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Did Yale remove the word ‘Israeli’ from a campus couscous dish? Yes and no.
(JTA) — Fights over Israel and the Palestinians on campus have taken place on quads across the country, in classrooms and, recently, in the halls of Congress.
This week, at Yale University, the debate moved to the dining hall. And from there, of course, to social media.
On Monday, sophomore Sahar Tartak posted on X, formerly Twitter, that a dish offered on campus named “Israeli couscous salad with spinach and tomatoes” had been renamed to remove the word “Israeli.” Her tweets on the change were shared thousands of times.
“Imagine returning to your dining hall to find that salad labels were renamed to remove mention of the salads being ‘Israeli,’” wrote Tartak, who has written in recent weeks about facing hostility on campus as a pro-Israel student. “That happened at Yale this week. It’s the subtle changes and redactions that are the most pernicious.”
The claim was amplified by Libs of TikTok, the massively popular right-wing social media account run by Chaya Raichik, who is Jewish, and who included images of the Israeli couscous salad label before and after the name change.
Whether the change had actually taken place, however, was unclear. The following day, Viktor Kagan, another student, shared an image of the salad bar on Dec. 12 that showed that the word “Israeli” had returned to the name of the dish, spurring allegations that the whole story had been made up.
Neither Kagan nor Tartak responded to JTA requests for comment. But it turns out they were both right. A representative from Yale’s office of communication told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that in July, Yale Hospitality, which oversees campus dining, decided to remove ethnic and geographical markers from food labels.
“Authenticity of the food and naming of the recipes have been a concern brought to us by students in the past. There were times that they felt our food did not ‘authentically’ represent the country or ethnicity referenced in the name,” the spokesperson said in an email. “To that end, our team made the decision to remove names of countries and ethnicities from recipes.”
But the statement added that because “Israeli couscous” is an ingredient in the dish at issue, it was an exception to the rule: The word “Israeli” had indeed been removed, but would be put back.
“In this case, Israeli Couscous is indeed an actual ingredient and is explicitly listed on the ingredient list,” the email said. “Considering it is the main ingredient, it is appropriate to remain in the title, and we will correct this oversight.”
The kerfuffle not only played into the heated debates over the Israel-Hamas war that have beset universities nationwide and led to the resignation of the president of the University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League school. It also reflected how food — what it is called, and to whom it is credited — has long played into discussions of Israeli and Palestinian culture and history.
Nir Avieli, a cultural anthropologist at Israel’s Ben Gurion University who studies food, said debates over which foods are Israeli and Palestinian serve as a proxy for which people has a stronger claim to nationhood. That, in turn, ties into who should control the territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
“When you deny Israel for the unique cuisine, you’re saying this is not a real culture. How could they have a cuisine? They are not a culture, they are not a people,” Avieli said. “This denial of the existence of Israeli cuisine is parallel to the denial of Palestinian cuisine by Israelis.”
“If a cuisine exists, it means that the culture exists,” he added. “It means that there is a people with a history, with terroir. And then if you deny the existence of these people, how can they have a cuisine?”
Those debates are especially charged on campus, he said, where students are used to spending their time discussing world affairs and see those conversations reflected in what dishes they choose in the dining hall.
“Food is politics. And you see why people get upset,” he said. “They go to lunch, they want to have a rest. They’ve been studying in classes, they’re doing political science, they’re debating. They are pro-Israel, they are anti-Israel, they are antisemitic, they are whatever they are. But when they go to lunch, they want to have a break. And they go and they want to have a break and then they get Israeli couscous and they get very upset. Because they get a political thorn on their side.”
For what it’s worth, Israeli couscous is not really couscous at all, in fact. In Israel, the dish is called “ptitim” and was an invention of the Osem company during the early 1950s, when Israeli food was rationed, at the behest of then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Ptitim are a wheat-based rice substitute, extruded through a round mold and then cut and toasted. It is sometimes referred to as “Ben-Gurion’s rice” because its original shape was oblong and rice-like. Today, ptitim come in both oblong and pearl shapes.
Ptitim resembles a similar Palestinian dish called maftoul made from bulgur and wheat flour. It is also similar to an Eastern European Jewish egg noodle called farfel; a Sardinian semolina-based pasta called fregula and other foods.
“Nothing is original. Always things evolve. And they evolve in contact with other cultures,” Avieli said.
“One big mistake that people have with their perception of culture [is] that culture, and specifically food, is static, is my grandmother’s,” he added. “The whole idea of something being claimed to be pure and of a specific culture is completely wrong historically. But of course, it’s political.”
