Felafel, It's Arabic, Not Israeli And Most Certainly Not Greek

Felafel is the only food that I have seen that actually sparks political debate. There are people out there in this world whose job is actually to defend the name of their home country in the name of felafel.

Much like most things involving Israel and the rest of the Middle East, there has to be political feuds arising from felafel. And like pretty much anything likable involving a country within a 100 mile radius of Greece, the Greeks want to lay claim to it. Though the roots of where these fried croquettes of chickpeas and remain ambiguous, the earliest record of felafel being made was in Northern Levant, a region of the Middle East boarding Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Mediterranean, as shown below.

So it can be concluded that felafel was most likely created either in ancient Lebanon or Syria.

Firstly, I would like to address the common misconception that felafel is Greek. So, this is actually an interesting situation, felafel did not start getting associated with Greek cuisine until a Greek food trend hit the United States in the 1980s, where along with gyros and souvlaki, felafel was served just for fun, cause it goes in a pita, like those two. Since Americans seemed to enjoy it under the impression that if it looks Greek and tastes Greek it was Greek, Greek Americans stared to claim it as their own. A common argument comes up by the Greeks regarding different foods such as Baklava (Lebanon,) Kebab (Persia/Iran) and pretty much EVERYTHING TURKISH that at one point, these nations were part of the Greek empire, therefore because the Greeks were there at one point, it is officially Greek. Now, there is some influence Greek culture has had on the cultures of places like Turkey or Lebanon and vise versa don't get me wrong, but just because the Greeks owned a certian land mass at one point, it doesn’t mean that the Greek ethnic group inhabited it. To offer a couple of examples of why this argument is flawed, think about the cuisine of Puerto Rico, it is owned by the United States, but you would not then say that their cultural dishes of Mofongo or Lechon are American, because they were made by the Puerto Rican ethnic group. In the same sense, though Lebanon was owned by the Greeks at one point, the Arabic ethnic group still inhabited that area and were the ones making and eating felafel, therefore, in what sense is it Greek? As a more extreme example, look below at the map of all of the land that was at one point owned by Great Britain:

Though the Great Britain owned more than 75% of the world at one point, these countries were still inhabited by unique ethnic groups. So lets take the argument applied by the Greeks and see what happenes if the British used this logic. Chinese food? BRITISH. Argentinian food? BRITISH. American food? BRITISH. Indian food? BRITISH. If the logic of “I owned you at one point, therefore what is yours is actually mine,”were true everything Greek would in fact be British. And its funny because until felafel became popular in the United States, the Greeks did not care about felafel and, they don't even eat felafel in Greece.

I would just like to say, between scenarios that what I blog either about Greece, Israel or the rest of the Middle East does not reflect my views regarding Greek politics, Middle Eastern politics, national security or the Israeli/Palestinian tragedies.

Okay, now time for Israel, so the argument for felafel being Israeli is actually opposite of that of it being Greek, given that the State of Israel was not formed until the late 1940s, felafel had already been created and had traveled all over the Arab world. The Israeli view on felafel is that they adopted it into their culture and cuisine, therefore it is Israeli. Yes felafel is eaten widely in Israel, however it was there when they got there, the Israeli people had no input on the creation of felafel. There were no ethnic Israelis in Levant when felafel was being made either. Now, Israel does have its own unique cuisine, similar to Arabic cuisine, but with a lot of European influence, felafel just happens to be included. This has caused actual political debates as to who can technically claim it the Israelis or the Arabs, much like the Israeli Lebanese “hummus war” (look it up, its a thing.) What it all comes down to is yes, felafel is part of both cuisines, however, it was made way before the State of Israel was established, so it is not an Israeli food.

Just think, if you have not tried felafel yet just how good it is, considering how everyone wants to claim it. And one can assume from this post what my next recipe will be for, felafel