And to Think, I Don't Even LIKE Hummus That Much

Hello! My friend Chris just sent me an article about another flare-up in the hummus war between Israel and the rest of the Middle East (link here), and now I'm all upset, so I'd like to speak more about my feelings about hummus wars.

Look, I am not the biggest fan of Israeli hasbara and marketing around the world. And I do understand that some of the history of hummus in Israel comes from early Israeli settlers' (mostly European and Russian) glorifying/orientalizing/co-opting Arab identity. And yes, I am aware that Ashkenazi hegemony isn't going away any time soon.

But history-of-Zionism aside, currently more than 50% of Israelis are Middle Eastern Jews (unless stats have changed). Unless hummus and falafel were only eaten by non-Jews in the Middle East historically, which I really doubt since they are completely kosher, MOST ISRAELIS' FAMILIES WERE EATING THESE FOODS BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL.

Denying the Israeliness of hummus and falafel is denying its Mizrahiness. While early Zionist settlers were European idealists braving the "exotic" desert, most Jews who live in Israel in the present have grandparents who probably spoke more Arabic than Hebrew.

So seriously, stop pretending that all us "Zionists" came from Europe and that we "put mayonnaise on our falafel" (this is what the people making fun of me on facebook for my falafel group said! harumph!).

Most of us JOOS are actually JEWISH ARABS. Get over it. MOST JEWS IN ISRAEL DID NOT ACTUALLY COME FROM EUROPE. Get over it. I mean, seriously, cancel that yoga class you scheduled with Ben Gurion in Be'er Sheba tomorrow and stop pretending it's the 1940s.

For more research on hummus wars, here are a couple of good articles.

!!!!!