Contrary to what anti-Zionists would have us believe, Hummus and pita were not Arab foods appropriated by Jews, they were mentioned in the Torah. Writing in the Times of Israel Dani Ishai Behan joins battle in the food arena:
With the “debate” over Israel’s legitimacy permeating Western campuses and media, Israeli culture has periodically oscillated in and out of the limelight. In particular, disputes over what aspects of Israeli culture – especially Israeli cuisine – are “authentically” Israeli (hint: if it’s Middle Eastern, then it’s “obviously not Israeli”) have become one of the most contentious frontiers of the entire anti-Zionist war on Jewish rights.
Attendant to the narrative that Zionist returnees in Israel/Palestine are “settler colonists” who “stole” Arab land, anti-Semites similarly charge Israelis and diaspora Jews alike with “stealing” Arab culture in the hope of weaving a convincing tale of Jewish indigeneity out of whole cloth. It is a fictive that aims to dispossess Jews of their own cultural heritage, identity, peoplehood and, eventually, their land.
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