Amid Israel’s Starvation Campaign, Palestinian Chef Fights to Preserve Heritage

Within the coronary heart of Gaza, throughout the darkest days of Israel’s 18-month genocide, Chef Mona Zahed continued to prepare dinner. On the age of 38, with 4 youngsters relying on her, Zahed turned a beacon of hope for her household as she navigated despair and a scarcity of meals whereas persevering with her culinary follow. Her ardour for cooking not solely fueled her survival but additionally culminated within the launch of her cookbook, Tabkha: Recipes From Under the Rubble. The ebook, which showcases 20 conventional Palestinian recipes and consists of modern alternate options born from excessive hardship, is a vital documentation of Palestinian cultural custom amid Israel’s genocidal marketing campaign of erasure. Revealed by Slingshot Books, Tabkha additionally options illustrations made by 21 artists.

“I’m a science graduate and a proud mom of 4: Mohammad, 16, Hayat, 15, Sarah, 14, and Zahed, 10,” Zahed advised Truthout. “We dwell in a house that’s partially fallen aside, in an space of Gaza that’s seen a variety of destruction. Many buildings are simply piles of rubble, and we wrestle to search out primary wants like water for laundry and ingesting. The streets are cluttered with trash and particles, however regardless of all of it, we’re grateful to be again in our houses and are decided to make a life right here.”

The biting chilly and absence of primary utilities spotlight the challenges she endures. “It’s freezing right here as a result of we now have no home windows to dam the chilly air. We cowl the gaps with nylon, which doesn’t actually maintain us heat for our youngsters, however at the least it’s a step up from the tent we lived in whereas we had been displaced.”

Earlier than the genocide started, Zahed ran a instructing heart and her husband managed his personal pharmacy whereas their children attended college. Their residence shared a neighborhood with a number of worldwide organizations.

“Our life earlier than the conflict was stunning, Alhamdulillah. We loved all the pieces round us and had been on the verge of economic stability. I taught on the heart from 8 am to five pm,” Zahed shared. Her dedication to her youngsters’s schooling was clear: “I might take a break from 10-11 am to prepare dinner and look after them earlier than heading again to show.” She even introduced her younger baby, Zahed, alongside together with her, proudly noting, “My youngsters are the highest of their lessons, Alhamdulillah. I all the time tried to make sure that their schooling remained unaffected by my work or their father’s, however when the conflict hit, all the pieces modified.”

Zahed says she’ll always remember the Israeli assault’s first day. “I used to be getting my youngsters prepared for varsity for his or her exams, and at first, we didn’t perceive what was occurring; we thought it was simply rain or thunder. Confusion and fear set in as I stored them indoors whereas we adopted the information, struggling to course of the shock of the unfolding chaos. Three days later, our neighborhood, identified for its towers and buildings, turned one of many first bombed, prompting us to evacuate because the hazard drew alarmingly close to to our residence.”

Amid the assaults, Zahed discovered inventive methods to cope with the shortage in her cooking. “Through the genocide, I crafted recipes from the restricted assets we had attributable to hunger and meals shortages.” Regardless of the dire circumstances, she labored onerous to uplift her youngsters’s spirits. “They had been glad with what I made, even consuming meals that they had beforehand disliked as a result of they merely had no different selection.”

“Furthermore, there was no gasoline, which made meal preparation extremely time-consuming; we needed to prepare dinner issues prematurely,” Zahed explains.

“Generally, once we discovered a single apple, we felt a wave of happiness, slicing it thinly to share amongst 4 of us as soon as every week,” Zahed mentioned. Necessity demanded innovation in her recipes: “When yeast was unavailable, I experimented with fermenting dough. With no contemporary fish round, I used canned tuna to create fesikh, generally frying it and different occasions baking it with greens. I reworked luncheon meat into varied dishes, frying it or crafting it into shawarma, whereas canned beef turned a savory grilled delight with parsley and onion. I even added vermicelli to our lentil soup, consistently adapting to benefit from what little we had.”

Even these meals, with their alterations borne out of want, may very well be logistically tough to place collectively. “Most of our meals consisted of canned gadgets, which had been onerous to search out and infrequently too costly,” mentioned Zahed. “As a lady and a mom, I bore a heavy accountability throughout these [first] 15 months, taking care of many individuals. These had been robust days, particularly once we ran out of flour; it broke my coronary heart to see my youngsters with out bread. We frequently spent our days consuming simply items of biscuits from assist packages, solely two at a time per packet.”

These excessive meals shortages weren’t unintended by Israel, however had been deliberate — “a tactic of genocide,” in response to a UN report from July 2024:

Israel made its intentions to starve everybody in Gaza express, carried out its plans and predictably created a famine all through Gaza. Monitoring the geography of Israel’s hunger ways alongside Israeli officers’ statements confirms its intent. Israel opened with a complete siege that weakened all Palestinians in Gaza. Then, Israel used hunger to induce forcible switch, hurt and loss of life towards folks within the north, pushing folks into the south, solely to starve, bombard and kill folks in newly created refugee camps within the south.

The implications have been devastating. “By no means in post-war historical past had a inhabitants been made to go hungry so shortly and so fully as was the case for the two.3 million Palestinians residing in Gaza,” the report said.

Israel has additionally repeatedly targeted Palestinian cooks and food aid providers, killing those that are striving to feed a ravenous inhabitants.

Now two months into a complete blockade on all assist into Gaza, tens of hundreds of Palestinian youngsters are in pressing want of medical care attributable to malnutrition. Dozens of Palestinians have died have died attributable to Israel’s hunger coverage. Amid the longest and most encompassing blockade ever imposed on the besieged territory, worldwide meals organizations in Gaza have mentioned their provides are gone. Practically 290,000 youngsters could perish quickly if meals just isn’t allowed in, Al Jazeera reported.

