I love this week's topic--food is just the greatest. It is unfortunate that there exists a petty rift between Palestinians and Israelis based on "whose" food hummus or pita or labneh or za'atar is. This is Arab food, not necessarily Muslim or Jewish, just Arab, and it's silly to argue about something as objective and simple as that, I think. As far as I have observed, one reason that Israelis tend to be defensive about ownership over certain foods is because of how common it is that Israel's right to exist is questioned and challenged. The Middle Eastern legitimacy that it gives someone to be from an Arab land(for generations) and to really be able to call hummus "their own" is a trait that Israelis from more recent, European roots, covet.
Food represents culture, history, birthplace, ancestry. As we have read in past weeks, the validity of the existence of the state of Israel is constantly being disputed, so it is understandable that Zionists and Israelis would cling to something as simple as food as a means of bolstering their case. Similarly, it is understandable that anti-Zionists and Palestinians and other Arabs would cling to food for the same reason. There is, admittedly, a good deal of cultural appropriation that occurs within Israeli society, but as was mentioned briefly in the July 2008 Street Food video, many Jews in Israel are just as much Arab as their Muslim or Palestinian neighbors. Something that I have witnessed that surprises and disappoints me is the lack of awareness within the Jewish population about the cultural appropriation that occurs in this context. I myself only relatively recently realized the appropriation that I had been exposed to for most of my life through Jewish education. There are countless articles about Israeli appropriation of Palestinian culture, this one being particularly thorough (and angry), and while some people view it as less of a big deal in comparison with, say, the continued construction of the settlements, it really is a huge deal and I believe that it is a very important issue that needs to be addressed before peace between civilians (not necessarily governments) can happen. Cultural appropriation threatens identities that mean a lot to a lot of people, and straightening out issues of misrepresentation and cultural belonging will enable Israelis and Palestinians to view each other in accurate ways that each group consents to.
1. How can a large-scale anti-appropriation program work?
2. How best can everyday civilians react to appropriation effectively and assertively but also kindly and in an understanding way that promotes discussion instead of angry confrontation and closed minds?
3. Does anyone think that focusing on this detracts from the larger conflict and is counterproductive(an issue I approached in a previous post)?
Amen to all of this, and thanks for sharing the article about cultural appropriation. I also think that focusing on food as a problem detracts from the bigger problem, because the bigger problem is the root of the food problem (I hope that made sense). And it's incredibly frustrating that people take a non-issue and make it into an issue because of a bigger problem that's actually relevant. While there's definitely cultural appropriation in Israel, you can't call people from Arab lands eating Arab food cultural appropriation. I detailed this opinion in my blog post, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed what you had to say about it as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you said and appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I think the saddest part about an Arab appropriation from my perspective as a Jew, is the loss of traditional Jewish Arab culture. It's terrible to think that in 20 years people may forget about the wonderful history that was shared by Jews in Muslim nations, in Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, etc.
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