Ptitim didn’t even get the name “Israeli couscous” until 1993, when Israeli-born chef Mika Sharon, who worked in the kitchen of Tribeca Grill in New York, invited executive chef Don Pintabona home for dinner, and he took a bite of the ptitim Sharon served to her daughter. Pintabona soon added it to the menu at Tribeca Grill, serving it alongside seared sea bass and calling it “Israeli couscous.” The dish took off over the next decade, according to the publication Taste.
In recent years, it has been common for online discourse to veer into arguments over who really invented “Israeli salad,” or questions about whether hummus and falafel can be considered Israeli or Palestinian, or whether they are Egyptian or Jordanian or Syrian or Lebanese.
Avieli remarked that the war between Russia and Ukraine could also be bringing up parallel ethnic tensions when it comes to food. (Borscht is a classic example of a disputed food that Russians say is Russian and Ukrainians say is Ukrainian. Its English spelling, with a “t,” is attributed to the Yiddish pronunciation, which was brought to the United States by Ashkenazi Jews.)
He recalled watching on live television when a right-wing nationalist member of the Israeli Knesset, Rehavam Ze’evi, crossed off the word Arab in front of “Arab salad” on a restaurant menu, and wrote “Israeli” in its place.
In 2018, Virgin Atlantic removed the word “Palestinian” from an in-flight couscous salad that included a mix of maftoul and couscous, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and mint after complaints from pro-Israel supporters who threatened to boycott the airline and accused Virgin Atlantic of being “terrorist sympathizers.” The name was changed to “couscous salad.”
“This battle over identity through food is something that is ongoing everywhere, not only here,” Avieli said.
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Anti-Israel Groups ‘Amplifying’ Messaging of Terror Groups, Iran-Backed Info Ops, US Lawmakers Hear in Testimony
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Anti-Israel activist groups are “amplifying” the violent messaging of terrorist groups and Iran-linked information operations, which seek to incite hate crimes against Jews as revenge for the war in Gaza, experts testified to a US congressional panel on Wednesday.
The Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee of the US House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on Capitol Hill, titled “The Rise of Anti-Israel Extremist Groups and Their Threat to US National Security,” to discuss the ongoing surge in antisemitic incidents across the country.
“America’s Jewish community is under attack, and we need to take decisive action to save lives and mitigate the escalating threats,” said Kerry Sleeper, deputy director of intelligence and information sharing at the Secure Community Network.
Sleeper noted that his organization has identified a “notable increase” in the number of antisemitic threats from foreign terrorist organizations and allied media organizations, warning that these threats “will likely persist for several years.”
He added that these organizations are using the recent shooting of two Israeli embassy aides in Washington, DC and firebombing of a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado as recruitments tool to incite more violence as “retribution” for Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Sleeper explained, anti-Israel “propaganda networks” in the US, such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL), Unity of Fields, and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are actively “amplifying messaging consistent with foreign terrorist organizations and Iranian-backed information operations.” Although all of these groups do not share a direct connection to foreign terrorist groups, they “help blur the line between protest and incitement.”
These organizations are also actively “justifying” and “glorifying” violence against American Jews “in the name of Gaza,” Sleeper said.
Prosecutors say the man charged for the Boulder firebombing yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack. The suspect also told investigators that he wanted to “kill all Zionist people,” according to court documents.
Less than two weeks earlier, the suspect charged for the double murder in Washington also yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supported the criminal charges against the man stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
Sleeper said on Wednesday that every analytic brief produced by his group since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel has revealed a swell in antisemitic threats, “exacerbated by online incitement by Iranian-linked groups and designated foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIS.”
He urged Congress to begin producing strategies to combat the surge in antisemitic terror threats: “We are long overdue for a national strategy to specifically combat targeted violence against the Jewish community.”
Oren Segal, senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), warned that online platforms are spreading rhetoric justifying violence by calling on anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists to “bring the war home.” He said that online platforms are allowing foreign terrorist groups “to share and promote their propaganda to thousands across the US and across the globe.”
Segal then outlined a series of steps he believes Congress should take to combat the increase in antisemitic threats.
He suggested that US lawmakers increase funding for the non-profit security grant program to protect vulnerable houses of worship and community centers, invest in community violence prevention units, grant the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism with additional powers, pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and penalize antisemitic online platforms by enforcing laws regarding providing support for terrorist groups.
“The time is act is now,” Segal warned.
