Indiana University Press, March 2026, ISBN: 9780253075307, 308 pages.

The Israel Career of Hummus: Colonial Appropriation, Authenticity, and Distinction

The Israeli Career of Hummus tracks how hummus has turned from an “Arab” or “Oriental” food—often met with disinterest and sometimes outright rejection by Zionist settlers—into a national symbol and culinary cult in contemporary Israel. Rather than regard culinary appropriation as a necessary outcome of land colonization, the book examines how changing gastronomic, economic, and political factors intersected with material and cultural production in a multilayered and socially stratified colonial context. Departing from the thesis of cultural erasure of hummus’s Arab or Palestinian provenance, it shows how the Arab identity of hummus functions as a semiotic resource, which is sometimes suppressed and at other times leveraged to lend authenticity to hummus—and thus to its consumers.

Shedding new light on the sociohistorical process of culinary appropriation amidst settler colonialism and nation building, The Israeli Career of Hummus invites readers to consider the complex trajectory and multiple factors and mediators that transformed a humble staple into an emotionally charged and politically contested culinary icon.

Dafna Hirsch is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication at the Open University of Israel.