Remember the Humus wars between Israel and Lebanon over who invented the chickpeas mash? Remember the falafel war? It’s time for the war of liberation for the Palestinian Salad, formerly known as Israeli Salad, or Palmach Salad, which was named after the Haganah shock troops who, apparently, chopped their salad vegetables really small. The Facebook page Foodbeast on Wednesday shared a lovely clip by Spoon University titled, “How to Make Traditional Israeli Salad.”
The comments, as you could have guessed, were fast and furious, and at this point they’ve gone up to more that 1,800 top comments, not including the subsequent comments, that occasionally topped 20 per. We collected a few — if you’re going there, make sure you leave your impressionable children out of the room.
Issam Abdallah: [Expletive referring to male cow’s digestive product] !!!!! who say this Israel salad ??? this Palestine salad Arabic salad not Israel , they stole everything from us.
Husam M. Othman: Israelis has no history, how you said they have a food?! They are mix refugees from Europe, no matches between them…
Tariq El Khateb: lol, Israeli salad, you want to steal even the salad, go [expletive] yourself it’s the middle eastern salad [expletive].
Watheq B Saffarini: They don’t just steal land, people, culture and SALAD! This is Palestinian salad that exists before Israel ever existed.
Qamar Qadoomy: Israeli salad!!!! oh really!! Since when Israel has its own salad or even it’s own country… It’s called Palestinian salad or Al falaheyyeh salad. Oh and this is also not the original recipe! Such a shame.
Lenah Hilal Aqel: This is not an Israeli salad, just as shakshooka isn’t Israeli and Couscous isn’t Israeli… Neither is falafel and humus….
In the same vane, but more aggressive:
براءة عادل HHHHHH (Israeli Salad)!! Israel owns salad now???? Have you no shame???? You mean an Arab Mediterranean salad consumed before the creation of Israel. Do you know that my grandmother used to make this salad in a salad bowl which is older than the Israeli state?…sure you do (tongue emoticon). I think it is hilarious the so called Israeli dishes like Salad, Shakshuka, Taboola, Humus, Falafel, Labane, Za’atar, Stuffed Vegetables, Baba Ganoush, Mujadra, Shawerma & Kunafa… are suddenly Israeli dishes. These all are Arab dishes. I think it is hilarious because it proves the Israeli culture is fake. Just because Israelis eat this salad does not make it an Israeli dish, Israelis hate Arabs so much but don’t mind stealing and renaming their food.
There are close to 2,000 more of those, give or take. It’s definitely true that Israel, an immigration country ever since the Jews and the Arab migrant workers who followed them first entered this blessed plot of God’s land, the cuisine in Israel is as rich and packed with varieties as you’ll find anywhere, possibly including New York City. So, really, there is no such thing as an Israeli cuisine yet, which is actually a wonderful thing if you’re a food lover. But not, apparently, for the Arabs, who stole their own cuisine from the inhabitants of medieval Asia, Africa and Europe.
The Israeli responses were, for the most part, a lot less combative (reflecting the situation on the ground in other areas as well).
Omer Gassi Gassner: Actually, Arabian salad and Israeli salad are very much alike. The only difference is that in the Arabian salad the vegetables are cut very thin and in the Israeli salad you cut it to cubes and not even. It’s a good salad to use whatever vegetables you got in you fridge that don’t need cooking. And its a great way to give kids to try more vegetables.