"The Israeli Career of Hummus," with Dafna Hirsch, The Open University of Israel

The second talk of the series titled "New Book Series: Israel/Palestine Studies:"

"The Israeli Career of Hummus," with Dafna Hirsch, The Open University of Israel

How did hummus become Israel’s foremost culinary passion? This lecture traces the process by which hummus was transformed from an “Arab” or “Oriental” food—either unknown to or disliked by most Zionist settlers prior to the foundation of the state—into a culinary icon and national symbol in contemporary Israel. Scholars have often interpreted the Israeli appropriation of Palestinian foods through the lens of culinary colonialism and cultural erasure. While this perspective illuminates important dimensions of the story, it cannot fully explain the changing consumption patterns and meanings of hummus within Israeli society. Rather than treating food consumption as a direct reflection of political relations, I examine the historical interaction of the culinary, economic, political, and cultural fields in shaping production, consumption, and signification of hummus. I argue that the “Arabness” of hummus functioned not only as an object of erasure but also as a valuable semiotic resource. Across different historical moments, it was mobilized in projects ranging from intimate performances of settler indigenization to the branding strategies of the food industry. At times hummus became “Israeli” through the suppression of its Arab origins; at others, its Arabness was deliberately foregrounded as a marker of authenticity that enhanced the symbolic value of both the food and its consumers. By tracing these shifting meanings, the lecture shows that the cultural history of hummus cannot be understood through the logic of colonial appropriation alone. Rather, it emerges from the dynamic interaction of colonial relations, market forces, culinary discourse, and changing regimes of authenticity.

Dafna Hirsch is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, the Open University of Israel. Her studies focus on the culture of everyday life in the Jewish society of Mandate Palestine and Israel, with an emphasis on the body, food, ethnicity and gender. She is the author of “We Are Here to Bring the West”: Hygiene Education and Nation Building in the Jewish Society of Mandate Palestine (The Ben Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, 2014, Hebrew), The Israeli Career of Hummus: Colonial Appropriation, Authenticity, and Distinction (Indiana UP, 2026) and the editor of Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Routledge, 2024).

This series is cosponsored by The Middle East and North African Studies Program and The Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs 

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