Palestinian Food and Memory with Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban

Episode Summary

In our first mini-episode of Season 5, Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban, a writer and educator from Ramallah, explains how Palestinian cuisine is a powerful expression of identity rooted in the land and traditions of the Palestinian people. Forced displacement and cultural appropriation have posed significant challenges to preserving this culinary heritage. Food is nourishment and a bridge to the past—a living memory of their villages and communities. Palestinian food continues to serve as a source of resistance, memory, healing, and celebration.

Guest Bio

Dr. Riyam Kafri Abu Laban writes personal essays, poetry, short stories, and articles on Palestine, motherhood, and education. She sees writing as "the tangible outcome of thinking" and believes the first sentence requires the most courage. She describes writing as an incredible gift, a way to bring ideas to life—whether technical, creative, or fictional.

With a PhD in Chemistry, Riyam started her career as a research scientist but soon realized her passion was working with people. She shifted to education, first as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and a founding faculty member at Al Quds Bard College in Palestine. She then spent seven years as the Upper School Principal at Ramallah Friends School.

As a proud Ramallah Friends School and Earlham College graduate, Quaker values have shaped her life and faith. Today, Riyam is the Educational Lead at AlNayzak Organization, focusing on pedagogy, curriculum design, and training.

Riyam lives in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine. Follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Special Music

In this episode, you will hear the song Sada by the Sada Trio. Ahmad Al Khatib, Pedram Shahlai, and Feras Sharestan are virtuoso musicians from three parts of the Middle East who now live in Sweden. Ahmad Al Khatib was born in 1974 in a Palestinian refugee camp in Irbid, Jordan. He started his musical journey at an early age. In the Sada Trio, the three musicians keep the Middle Eastern music tradition alive, pairing traditional instruments with original compositions.

The transcript for this episode is available on https://pendlehillseed.buzzsprout.com/

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Transcript

Riyam Kafri Abulaban: 0:08

Those flavors were connected to that land, connected to a better time, connected to the time where she was still a child and played out in the sun right before she turned into a refugee and suddenly this place.

Dwight Dunston: 0:32

You're listening to a mini episode of The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope. In this Pendle Hill podcast, Quakers and other seekers come together to explore visions of the world growing through the cracks of our broken systems. I'm your host, Dwight Dunstan. Some of these shorter episodes feature parts of conversations never aired before. In others, I will share excerpts from previous seasons. Occasionally, you get to be a fly on the wall as I share conversations and sounds from the Pendle Hill campus. This is Season 5 of The Seed, and we are exploring world building. It is easy to point out all that is wrong today, but what is the world we long to see and inhabit? In this mini episode, I share a part of my conversation with a guest who joined me from Ramallah, Palestine. She reveals food's power for people displaced by war and occupation. Dr. Riyam Kafrr Abulaban is a writer at heart. She crafts personal essays, poetry, short stories and insightful articles on topics like Palestine, motherhood, and education. Food is such a big part of Palestinian culture, and I've gotten a chance to read your articles about foods and recipes and the power of food, and I want to read a quote from your article "The Splendid Palestinian Table," and just ask you to just share some thoughts on it. You wrote: "For Palestinians forced out of their land in 1948 food is in the past tense, only to be brought into the present when dishes from their villages are made today, to bring back a glimpse of the colorful squash herbs and crops of village life for those who live in Gaza. Food in the refugee camp is unwholesome, an unfinished puzzle with pieces missing." Yeah. I'm just curious if you have thoughts or reflections from from that quote, or just how you think about the the power of food in Palestinian culture?

