The latest battle in the Middle East is not about territory or religion, but food. The Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI) plans to bring a lawsuit that aims to essentially copyright the names of prominent dishes served in Lebanon and the Levant. The foods associated with the case include hummus, tabbouleh, falafel, araq and labneh.
Fadi Abboud, president of the ALI, said he is bringing the suit because Israel has hijacked the names. “Let them call their hummus Tzipi Livni’s chickpea dip, or call it hummus in Hebrew.” he said. “We were the first country in the world to commercialize hummus, to industrialize the production of hummus, and export hummus, when Israel was barely five years old.”
According to Abboud his organization is pursuing internationally recognized cultural rights to the foods similar to ‘Protected Geographical Status’ (PGS) laws in the European Union. PGS laws aim to protect the names of foods by eliminating unfair competition and preventing the deception of consumers with fake products. PGS laws have designated food product names like Champagne, Feta and Roquefort cheese as protected, and those products are only legally allowed to be labeled as such if they hail from their designated place of origin.
It is unclear whether the lawsuit has a chance of succeeding. Foods like Feta and Roquefort are protected because the EU decided they are produced in unique geographic areas and through a process that is exclusive to those areas.
Rami Zurayk, a professor at the American University of Beirut’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, compared ALI’s suit to Italians trying to copyright pizza.
“What if Italians said no one can use bread and tomato and call it ‘pizza’?” he asked. “Instead, it has to be called ‘Italian style tomato pie’!”
Even how ALI would bring their case is in question. Feta, champagne and other names are protected in the EU. Since Lebanon is not an EU member, or a member of the World Trade Organization, it is unclear where the suit would be brought. And even if the EU laws are expanded, other Arab countries would not be happy if Lebanon gained a patent for hummus and tabbouleh.
Abboud admitted that many dishes he wants to patent are of disputed origin, even among Arab countries. Hummus’ origins are unknown — some say Saladin invented the pasty chickpea and tahini dish, while others trace it back to ancient Egypt.
“Everybody in this region eats hummus,” Zurayk said. “I don’t think Lebanese can claim hummus. One has to be realistic about this.”
Abboud agrees, and said he does not want to start an inter-Arab war over food designations. He suggests creating a kind of ‘Arab Food League’ to determine who could claim which foods, and, at the least, keep the Israelis from claiming the name.
“If we don’t agree with the Syrians that hummus is Syrian or Lebanese, let’s have a panel, not turn this into a war,” he said. “If the panel sees that hummus is neither Lebanese nor Syrian, but part of this entire region, then that’s something we’ll accept.”
Abboud is writing letters to Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and other government officials to get the ball rolling on the lawsuit. But he fears the Israelis may have already initiated a lawsuit to claim hummus as their own — a move he said would not surprise him. Israelis already hold the Guinness Book of World Records title for largest plate of hummus.
“We are very, very hurt,” Abboud said about the Guinness title. “And we are going to make a larger hummus dish, and make sure the world knows where hummus originates from.”
With the number of stories in the international press about Abboud’s lawsuit, he may be accomplishing his goal long before the case is ever gets close to a court. Or has that been his goal all along?
