The representation of Arabs and Jews on postcards in Israel

Abstract

A popular large Israeli postcard features a picture of a serving of falafel in half a pita, into which an Israeli flag has been stuck. The postcard, produced by a Jewish publishing house, bears the caption: ‘Falafel—Israel's national snack’ (figure 1). This apparently innocuous postcard is in fact a most telling metonymy of the political as well as symbolic domination of Jews over Arabs in contemporary Israel: falafel, little balls of ground chick-peas fried in oil, is an Arab dish which was appropriated by Israeli Jewish culinary culture and made into an Israeli dish; it becomes an expression of political domination by means of the Israeli flag stuck into the food.