....and there are arabs, jews and christians in the middle east making falafel. some better, some worse...no connection with religion or history!

Palestine Land is stolen so no wonder to steal Hummos and Falafel and make them israeli dish

But of course it is Arab and it is enjoyed by people all over the world ;-)

I first ate felafel in about 1969 at the long-since defunct Cafe Tel Aviv on Harvard Street in Brookline, Mass. and fell in love with this delightful food. I took my friend Tony Bono there once and asked him what he thought of it. He said, "Now I know where the name comes from. It takes real good, but I feel awful."

Now you want to claim the Falafel as Israeli???you took our land, at least leave Hummus and Falafel for us.

I do agree, it is Arab! The article would be better served if it talked more about how it is prepared differently in egypt vs jordan, vs pa areas..what can u do?

While a graduate student at a midwestern university many years ago, my housemate and I, who had both spent time in Israel, set out to create a proper falafel recipe. Starting with raw chickpeas from a local co-op, and a meat grinder he brought from Brooklyn, we set to work. After some experimentation, we were finally satisfied, but most credit goes to my housemate who'd worked in a New York deli. We'd sometimes set aside a "ready to use" batch in the fridge for those "what shall we eat" evenings. At the end of a course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict I was teaching, I had many of my students over for a gathering of "Fleetwood Mac and Falafel". Music and food, I'm pleased to report, were well received. Ultimately, we all went our separate ways. As to that falafel recipe ... I was misplaced, lost to history. But there's always Jerusalem.

We are not Chistians (BARUCH HASHEM)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First they steal our land, then they steal our culture? Israeli culture is a myth. israeli culture is full of Arabic content: Arabic food, Arabic Music.......the list goes on and on...

And the land of Israel is also Arab, we all know that. Can you give it a rest now?

along with a Pepsi. Poutine: Fries with BBQ sauce and cheese. Ya got to be a Quebecer to understand this.

It was a popular dish in all the arab communities in british palestine and under turkish rule before it. However, Israel did comercialize it and turn it into and industry...

believe so strongly that Hoummus and Falafel is an arab dish, than so be it. It would than probably be one of the only nice things you brought into this world. But you still did not provide any proof. Not debating, just screaming at us. Quite frankly THIS did not surprise me!!!

syrian,egyptian or palestinian dishes,but arabs dishes.....they are true.We must recognize the others.

Maybe we should look at falafel metaphorically, as a symbol for what our country could have been, had we learned to get along with each other instead of fighting over trivial things-a delicious dish, enjoyed by all.

For your information, more than half of the Jews living in Israel came from the lands of their dispersion in the Middle East, and picked up their taste for felafel there. That they brought their cuisine with them upon returning to THEIR homeland does not constitute stealing. You Palestinians are pathetic - you have to invent things to get pissed about rather than picking yourselves up by the bootstraps and making a state - you'd rather bitch about Israelis, inventing what you can, than get down to the business of doing something positive.

Before 1948, "Palestinian" meant "Jew". We were the minority in Jerusalem - Palestine for over 100 years. After the war you started & lost, you created a fiction and stole the term. Enjoy your own dust.

It is arabic food for sure but there is no shame that any country in the world using it but at least to acknowledge the origin of it.

I hope that falafel can bring arabs and jews together or even unite them. They have so much in common and a lot to unite them if they are not to listen to the big powers who use both sides for long term interests such as control of oil. It is unlikely that falafel is going to work since people inpower don't eat any way. It is the food of the poor in the Arab world at least.

Firstly the author does not claim falafel to be an Israeli original - but facts and reading which often leads to learning and knowledge are not held in particularly high regard in the Arab world, are they?

Mohammed! Thanks for being the first to get the point! For a group of people who share cultural, culinary and physical traits, we sure do make a mess of things. The truth the Palistinians and most Israelis refuse to aknowledge is that we have a whole ot more in common with each other than with anyone else in the world. As for Falafel, the best I have found was in Tell Aviv behind King George Street, the second best was Lebanese restaurant in New York. To those here yelling "you stole it" get over it, so we we like the same stuff, is that crime?

Israelis ate it before worshiping the Calf in the desert of Sinai and made them see the calf as good and got lost 40 years. (too much falafel make you sleepy) Hopefully they won’t worship another idle after eating it….is it kosher LeMehadrin

doesn't matter who invented falafel but Israels calendar say '5687' and not 1948 - Mike

Were they "Arab" cavemen? Not likely, since the Arabic language wasn't developed until circa 600 of the Common Era, and Arabs didn't start invading and colonizing their neighbors from Arabia until circa 700 of the Common Era.

is Tony a lawyer in Framingham?

I'm very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause: Yes - the Jews started out in recent times as a minority in Palestine, immigrated in large numbers and took over, thereby depriving the Palestinian Arabs of hegemony in the land they considered theirs. Those are the basic facts from their point of view and they are 100% correct - no doubt about it. And they have good reason to be upset about it. I'd be upset too. (Have the Palestinians responded to this grievance in a manner that has been helpful to them or fair, reasonable, moral? - That's a whole other issue). However, this stuff about 'stealing falafel" is so stupid it's beyond belief, and unfortunately if this is the kind of thing you're going to be concerned about you'll never get anywhere with the Palestinian cause. No-one has claimed that falafel is originally Israeli. Of course it isn't. But can't Israelis enjoy it and help popularize it without a bunch of idiots complaining they've "stolen it"? Why don't you take it as a compliment that people love and adore your food? Are Italians so small-minded that they complain that Americans have "stolen" the pizza? Do the Indians complain that the Arabs have "stolen" the rice they enjoy in Mejedara? Have the Mexicans "stolen" beer from the Europeans? Have the Australians "stolen" wine from the French and Italians. It's one thing to say the Israelis stole your land. But falafel? Grow up.

It is the most interesting issue arabs and israelis can quarell for.