In search of "Palestinian couscous"

From The New Arab:

Palestine's diplomatic corps and the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign have intervened in the row over Virgin Atlantic's decision to remove the word "Palestinian" from a dish on its in-flight menu.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK accused the British-based airline of lacking "ethical integrity" after it changed the description of a maftoul and couscous salad in response to Israel-favouring complainants.

The BDS National Committee (BNC), which leads the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, also rebuked the company, warning that pressure successfully placed on the company to delete the reference to Palestine was part of a "policy of Israeli ethnic cleansing".

The meal was initially offered on all Economy class flights from the UK under the name "Palestinian couscous salad", but within a few weeks was changed to simply "Couscous salad" as a response to what Virgin Atlantic called "feedback".

The airline - whose largest individual investor is Sir Richard Branson - faced a backlash after Electronic Intifada first reported the story in February.

As usual in stories like these, very few people actually research what the facts are.

Is there something traditionally known as "Palestinian couscous?"

Doing a search through Google Books, I can find quite a few mentions of the dish - but none of them before 2009.

A search of maftoul finds that it is similarly absent from any cookbook or other book before the 21st century, although a 2003 World Trade Organization study mentions it as a Jordanian dish.

Others identify the food with Lebanese couscous, known as Moghrabieh.

Articles detailing the types of couscous usually list the Moroccan, Lebanese and Israeli kind, and do not mention "Palestinian" couscous.

As is almost always the case, there is nothing "Palestinian" about "Palestinian couscous" and that term is quite new. (I have no doubt that Arabs in Palestine ate this version of couscous for decades, just that it is not in any way a "Palestinian" dish, rather an Arab or Levant dish.)

The idea that taking away the word "Palestinian" from a dish no one heard of a decade ago  is "ethnic cleansing" is another example of hysterical anti-Israel propaganda.

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