On Cultural Appropriation and Erasure

In January 2012, an article in Haaretz described the latest food craze in Israel: freekah, the roasted green wheat that has been a staple of the Palestinian diet for centuries. The article said it had been introduced by chef Erez Komarovsky, who learned of it from “Arabs living in the Galilee,” as though they were some hit her to undiscovered species inhabiting the land.

Another article in the Atlantic claimed that “freekah is mainly a symbol of Israel’s growing awareness of local food traditions, customs, and ingredients.” Whose food traditions and customs, we are never told. Palestinians are not mentioned once in the article; they are absent altogether from this historical narrative. The Mizrahim, Jews native to Arab lands who share many Arab culinary traditions, are also whisked right out of existence.