Earlier than circumstances additional plummeted, Zahed discovered methods to prioritize her youngsters’s vitamin. “Generally, I might take the leftover white rice from lunch, add spices and seasonings in order that my youngsters would settle for it for dinner.” She made use of each accessible ingredient: “We used dry bread in lentil soup or in salads known as ‘fattoush,’” showcasing her resourcefulness in making certain her household’s sustenance amid shortage.

Zahed defined to Truthout how the genocide has modified her. “The conflict affected me rather a lot, however it proved to me that I’m sturdy. It has made me older and taught me many classes, putting many duties on my shoulders, but we remained steadfast.” These duties got here beneath probably the most harrowing of circumstances. “One of the crucial horrifying days was the evening we had been pressured to flee our residence once they deliberate to bomb the tower close by. Even once I ask my youngsters about their most terrifying recollections of the conflict, additionally they point out this evening.”

“One other terrifying second was once we fled from Deir al-Balah to Khan Younis, traversing streets stuffed with tanks and snipers. We actually believed that it may very well be our final second. With no different selection, we pushed by means of, surviving by a miracle whereas witnessing folks being injured and killed proper earlier than our eyes.”

Zahed mourned the profound lack of Gaza’s magnificence due since October 7, 2023. “Only a day earlier than the conflict erupted, I strolled alongside the seashore, expressing to my brother how pretty Gaza was whereas craving for job alternatives and growth. Now, Gaza seems like a graveyard; returning residence, I barely acknowledged the streets, stuffed with sorrow as if we had regressed a century. We hope for a day when it may be rebuilt.”

“Whereas the world sympathizes with us, many see us merely as numbers. Our struggling, perceived as regular to some, overshadows our identities; we’re not simply statistics however people with households and buddies. The continuing violence reduces us to mere figures, but we’re folks deserving of a dignified life.”

Zahed’s ebook highlights Palestinian cultural custom throughout a time when Israeli forces try to erase all the pieces about Palestinian life. It’s an try to save lots of this heritage and conventional meals even with the absence of some primary substances.

Regardless of the horrors surrounding her, Zahed discovered she may have interaction together with her youngsters by means of meals: “My youngsters had been assured in my cooking. After we stumbled upon substances for a meal we hadn’t had in a very long time, their pleasure was palpable as they exclaimed, ‘Mother, that is the Gazan meals!’ — a phrase they typically repeated.” She believes that her ardour for cooking displays her folks’s resilience: “All recipes replicate the power of the Palestinian girl. The conflict has proven us that we will discover alternate options and create one thing from nothing. All through the hardship and hunger, it turned clear that Palestinians possess an unbelievable capacity to adapt and innovate in dire circumstances.”

Amid the struggles of displacement in Nuseirat camp, Zahed recounts the day by day challenges her household confronted whereas residing in momentary shelter. “Dwelling in a sixth-floor house, my son Mohammed would carry 20-liter gallons of water up the steps as we wanted about 4-5 gallons day by day. We cooked over an open hearth, counting on primary staples like rice, spaghetti and soup, typically solely having bread as soon as a day as a result of excessive value of greens.” Throughout these hardships, her ardour for cooking introduced her pleasure: “Every time I prepare dinner, I really feel a way of happiness. Even throughout the conflict, folks would attain out for my recipes, and it fills me with delight to assist others on this method. I like crafting scrumptious meals, typically picturing the substances earlier than I begin cooking.”

Tabkha was impressed by a Japanese pal, who inspired her to compile a diary of recipes on the market. Within the ebook, she included 15 conventional Palestinian recipes, overlaying each desserts and savory dishes. Within the midst of conflict, she took the initiative to doc her culinary legacy, creating movies that showcased her improvisation with the substances round her. Her cookbook options a wide range of dishes, together with each desserts and savory meals, together with what she refers to because the “conflict alternate options” — all based mostly on modern recipes impressed by traditions handed down from her ancestors. It additionally showcases the work of 21 artists who illustrated the recipes, every of their distinctive kinds.

“I liked to place that in a ebook as a result of we wish to attain our voice to the world. Each tradition has its information, and when meals recipes unfold broadly, folks begin getting interested in it and begin to ask who created it,” Zahed mentioned. All the things about placing the ebook collectively — from the improvisation to the ancestral data to the unfold of Palestinian culinary custom — serves as an act of resistance throughout genocide, because the Israeli state makes an attempt to erase Palestinian existence.

The cookbook wasn’t nearly recipes — it’s about preserving tradition within the face of devastation. “Our recipes inform the world tales of our historical past, trigger and that we exist. Maqlouba, Maftool, and Sumaqiyaa are all dishes that signify our folks. Every time Palestinian meals turns into a pattern on-line and I see folks from everywhere in the world making it, I really feel proud that the world is aware of Gaza and that we’re not forgotten,” Zahed mentioned.

By means of inventive improvisation, inherited data, and the richness of Palestinian meals, the ebook paperwork life, love and identification as Israel makes an attempt to destroy and starve Gaza.

Zahed expressed a robust want to restart her culinary explorations. “I wish to work once more on my cooking challenge, however gasoline is dear, and different supplies are onerous to search out.” Nonetheless, Zahed envisions a future the place she has her personal enterprise — a store to share her meals, and a kitchen particularly for ladies.

“My message to the world is that Palestinians in Gaza are people who really feel and have desires,” Zahed mentioned. “We should dwell peacefully. We’ll begin once more. We’re sturdy individuals who don’t lose religion. We now have hope.”