Freekeh and Fellahin: A Symbiotic Relationship of Sumud

Within Palestine, there is widespread understanding of the catastrophic effects of settler colonialism and Zionism on the Palestinian economy – especially as related to the agrarian way of life. Prior to the significant setback to Palestinian sovereignty from the Oslo accords in 1993, there was already ample evidence of intentional economic suffocation of the agricultural sector by Zionist design, with the intent to transform the Palestinian population of predominantly self-sufficient fellahin (peasant class land workers) subsistence producers into captive consumers. Using the ingredient of freekeh as a throughline, this essay examines Palestinian relationships to the land, and how they have been changed by colonial occupation, causing traditional foodways and food sovereignty to be imperiled. Part of this essay is based on the author’s time spent harvesting and processing freekeh with her teacher and friend, Umm Maghareb, in the West Bank in May 2023. It also examines the relationship between the Zionist narrative and the construction and projection of an Israeli culinary identity, which absorbs heritage ingredients like freekeh to reposition them as keystones to an imagined “Israeli food.”