Felafel, from the Levant

Image credit: Wikipedia, By Popo le Chien - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52152914

Felafel is a chickpea pattie that, like hummus, is naturally vegan or vegetarian. These savoury balls have been a popular dish in the Levant for centuries.

Also like hummus, felafel has a contested history, and there are many debates, claims and counterclaims around the origins of felafel. It is part of Palestinian cuisine, which itself fits within Syrian cuisine, a rich food culture which includes two major branches: Damascus cuisine and Aleppo cuisine.

​However, following the Nakba in 1947, felafel has been appropriated by Israel as an Israeli dish, a marker of Israeli identity. Even in Aotearoa, there is a Wellington-based Israel food truck, that serves felafel and hummus in pita bread, misleadingly describing this Arab dish as ‘authentic Israeli street food’.
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Links and references
Here’s why Palestinians object to the term ‘Israeli food’: It erases us from history - The Washington Post
Israel-Palestine: How food became a target of colonial conquest | Middle East Eye
Plant Based Arab
​The politics of hummus and those fearsome falafel | by The Palestine Project | Medium