{"id":40533,"date":"2017-12-29T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T22:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=40533"},"modified":"2017-12-29T16:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T22:00:26","slug":"rachael-ray-cooked-israeli-food-and-stirred-up-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/rachael-ray-cooked-israeli-food-and-stirred-up-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachael Ray cooked Israeli food \u2014 and stirred up controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 Are hummus, za\u2019atar and cucumber salad Israeli foods?<\/p>\n<p>Celebrity chef Rachael Ray said they are \u2014 and the floodgates of Middle Eastern conflict opened: Palestinians claimed the foods as their own and are accusing her of cultural erasure. Israelis thanked her and are accusing her critics of ignoring Jewish Israelis of Middle Eastern descent.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40534\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40534\" class=\"wp-image-40534 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40534\" class=\"wp-image-40534 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ray-copy.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40534\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chef Rachael Ray on stage at the Food Network &amp; Cooking Channel New York City Wine &amp; Food Festival in New York City, Oct. 15, 2016. (Gustavo Caballero\/Getty Images for NYCWFF)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ray (who isn\u2019t Jewish) sparked the debate last week \u2014 likely without meaning to \u2014 with a series of tweets about an \u201cIsraeli nite\u201d meal. The foods she tweeted about included hummus, tabouli, stuffed grape leaves, chicken fried in za\u2019atar and cucumber salad.<\/p>\n<p>The posts spurred a cascade of more than 1,600 replies, most of them critical.&nbsp;Twitter users noted that the foods\u2019 names are all Arabic and pounced on her for labeling them Israeli, rather than Arab or Palestinian.<\/p>\n<p>The criticism started out as jokey and satirical, with people labeling photos of hamburgers, tacos and pizza as \u201cIsraeli.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the conversation took a darker and more serious turn, as some accused Israel of stealing Palestinian culture and land.<\/p>\n<p>Soon enough, the conversation became another bitter, repetitive debate between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists. One side tweeted a series of four maps meant to illustrate \u201cPalestinian loss of land.\u201d The other responded with tweets of the Balfour Declaration, which endorsed Israel\u2019s establishment in 1917, and graphics meant to convey that Palestinians don\u2019t have their own nation. Some anti-Semitic and anti-Arab cartoons were mixed in along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Other Twitter users came to Ray\u2019s defense by pointing out that these foods are cooked across the Middle East \u2014 including by Jews who were expelled from Arab countries and fled to Israel. (In addition, about 20 percent of Israel\u2019s citizens are Arabic.)<\/p>\n<p>This debate isn\u2019t new. Israeli food, like all aspects of Israeli identity, is multifaceted, sometimes contradictory and often controversial. Israelis hail from a range of countries across continents and have meshed their traditions in a messy and intricate amalgam.<\/p>\n<p>But whether due to location, demographics or taste, Middle Eastern cuisine&nbsp;\u2014 think hummus, falafel and shawarma \u2014 has come to dominate the Israeli food scene. Israeli Jews often don\u2019t deny that these foods are Arab or Palestinian in origin. One of the most popular types of hummus in Israel is called \u201chummus Abu Ghosh,\u201d named for an Arab town west of Jerusalem. The image of being able to \u201ceat hummus in Damascus,\u201d the capital of Syria, is sometimes used as a metaphor for Israel\u2019s goal of peace with its neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinians, however, see Israeli claims to these foods as just one more form of oppression. Yousef Munayyer, who directs the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, wrote in a tweet thread that Ray\u2019s tweets contribute to a culture in which \u201cPalestinians, as a people, are often told they do not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ray hasn\u2019t yet responded to the uproar. She did, however, move on to tweeting about a Greek feast later that night. To that, we can all say: opa!<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Rachael%20Ray%20cooked%20Israeli%20food%20%E2%80%94%20and%20stirred%20up%20controversy\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7138],"tags":[8781,8790,8795,8788,9125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40535,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40533\/revisions\/40535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}