The post Anti-Israel Groups ‘Amplifying’ Messaging of Terror Groups, Iran-Backed Info Ops, US Lawmakers Hear in Testimony first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Authority’s Terror Support, Lack of Credibility Undermine UN Conference on Statehood, Experts Warn
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The Palestinian Authority has demanded that Hamas disarm and vowed to implement internal reforms ahead of a United Nations conference this month on Palestinian statehood — a move that experts say is unlikely to succeed given the PA’s lack of credibility and support for terrorism against Israel.
In a letter delivered Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, co-chairs of the upcoming UN summit, PA President Mahmoud Abbas made a series of what France described as “concrete and unprecedented commitments” intended to secure international trust.
The upcoming conference, scheduled for June 16–18, will focus on advancing efforts toward international recognition of a Palestinian state in order to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to Ahmad Sharawi, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, the French- and Saudi-backed plan is fundamentally flawed because the international community will be trusting in the PA “an entity that has been promising but not delivering since 2006.”
“Despite its condemnations of the [Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel] and Hamas’s refusal to release hostages, individuals within the PA’s bureaucratic and security system are implicated in terrorist activity against Israel, they spew anti-Israel rhetoric publicly, they celebrate individuals who commit terror against Israel, and continue their pay-for-slay policy which encourages more Palestinians to kill Israelis,” Sharawi told The Algemeiner.
The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also maintained for years a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis. Under the policy, the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists. Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.
Abbas had announced plans to reform the system earlier this year, but the PA has continued to issue payments, with top officials saying they will not deduct any of the funds.
Nonetheless, the PA is trying to position itself to play a leading role in Gaza once the current Israel-Hamas war ends. Abbas reportedly announced that the PA is “ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilization/protection mission with a [UN] Security Council mandate.”
In an effort to secure international support, Abbas also wrote that “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza, and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian [Authority] Security Forces.”
However, Sharawi explained that the PA “is not trusted by either Israel or the Palestinian people as a competent entity for governance.”
“The Gazan population sees the PA as collaborators with Israel and if they do end up governing Gaza, then it would look as if they came on top of Israeli tanks and thus it is expected that the popular sentiment will lead to the rise of other militias or a resurgence of a Hamas insurgency,” Sharawi told The Algemeiner.
A poll released last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that, if an agreement is reached to end the Gaza war, only 40 percent of Palestinians (46 percent in Gaza and 37 percent in the West Bank, where the PA exercises limited self-governance) “support the return of the PA to managing the affairs of the Gaza Strip and providing for the requirements of daily life and responsibility for reconstruction,” while 56 percent oppose it. The poll also showed that, among the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank, just 23 percent are “satisfied” with the PA’s performance, while an even smaller 15 percent expressed satisfaction with Abbas and a mere 24 percent did so for Abbas’s ruling Fatah party.
Despite the PA’s lack of support among the Palestinian people, Macron said last month that recognizing “Palestine” was “not only a moral duty but a political necessity.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned France’s announcement, stating that such a move would only reward terrorism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
Reuters reported that US President Donald Trump’s administration is discouraging governments around the world from attending next week’s conference on a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, describing the event in a diplomatic cable as “anti-Israel” and “counterproductive.”
In his letter, Abbas also reportedly reaffirmed his commitment to long-promised administrative reforms, stating that he intends to hold presidential and general elections “within a year” under international supervision. Abbas was elected to a four-year term in 2005, and the PA has not held elections since then.
According to Sharawi, Abbas’s latest reform — appointing Hussein al-Sheikh as his vice president and potential successor — illustrates how the PA speaks of change yet continues to maintain the same entrenched inner circle.
“The challenge in trusting the PA is that the international community would be legitimizing an entity that is solely run by an executive council composed of Abbas and his affiliates who block any attempt of passing laws … and an incompetent security force that is unable to confront the threats made by groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the areas they control,” Sharawi told The Algemeiner.
In an apparent shift from previous remarks, Abbas in his letter also condemned the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, calling it “unacceptable.”
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israel-based nongovernmental organization, dismissed Abbas’s supposed criticism of the Hamas onslaught against the Jewish State, calling it “two-faced” and accusing him of hypocrisy.
“It took Abbas 20 months to figure out that Oct. 7 rape, beheading, torture, and murder of 1,200 is merely ‘unacceptable.’ What’s truly unacceptable is thinking that Oct. 7-defender Mahmoud Abbas has a gram of decency in him,” PMW wrote in a statement.
Last week, the NGO called on France and Saudi Arabia to cancel the upcoming conference unless Abbas publicly denounces Hamas terrorist attacks.
“As Western leaders plan to meet at the UN on June 17 to give PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas a present of recognition of a Palestinian state, Abbas continues to prove how unworthy the PA is of being a state,” PMW said in a statement on Sunday.
