Yale University Erases Word ‘Israeli’ From Couscous, Reinstates After Criticism

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The Yale University dinning hall changed the name of a salad dish, removing the word Israeli in the title, and then reinstated it after pushback from students, according to a Ynet report.

Yale student Sahar Tartak, who identifies herself on social media as a “proud Jew,” posted on X on Tuesday: “At Yale, the years-old, popular “Israeli couscous salad with spinach and tomatoes,” has been renamed in our dining halls as the same exact dish but without the word ‘Israeli.'”

In another post on the subject she added that “It’s the subtle changes and redactions that are the most pernicious.”

A university spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek magazine that the word Israeli had been removed, but that it would be reinstated.

“Authenticity of the food and naming of the recipes have been a concern brought to us by students in the past,” the spokesperson said. “There were times that they felt our food did not ‘authentically’ represent the country or ethnicity referenced in the name.

“To that end, our team made the decision to remove names of countries and ethnicities from recipes…In this case, Israeli Couscous is indeed an actual ingredient and is explicitly listed on the ingredient list. Considering it is the main ingredient, it is appropriate to remain in the title, and we will correct this oversight.”

Israel Nitzan, the former acting Israeli consul general in New York, stressed that “couscous” and “Israeli couscous” are not the same thing.

“Couscous is steamed granules of rolled semolina,” the diplomat said. “Israeli Couscous is toasted pasta. Decolonize ignorance!” [The Israeli version- sometimes called pearl couscous – is toasted pasta in tiny balls, developed in Israel in the 1950s when rice was scarce due to austerity in Israel. The Yale version is the Israeli type, as evident in the picture]

Tartak received blowback for her post, much of it couched in terms of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Wow, this is terrible. On one hand we have a renamed dish – on another we have thousands of dead Palestinian children,” responded one X user. “Are you trying to to compare this to the killing of civilians in Gaza,” asked another.

Food has been politicized during the current Gaza war. Last month, over 900 chefs, restaurateurs and leading food industry figures in North America signed a petition calling for a boycott of restaurants and Israeli food in protest of the attacks in Gaza.

The petition, Hospitality for Humanity, called for a boycott of food businesses from Israel and culinary events that promote Israel as leverage for a cease-fire. Beyond the usual claims of “apartheid” and “genocide,” the signatories claim that Israel is also appropriating Palestinian cuisine and trying to erase it from the culinary world, just as it supposedly tries to erase the Palestinian people.