Arabs make the best hummus. Everyone knows that. So it was a bit of a surprise to read that Israeli hummus is taking Gaza by storm. From the Ynet piece:
Cookies, coffee, soap and even hummus – these are just some of the Israeli products one can find on the grocery stores’ shelves in Gaza, written in Hebrew just like the ones in the nearby Israeli retail chains.
Yes sir. Those wild and crazy Gazans just can’t get enough blue and white Israeli chickpea mush. Meanwhile in Canada, college students are up in arms that anyone would dare serve it to them, especially with Apartheid Week coming up and all. The Pro-Pally students are actively working to ban Sabra brand hummus altogether from their University of Ottawa campus. From the JTA piece:
Sabra is partly owned by the Strauss Group, a foods manufacturer that the students allege financially supports the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to The New York Times. The students say the Golani Brigade has been accused of human rights violations by numerous organizations.
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and the Palestinian Student Association are among the student groups involved in the campaign, according to the university newspaper, The Fulcrum, along with the community group Young Jews for Social Justice.
“We will be raising awareness amongst the student population, collecting signatures for a petition and encouraging students to individually boycott the product,” Assma Basmalah, a representative of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, told the paper.
Maybe Assma should start by raising the awareness of the actual people she presumes to defend by refusing to eat smushed garbanzos. As it turns out, her Gaza brethren are not at all attuned to the serious dangers inherent in the um, purchase of mashed beans and well, a lot of other Israeli stuff.
According to Ynet:
In 2012 the value import of Israeli products to Gaza stood at NIS 1.3 billion ($375 million), including not only water, gas and electricity, but also food and cleaning products from well-known Israeli companies such as Telma, Willifood, Osem and Tnuva, which brings subtantial tax profit to Israel.
Pity those students in Ottawa are getting so worked up when for the natives of Gaza, BDS protests just don’t seem to amount to a hill of beans.
