Posted on 10/06/2008 12:02:46 PM PDT by Alouette
Country's Industrialists Association says Jewish state trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies like tabouleh and hummus, plans international food-related suit
Roee Nahmias Published: 10.06.08, 09:10 / Israel Money
Lebanon is planning on filing an international law suit against Israel for violating a food copyright, Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, told the al-Arabiya network.
The Lebanese claim is that Israel markets original Lebanese food like tabouleh, kubbeh, hummus, falafel and fattoush which the Lebanese considered their trademarks prior to the establishment of the Jewish state.
Abboud explained that the fact that Israel has been marketing Lebanese delicacies under the same names and ingredients around the world has caused great losses to Lebanon, and that while, “the full extent is unknown, it is estimated at tens of millions of dollars annually.”
Abboud, who prepared a memo on the subject, based his case on the, ”feta cheese precedent” that occurred six years ago.
At that time, France, Denmark and Germany asserted that Greece cannot have a monopoly over the production of this type of cheese. Greece managed to prove in international institutions that it is the cheese’s “originator” and won the case.
Until that point, the three prosecuting countries produced 12,000 tons of cheese a year.
The court ruled that from then on, other countries could not use the name “feta”, as this cheese is “largely associated with Greece’s history and has been produced under this name for 6,000 years.”
Thus, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs decided to grant Greece the sole right to produce and market the cheese under that name.
The Lebanese official claims that not only does Israel use the names of Lebanese foods but it also markets them in ready-to-eat plastic boxes for European and US consumers as if these were traditional Israeli foods.
According to Abboud, while Lebanon never registered the names and ingredients of these delicacies, “it can refer to the Greece precedent since these foods are historically known as traditional Lebanese foods.”
He also said that the Lebanese Industrialists Association is working on registering all the foods and ingredients and submitting a report to the Lebanese government since only it can appeal to the international courts against Israel and “prevent it from stealing the foods that others produce."
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
just had it for lunch today :)
That picture is making me hungry. :-)
I remember eating KOSHER falafel in NYC in 1970.
what are these people talking about?
Apparently Lebanon just heard of the Chewbacca Defense.
I thought that Bill O’R. stole the falafel. Isn’t that why he got sued and caved on blackmail?
This just in:
Germany demanding the exclusive rights to the frankfurter.
And the hamburger.
and there are riots in the streets of Hamburg, demanding death to all McDonalds, Burger King and Wendies.
Shhh, don’t tell ‘em about Five Guys.
We both posted the same thought at exactly the same moment. 3:28:58.
Mmmm, falafel. I had the real deal while visiting Israel earlier this year. Wish I could find some that tasted as good here in Atlanta.
That’s Shami food eaten by everyone in Sham. Israel is in Sham, so they adopted some of the food. Even in Egypt falafel is one of their national dishes & no one is angry at them for that.
What they really mean is that Israel is not considered part of the community & it ticks them off for Israelis to even eat their food, let alone make it. Just tell them that Shami Jews introduced those foods & they’ll back off for a bit.
By the way, only Lebanese & Palestinians seem to have this problem. Even though North African foods like couscous have been in Sham for a long time, lots of Moroccans are convinced that Israel is the only country in Sham who eats couscous & that this is due to Moroccan Jews. They are thrilled at the idea of Moroccan Jews bringing Moroccan food to Israel, unlike the angry Sham Arabs/Phoenicians.
While I do like 5 Guys, In and Out is still better
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Funny thing is now COSTCO is selling it for $9.99 for a big double pack. How can COSTCO be in on his Zionist plot.
COSTCO sells the Veggie Patch brand.....
[IMG]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f310/ncfool/2008%20Election/us_falafel_cover.jpg[/IMG]
Since when are these foods particularly Lebanese? Bedouins throughout the Middle East eat these same dishes. So do Felahin, refugee-camp inmates, urban dwellers, whether Shiite, Sunni or Sufi, and so do Israelis. They are Arabian dishes. Should Greece sue over baklava? Next Belgium will sue France for the French Fries that Americans consume, and who invented leben, anyway? Should China sue to disavow chop suey, egg rolls, and fortune cookies, insisting that America take credit for these pseudo-sino delicacies? Is sushi really Okinawan?
I was just in Italy and the damned foreigners were eating Pizza, which as an red-blooded yankee knows is a NYC and Chicago delicacy. It was obviously stolen from under our very noses by some sonn-to-be-deported foreigner and smuggled into Italy!
There oughta be a law! Where the hell was Algonquin J. Obama while our precious culinary patrimony was being purloined? Traveling in Pakistan on an Indonesian passport?
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