Riyam Kafri Abulaban: 2:41

I wrote this a couple of years ago, but it's so relevant today. The thing is, I don't think of food as only something that happens in the kitchen. I think our cuisine is a direct extension of the land and the land that we are being forced out of, and have been forced out of several times. Now, we hold on to our food because it's really our identity. And when I say that, it's in the past for refugees, and I was specifically talking about the Gazan cuisine. Of all the foods in Palestine, it's the most vibrant because Gaza had so many refugee camps, because people had a, had an influx of refugees in 1948 to begin with, people came from different villages around Gaza, from in the north, and they brought together with them their own kitchen. But then, when the blockade started, the props weren't as readily available, and access to olive oil, which is a staple, for example, was not really as readily available as before. And so suddenly that this vibrant, colorful kitchen was slowly losing those colors in a sense, or at least fading in color because of the blockade, because there was no way in and out of Gaza at that, at that point. And so that's, that's where this, this particular sentence came from. I was thinking of that there's an incredible book and a wonderful person who worked on it called, it's called The Gaza Kitchen and, and I think the author is, is right now, her name is escaping me, but, but she's, she has family in Gaza currently, and she's spoken a lot about this and she's an activist as well. But she's one who kind of brought me into The Gaza Kitchen through her book and, and that's where, where that came from. So but, but for Palestinians, it's, it's really not a well lit stainless steel bench kitchen. It's really the kitchen and the land are our extensions and are intertwined together, because when, when people lived in villages, they ate what they what they were harvesting. So if it was tomatoes, they had tomato salad and Palestinian salad. And if it was olive oil, then they would have olive oil, fresh olive oil with fresh bread and olives. And if it was wheat, then it was, you know, something else. And if it was okra, then it's okra for dinner. And they would cook out in the land, because they would be out in the sun all day, and were not going to go back to their countries, to their homes. So so this is so that's what I think of when I think of the Palestinian cuisine, that it is really an extension of the land, and that's why we stick to it, and that's why my late mother in law would ask for specific dishes that she used to make as a child or as a younger person that were directly, you know, her specialty in her village. She was she, she was a refugee. She left her village in 1948. She was only 12 at the time, and she lost three brothers during the Nakba. So, so, so those flavors were connected to that land, connected to a better time, connected to the time where she was still a child and played out in the sun, right before she turned into a refugee and suddenly displaced and suddenly older and you know, because when you go through that kind of trauma, you're no longer your, your age in years no longer matches your age and cognition and emotional development. So, so she's, you know, she would say, you know, she would specifically mention and request specific foods that reminded her of her village.

Dwight Dunston: 6:46

Yeah, the food food as memory, food as healing source, food as a grief portal, food as celebration portal, joy portal. Food as resistance.

Riyam Kafri Abulaban: 7:03

You know, we face appropriation of our food on a, on a regular basis, right? And so suddenly we're, you know, we're like, but wait a minute, knafeh is Palestinian. Has always been Palestinian. For the unknowing, you know, they would say, why is it important to know where hummus came from, or where makluba came from, or where any of those dishes came from? It's, you know, food is a hedonistic pleasure that really is in the now, but it's really a lot more than that, even if a good meal really lasts only 45 minutes, there are memories typed, and what you know about this food really informs your experience.

Dwight Dunston: 7:53

Yeah, yeah, that's that's so so rich. It's such a rich part of Palestinian culture I'm hearing in food pathways and food histories, as you share, carry so much of the people's history you That was Dr. Riyam Kafri Abulaban, a writer and educator who served as the Upper School Principal at the Ramallah Friend School. She crafts personal essays, poetry, short stories and insightful articles on topics like Palestine, motherhood, and education. You can read more of her food writing at riyamoskitchentablestories.com. That's riyamoskitchentablestories.com or follow Riyam on Instagram@riyamkafri. For more of my conversation with Riyam, listen to season five, episode two of The Seed. Thank you for listening to this mini episode of The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope. What spoke to you in this episode? How does this conversation fit into your journey? What would you like to add? Contact me directly by email, podcast@pendlehill.org That's podcast at pendlehill.org or share your thoughts on Instagram, Facebook or X. Look for @pendlehillseed on these social media platforms. Once a month, you and I can also connect through Pendle Hill's online worship time. I attend this virtual Quaker meeting on the last Friday of the month, which begins at 8:30am Eastern Time. For login details. Visit pendlehill.org/explore/worship. That's pendlehill.org/explore/worship. Our podcast is a project of Pendle Hill, a Quaker center open to all for Spirit led learning, retreat and community. We're located in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, on the traditional territory of the Lenni Lenape people. We host retreats, workshops and lectures all year round. For a complete list of these upcoming education opportunities, visit pendlehill.org/learn. This mini episode of The Seed was produced by Peterson Toscano, who also co hosts the Quakers Today podcast. Lucas Meyer Lee, a Quaker Voluntary Service fellow, provided other production assistance. Our theme music is the I Rise Project by Reverend Rhetta Morgan and Bennett Kuhn, produced by Astronautical Records. Our music today comes from Epidemic Sound. This includes the beautiful track at the end of my talk with Riyam. The song is Ara by the Sada Trio. This is a group of musicians with roots in three parts of the Middle East. One of the members, Ahmad Al Khatib, was born in 1974 in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. Learn more about Ahmad and the Sada Trio at AhmadAlKhatibMusic.com The Seed podcast is made possible by the generous support of the Thomas H and Mary Williams Shoemaker fund. Thank you. If you find these conversations meaningful, consider supporting our work financially. To do so, visit pendlehill.org/donate. These seeds could not be planted without you. Let's co create a world filled with cooperation, reciprocity and love. That's podcast@pendlehill. A loud motorcycle. Motorcycle@pendlehill.org.