FEATURE
“Israeli” Cuisine A labeling with a potential for humanizing the dehumanized BY LINA SAUD
W
e are what we eat. Among the most significant markers of culture is the food that a given people make. Different cultures value different spice pallets, ingredients, food-making processes and so forth. This aspect of culture travels easily. In countries like the U.S. with large immigrant populations, people’s original cultures live on for generations notably through inherited recipes and etiquettes surrounding food. The intricate processes of preparing food, and the creativity infused in cultural recipes, are among the hallmarks of the human experience. If we imagine culture as a manifestation of what differentiates human beings from animals, as social scientists have argued, the foods fostered in different cultures are, too, a demonstration of a people’s humanity. The late chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain, encouraged people to eat others’ foods as a window of understanding who they are: “walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.” In his acceptance speech when the Muslim Public Affairs Council honored him for hit show, Parts Unknown for its episode on Israel and Palestine, he said, “The world has visited many terrible things on the Palestinian people, none more shameful than robbing them of their basic humanity.” It is difficult to imagine this humanizing experience of sharing others’ food occurring alongside the ongoing dehumanization of those very people. However, consider the case of Israelis and Palestinians. Since 1948, the Israeli state has gradually grown in its hegemony over Palestinian people. Palestinians living within the boundaries of Israel-proper live as second-class citizens, a reality that propelled them to politically mobilize in the latest Israeli election cycle. Palestinians living in the West Bank live under a military occupation that squelches any attempt at developing a viable economy and annexes land for illegal settlement building. Palestinians in Gaza, the brutally stricken subjects of an ongoing 42 ISLAMIC HORIZONS MAY/JUNE 2020
Israeli blockade, live in unlivable conditions and experience onslaughts from the Israeli military frequently. In its actions, the Israeli government and military demonstrate that Palestinians are undeserving of human rights. Israel’s unwillingness to respect the basic human dignity of Palestinians is further encapsulated in the dehumanizing language used by some Israeli politicians when describing Palestinians. For example, in 2014 right-wing Knesset member Ayelet Shaked posted an article on Facebook describing Palestinian children as “little snakes.” Israel’s
THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE ARTICLE TITLED “THE RISE OF PALESTINIAN FOOD” DESCRIBES THE GROWING EFFORT BY PALESTINIANS TO DOCUMENT THEIR RECIPES AND COOKING METHODS, PERHAPS AS A RESPONSE TO ISRAELI ATTEMPTS TO ERASE THE PALESTINIAN SIGNATURE ON NOT JUST THEIR LAND, BUT THEIR FOOD AS WELL. hegemonic power allows Israeli dehumanization of Palestinians to manifest itself in every lived moment of those Palestinians who continue to survive under its rule.
Despite the Israeli state’s dehumanization of Palestinians, Israelis have adopted Palestinian food into their diet, alongside a mix of other cultural foods. Prized Palestinian dishes like maklouba (a meal made with meat or chicken, rice and vegetables) are described as Israeli maklouba by Israelis who have found access to Palestinian recipes. A recent piece in The New York Times Style Magazine titled “The Rise of Palestinian Food” describes the growing effort by Palestinians to document their recipes and cooking methods, perhaps as a response to Israelis attempts to erase Palestinians’ signature on not just their land, but their food as well. To be clear, a number of Israelis protest their government’s subjugation of Palestinians and do not endorse this erasure of Palestinian culture. The question that remains in this state of affairs, however, is how Israelis who do endorse the dehumanization of Palestinians sit comfortably eating a product of Palestinians’ very humanity, their cherished cuisine, and call it their own? The situation should arouse what psychologists refer to as cognitive dissonance, the aversive experience when one’s actions do not align with one’s beliefs. In fact, a series of narratives seem to ameliorate this dissonance. For example, Palestinian dishes are treated as naturally “Israeli” because all aspects of the land, including the foods derived from the land, are thought to rightfully belong to Israelis. This idea exists in harmony with the historical Zionist narrative that Palestine was “a land without a people for a people without a land” — interestingly a phrase coined and propagated by nineteenth-century Christian writers and used by people like Israel Zangwill, a British author, playwright and poet. These lies deflect a serious opportunity to change facts on the ground. Imagine the impact of recognizing that the foods Israelis are eating are the product of generations of sharing, refining and preserving recipes that nourished bodies of Palestinians for centuries. As Anthony Bourdain wisely described, such an experience would humanize the bearers of the cuisine, a phenomenon capable of reversing the dehumanization of Palestinians that prevails today in Israel. ih Lina Saud is a graduate student in social psychology at Rutgers University.
