Politics of food in the Arab–Israeli conflict

A significant facet of the Arab–Israeli conflict deals with a cultural struggle over national cuisines. Foods like falafel and hummus, which originated in Middle Eastern cuisine, have historically been politicized in general expressions of gastronationalism throughout the region. The development of Israeli cuisine occurred largely through the mixing of Jewish diasporic cuisines with Levantine cuisine, including Palestinian cuisine. This effort aided the effective definition of the national identity of Israel as that of a melting pot, but simultaneously prompted claims of cultural appropriation, particularly with regard to the Palestinian people. More specifically, critics of Israeli cuisine's incorporation of dishes that are traditionally seen as part of Arab cuisine assert that Israel lacks recognition for their Palestinian aspects, disqualifying the process as one of cultural diffusion. Opposition to Israeli cuisine in the Arab world revolves around the accusation that dishes of Palestinian origin, or other Arab dishes to which there have been significant Palestinian contributions, are presented by Israel in a way that suppresses or omits the role of the Palestinians in their development.

Although Middle Eastern foods were naturally part of Mizrahi Jewish cuisine before the development of Israeli cuisine, not all of them were exclusively Jewish foods and instead overlapped with Arab foods. As such, from the Palestinian perspective, the downplaying of Palestinian food within Israeli culture is widely regarded as an erasure of Palestinian culture and, as a result, of the Palestinian Arab identity as a whole, although there are Arab citizens of Israel who operate restaurants serving Palestinian cuisine.

Among the arguments put forth by Israeli culinary artists who oppose the Arab accusation of cultural appropriation is the fact that many of the disputed Middle Eastern foods of Israeli cuisine were as integral to Middle Eastern Jewish cuisines (i.e., of the Mizrahi Jews) as they were to Arab cuisines, thus qualifying them as Israeli as well, since they were popularized by Jewish migration from these lands. Israel's inclusion of Levantine cuisine is also regarded as a means of enabling other populations of the Jewish diaspora, such as Ashkenazi Jews, who saw themselves as returning to the region, to further reconnect with ancient Jewish civilization in the sense of recalling Israelite culinary traditions.

The politics of food between Arabs and Israeli Jews have also carried over globally, particularly in parts of the Western world, where some well-known modern Levantine dishes are Israeli, such as Israeli salad, which is closely related to Arab salad. The claiming of some of these foods as national dishes among Israel and the Arab countries has led to legal disputes at local and international levels, and has also served as the basis for culinary competitions between Israeli and Arab chefs. Overall, the phenomenon is ongoing as the subject of extensive debate between culinary anthropologists.