not just Palestinian land, but also stealing Palestinian culture, including its clothing, its keffiyeh, and its food.
Heres the latest complaint by a Palestine Authority spokesman:
Official Palestinian Authority television recently accused Israel of stealing falafel, hummus, and other Palestinian foods as part of a conspiracy against Palestinian heritage.
The claim was made by a reporter for the PA television channels show Palestine This Morning on October 3, 2018 as part of a report on a local food festival, translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
We are talking about a brutal attack against the Palestinian heritage in general, including Palestinian foods, the reporter claimed over images of a cook preparing various dishes.
There has been theft of the Palestinian falafel, the Palestinian hummus, and some popular foods by the occupation, she added.
Holding [food] festivals like these is essential in order to preserve the heritage and also the Palestinian foods, the reporter said.
Falafel and hummus are, in fact, generic Middle Eastern foods and are eaten by many peoples across the region and beyond. They have also become popular as delicacies in Western countries.
PMW [Palestine Media Watch] noted that the incident is by no means the first time such accusations against Israel have been made. Mohammad Shtayyeh, a central committee member of the Fatah party, once claimed Israel fabricated the falafel. A member of the PA Parliament has also made a similar accusation, saying the Jewish state falsified the falafel ball. In 2011, Palestinian columnist Muwaffaq Matar charged that Israel had stolen our clothing, our keffiyeh, our falafel, and our hummus.
There are several things wrong with this claim. First, no one knows for sure where falafel originated, but it certainly was not with the Palestinians. Most food historians believe it was first prepared in Egypt in 1000 A.D., and whats more, its first preparers are believed to have been Coptic Christians. As Alexandria is a port city, it would have been easy for falafel to have migrated to the Levant, taken by sailors who brought the dish with them. Some maintain that falafel may have originated in Egypt as early as Pharaonic times. Another theory is that falafel may have originated in India, which has many deep-fried dishes in its cuisine, and was brought back to the Middle East by Arabs or Turks. Still another theory claims that falafel originated in Yemen. But no one has ever mentioned the Palestinians that is, the handful of Arabs living in Palestine as the originators of falafel, save the Palestinians themselves. And Jews in Israel did not have to steal falafel from the Palestinians. Mizrahi Jews had been eating falafel and hummus for many centuries, and when they arrived in Israel as refugees from Arab lands, they naturally brought the dish with them.
It is the same with hummus, which the Palestinians claim as their own, and accuse Israel of stealing it. Hummus, like falafel, is eaten all over the Middle East and North Africa, by Christians and Jews as well as Muslims, and by non-Arabs (Kurds, Berbers,Persians) as well as by Arabs. The dish is first mentioned in Egypt in the 13th century, which is most likely where it originated. It certainly did not originate with the Palestinian people who were created, for propaganda purposes, after the Six-Day War.
Why are the Palestinians making such a big deal about Israel stealing hummus and falafel from them? They have created for themselves a whole narrative to buttress the claim of a separate Palestinian people. They have Palestinian folk songs, which turn out to be songs shared by all the Arabs of the Levant. They dance the dabke, and carefully call this circle-and-line dance, again common to all the Arabs in the Levant, a Palestinian folk dance. And they call falafel and hummus, two dishes that are eaten all over the Middle East, that have long been eaten by Mizrahi Jews and Coptic Christians, with the weight of authority supporting the claim that both originated in Egypt, Palestinian foods stolen by Israel. Of course, the Israelis did not steal anything. Mizrahi Jews have been eating hummus and falafel for more than half-a-millennium, centuries before the invention of the Palestinian people. Nor do the Jews of Israel claim these dishes as their own; they forthrightly recognize them as part of Middle Eastern or even of Arab cuisine. But the Jews of Israel have their own distinctive religion, language, folklore, and even two separate cuisines that of the Middle Eastern Mizrahis, and that of the East European Ashkenazis. Unlike the Palestinians, the Jews of Israel have no need to fabricate an identity; its already theirs.
It is the Palestinians who, in fact, are stealing from their fellow Arabs, by claiming hummus and falafel as distinctively their own, and thus part of Palestinian identity. It would be amusing to see the reaction of their fellow Arabs Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians to the claim that hummus and falafel are Palestinian dishes.
As for the further claim that Israel steals Palestinian clothing, including the keffiyeh, there is no evidence of this theft among ordinary Israelis. Nor is there any evidence of Palestinian clothing being distinct from that of the Jordanian or Syrian Arabs. Many Palestinians dress like tens of millions of other Arabs in the Levant, but their online propaganda is careful to describe this clothing as Palestinian. Other Palestinians, of course, such as Mahmoud Abbas, have completely abandoned traditional Arab dress and adopted Western clothing. The Israelis have not accused Abbas of stealing Israeli clothing, but it might be instructive, in a two-can-play-this-game sort of way, to do so. A way to make fun of their hysterical claim about the brutal attack [by Israel] against the Palestinian heritage in general.
But we cannot end this discussion without admitting that there is one task which requires a few select Israeli Jews to wear both Palestinian clothes and the keffiyeh, though only most temporarily, and out of real necessity. I am referring to the borrowing (not theft) of Palestinian clothing and keffiyeh by those tremendously talented Arabic-speaking Jews who conduct undercover operations in the West Bank, and need to dress accordingly.
I’m trying real hard to think why I should give a...fig about the Palis.
Nope - just don’t care.
Wonderful. The first article I check suggests hummus might be Greek in origin or might well come from ancient Egypt. Well, Arafat was Egyptian.
Did the fake palestinians give up electricity, indoor plumbing and the microchip so as not to culture appropriate from others?
Oh no when it comes to counter examples they are dismissed. Its always a one way street for the left and muslims..
I knew someone who restored a Wyllis-Jeep from WW2, complete with the original Army issue Motorola radio. He’s a bit of a WW2 historian and told me during the war Motorla helped lay the groundwork for the cell phone technology we have today. That technology was improved upon a few years later in Israel, before Phillips, Ericsson, and eventually the Japanese made further improvements eventually making cell phones technically and economically feasible. Perhaps the Palis should think about that next time they try to look badass while take selfies, or using their Androids to trigger bombs.
The Fakestinians need to be returned to their own Muslim-conquered countries, or they will eventually force Jerusalem’s hand with all their terrorist murder attacks...
it’s all Greek to me.
Several words are out of place...
The Palestinian Heritage is one brutal attack after another.
Several words are out of place...
The Palestinian Heritage is one brutal attack after another.
If I remember my history, after the fall of Baghdad to US forces, ice salesmen and Hummus sellers were being murdered on the streets because ICE and HUMMUS were foods that Mohammed did not have, therefore were UN-ISLAMIC.
the Fakestinian “heritage” — murdering, bombing, terrorizing, raping, pillaging, Occupying and trying to steal Israel’s territories....
Satan will be proud.... falafel or not
I hate hummus. Looks interesting, but tastes nasty as far as I am concerned. 8>)
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