During the interview, Assil laughingly says that Israel stole Palestinian culture and cuisine and land:
Well, you know, hummus existed long before the state of Israel was created in 1948, and so there is an intentional omission of Palestinian (laughter). And that invisibilizes me - you know? - the fact not just that Israeli hummus is the Trader Joe's hummus, the, you know, the Americanized versions of hummus...And it feels - yeah. That sort of, you know, whether intentional or not intentional, devoiding food from its - cutting it off from its lineage and negating a whole people that enjoyed and subsisted off of that food for generations is really dangerous. You know, for Palestinians, we don't have much left. You know, we - you know, a lot of our lands have been taken from us. Our - you know, we've been cut off from our foodways. So our food is like the last frontier of, you know, marking our identity. And so it's really important for me as a chef here in this country to be able to talk about that food and have people question where the food comes from.... It's inherently political.
And that is the entire reason NPR devotes a segment to a first time cookbook author. Not because her food is so unique or noteworthy, but because it is ammunition against Israel.
And who is Reem?
We've discussed her before. Here is what her restaurant looks like:
NPR is praising a person whose hero is a terrorist.
Reem adds this ironic note:
When I created my restaurants, you know, seven years ago, I wanted anybody to walk into Reem's and feel at home, whether they knew anything about Arab food or not.
Except for Jews.
(h/t Irene)
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