In the past, Abbas praised Hamas for achieving “important goals” with the Oct. 7 onslaught, describing the attack — the deadliest single-day massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — as one that “shook the foundations of the Israeli entity.”
Other PA officials, including Mahmoud al-Habbash, Abbas’s adviser on religious and Islamic affairs, have similarly praised Hamas’s atrocities, describing them as “legitimate resistance.”
Ahead of next week’s UN summit, Abbas’s promises seek to counterbalance the PA’s history of corruption and its hardline anti-Israel policies, including the notorious “pay-for-slay” program.
According to The Guardian, recognition of a Palestinian state at the upcoming conference will be tied to several conditions, including a truce in Gaza, the release of hostages taken by Hamas, reform of the PA, economic recovery, and an end to Hamas’s terrorist rule in the war-torn enclave.
The post Palestinian Authority’s Terror Support, Lack of Credibility Undermine UN Conference on Statehood, Experts Warn first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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President Milei Announces Argentina Will Move Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem Next Year
Argentine President Javier Milei speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Argentine President Javier Milei delivered an impassioned address to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Wednesday, in which he announced that Argentina would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem next year. He also declared his country’s full support for Israel’s war against Hamas and accused much of the international community of siding with terrorists.
“I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei declared.
Milei said Argentina stood firmly with Israel at a time when, in his view, much of the international community had failed to do so. “Argentina stands by you in these difficult days. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about a large part of the international community that is being manipulated by terrorists and turning victims into perpetrators,” he said.
“How does the world allow a murderous terrorist organization to continue to hold innocent civilians hostage?” Milei asked, referring to the dozens of captives still being held in Gaza following the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “When both sides are good and evil, there is no moral equality here.”
Milei also attacked climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained and deported by Israel after she attempted to break the Gaza blockade by sea. “She became a hired gun for a bit of media attention, claiming that she was kidnapped when there are really hostages in subhuman conditions in Gaza,” he said.
Milei’s three-day visit to Israel – the longest leg of a ten-day foreign tour – began with a prayer at the Western Wall and included meetings with Israeli leaders, most notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who paused his corruption trial earlier in the day to host the Argentine leader.
“Javier, you are a true friend,” Netanyahu said, speaking hoarsely. “We both woke up with sore throats. The question is, who infected whom? But we also ‘infect’ one another with friendship — both personally and between our nations.”
“For 20 months, we have been fighting human monsters,” Netanyahu said. “You said clearly: ‘We stand with you in the fight against the forces of darkness.’ This is a just war like no other. Terror seeks to drag us back to the darkness of the Middle Ages, and we will fight it with all our might.”
Milei framed his support for Israel within a broader critique of global threats to democratic societies. “Whether we like it or not, the West is being tested. Various forms of barbaric tyranny are attacking us and have no relation to democracy,” he said.
Arab lawmakers did not attend Milei’s Knesset address.
During the visit, Milei met with survivors of Hamas captivity and relatives of Argentine hostages still being held in Gaza. Twenty-seven Argentine nationals were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, and a further 21 were taken hostage, including Shiri Bibas and her two toddler sons, Ariel and Kfir, all of whom were murdered in captivity.
“We continue to demand the unconditional return of the four Argentines who are still held captive – Eitan Horn, Ariel and David Cunio, and Lior Rudaeff – and all those kidnapped and still held by the terrorist organization Hamas,” Milei said during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the president’s residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Herzog expressed the country’s admiration for Milei, saying, “During your presidency, my friend Milei, our relations have reached new heights – and will continue to rise. You love Israel – and we love you.”
A rocket fired by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen on Tuesday evening triggered air raid sirens across Israel, sending millions – including Milei in his Jerusalem hotel – into shelters. The incident prompted him to write on X: “I strongly recommend that when you react to what happens in Israel, remember what it’s like to live in this situation. I witnessed this from the hotel where I’m staying in Jerusalem.”
The following day, Milei canceled a planned tour of the City of David archaeological site due to illness. His itinerary was expected to conclude Thursday with a return visit to the Western Wall.
Milei was also expected to unveil plans for nonstop flights connecting Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv, which would mark the first direct air link between the two countries since Israeli agents apprehended Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1960.
Since taking office in December, Milei has made Israel a focal point of his foreign policy and has visited the Jewish state twice in as many years. He pledged to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem during his earlier visit.
The embassy move would place Argentina in alignment with the United States and five other countries: Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Paraguay, and Papua New Guinea, all of which moved their embassies from Tel Aviv. The Argentine embassy is currently located in Herzliya, a coastal city to the north of Tel Aviv.
The post President Milei Announces Argentina Will Move Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem Next Year first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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