Campaign against “Israeli” theft of Lebanese cuisine

"Israel's" war and theft course has been targeting all faces of Lebanon, whether through military action, espionage, and theft of natural resources, media attacks as well as a heritage and tradition war it has launched years ago.

The Lebanese cuisine is a crucial part of its heritage. In an attempt to protect the Lebanese dishes of Tabouli and Homos and put an end to the "Israeli" continuous theft of heritage, on the 24th of October, Lebanon will aim at setting a world record for the biggest Homos and Tabouli dishes.

The Homos and Tabouli record is intended to draw world attention to these Lebanese dishes.

It shouldn't be too hard for the world to recognize that 60 years ago, there was no "Israel".

Lebanon will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest servings of Homos and Tabouli as part of a campaign to call for ownership of the traditional dishes.

"Fight for your bite, you know you're right" is the slogan for the campaign under which the record-breaking attempt will be held.

The attempt to break the world records will take place in Downtown Beirut on October 24 and 25. The dishes are expected to stretch some 5,800 square meters.

The battle for national proprietorship of Homos and Tabouli began last year, when Fadi Abboud, the president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, said his group would file a lawsuit to stop "Israel" from marketing exported Homos and other dishes as "Israeli".
In the summer of 2008, Abboud drew attention to the issue of food copyright, noting that millions of dollars were being lost each year in the lucrative Homos market.

But Homos is currently marketed around the world as an "Israeli" dish and a Greek dip, as well as other variations.

"I first noticed this piracy during the many international food exhibitions that we attended: Lebanese producers would find out that most of our specialties, such as Homos, falafel and Baba ghannouj, were marketed as "Israeli"," Abboud said. "Our cuisine is being dishonestly used and "Israel" is appropriating our dishes."

Abboud noted that the popularity of the chickpea dip has spread. "Today, the fame of Homos has reached around the globe. Upscale restaurants in New York and London are serving gourmet versions of Homos and falafel as traditional Jewish dishes," he said.

"We are talking about colossal losses as the Homos market is a robust one worth over $1 billion with the 500,000 tubs eaten a day in the United Kingdom alone," he added. "If we win this fight, there is huge potential for Lebanon.

"We have been researching and documenting data to prove that 25 traditional dishes hail from Lebanon and deserve the EU's Protected Designated Origin status, meaning they can be marketed under their name only if they were made in the country," he said. "It is time that Lebanon registered its main food trademarks to avoid substantial losses like these. We are preparing to file an international lawsuit against "Israel" for claiming ownership of traditional dishes that are believed to be originally Lebanese. "