Culinary Traditions in the Jerusalem Countryside: Communities Displaced by the 1948 Nakba and Those Who Remained

This study explores the food culture of Jerusalem’s rural villages, comparing the culinary traditions of those communities displaced during the Nakba of 1948 with those communities who remained rooted in their land. Food culture, including the maintenance of traditional recipes and ingredients, as well as alterations and adaptations, is living evidence of the complex and continuing relationship of those living in villages surrounding Jerusalem to their lands. Food is also a marker of resilience, identity, and memory in the face of settler-colonial displacement. Using recipe analysis, focus group discussions, and interviews, this study examines the disruption of the Palestinian agricultural model by displacement and colonization, and how this has impacted Palestinian food culture. Palestinian food culture has thus been shaped by the loss of agricultural land and by the loss of access to certain products, but also by the introduction of new ingredients, labor market transformation, and the presence or absence of social solidarity (al-‘awna), which includes assistance from extended family members and fellow villagers.