Hummus- it's creamy, made of lemon and chickpeas, delicious and....helping to end international conflict? Kobi Tzafrir, an Israeli restaurant owner, believes that the garlicky goodness of hummus may have more power than your average pita topping, and is using the traditional treat to bring people together.
Tzafrir knows the power of hummus, an ubiquitous dish served across the middle east. Growing up in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Tzafrir was mostly exposed to store bought, prepackaged hummus. However, when he was 20 years old, he had his first dish of real, home-made hummus at an Arab restaurant- and his perspective was completely changed.
Tzafrir's restaurant, the Hummus Bar in Tel Aviv, offers a 50 percent discount on any meal shared by a Jew and an Arab. He advertised his idea on a Facebook post, which read:
"Are you afraid of Arabs? Are you afraid of Jews? By us there are no Arabs, but also no Jews. We have human beings! And real excellent Arab hummus! And great Jewish falafel!"
His post was shared almost 2,000 times, and word of his idea was picked up by news outlets of every language and culture.
Why run this promotion? In an interview with NPR, Tzafrir stated that he hoped the promotion would help to ease the ever-present tension in the current state of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For hundreds of years, Arab Muslims and Israeli Jews have been locked in a tense political and religious conflict. This discontent is so deeply ingrained in culture and attitudes that countless lives have been lost by both sides. Tzafrir hopes that his special promotion will encourage people of both races to look at each other not through the lens of their respective ethnicity, but as a living human who loves the same food as they do.
"We hear a lot of extremists on the news, on Facebook, on TV, and it seems like everything here is very bad." Tzafrir stated. "But I wanted to show that everything here is not so bad. Things get out of proportion."
"If you eat a good hummus, you will feel love from the person who made it," he said. "You don't want to stab him."
