There’s a hummus war raging. Israel and Lebanon are battling it out over who has the rightful claim to the chickpea dish.
This war isn’t playing out on the battlefield. It’s playing out in the pages of the Guiness Book of World Records. In the late 2000s, both nations fought for the title of “home of the biggest hummus dish.”
The war began in May 2008 when a group of chefs in Jerusalem prepared an 882-pound dish of hummus, which Guinness recognized as the largest in the world.
Israel’s win annoyed Lebanese chefs, who decided to take the title, preparing a 4,532-pound dish of hummus a year later. These chefs decorated their hummus with a cedar tree design, a Lebanese national symbol. This image of the world’s largest plate of hummus topped with a Lebanese symbol sent a message to the world: It claimed hummus as “authentically” Lebanese.
However, in January 2010, Israel wanted the title back: Fifty chefs in the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh made an 8,992.5-pound dish of hummus. The effort was led by local restaurateur Jawadat Ibrahaim, who wanted to “restore the state’s honor.”
An Israeli-Palestinian man, Ibrahim left Israel as a young adult to join his brother in the United States, but after winning the Illinois Lottery, he returned to Israel to open a restaurant. Through this hummus effort, Ibrahim sought to position himself as a conflict mediator in the Middle East. In an interview, Ibrahaim dedicated his victory to “the whole village, the whole country, the whole people.” He went on to say: “I am saying to people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt: I know the situation is complicated because there is no peace, but I would love it to happen one day, that we can cook one plate of hummus—about 10,000 tons—to share with the whole Middle East.”
However, Ibrahim’s record didn’t last long. A few months later, on May 8, 2010, chef Ramzi Choueiri and 300 student chefs in Lebanon prepared a hummus dish that weighed nearly 23,043 pounds.
To date, Lebanon holds the record.
This was never about hummus, though. It was about an authentic claim to the dish, which in turn stood in for an authentic claim to the land and the right to be in this corner of the world.
When promoting the 2009 Lebanese record attempt, an organizer said: “Lebanon is trying to win a battle against Israel by registering this new Guinness World Record and telling the whole world that hummus is a Lebanese product, it’s part of our traditions.” The organizer saw this as a war over authenticity.
When reporting on the final 2010 Lebanese attempt, the Israel-based Jerusalem Post wrote: “Lebanon launched a decisive retaliation on Saturday, in the campaign that the Army Radio described as ‘The Third Lebanon War.’”
Food is a vehicle for performing one’s identity.
What you eat and what you cook says something about who you are. Both Lebanon and Israel want to have a rightful claim to the land, and they’re articulating that through hummus. It’s a battle over a dish, even though that dish itself predates both nations. Hummus is Israeli because Israelis eat hummus. It’s Lebanese because the Lebanese eat hummus. Hummus today is universal.
Notes:
Ariel, Ari. "The hummus wars." Gastronomica 12.1 (2012): 34-42.