RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — “Money, money, money,” hums Nasser Abdulhadi behind the counter of his fast-food joint. He’s selling tickets for this evening’s Boney M concert. Business is brisk. Life isn’t all sordid in this centerpiece of the future Palestinian state.

“What’s wrong with living a normal life in Ramallah,” proclaims the gold-framed maxim on the wall of “Zeit and Zaater” (Olive Oil and Thyme), Abdulhadi’s little restaurant on main street opposite the famed Rukab ice-cream parlor. Another framed certificate reads: “Guinness Book of World Records: World’s Largest Tabouleh Salad.”

Abdulhadi, 48, is a jovial sort. He likes his food, likes his work, likes doing his bit to win international recognition for independent Palestine. His recipe: Use Guinness to put Palestinian cuisine on the world’s table.

Some dish, that victorious salad. Tabouleh’s usually just an appetizer. Not Abdulhadi’s. His 1,081 kilos of chopped parsley, bulgur wheat, onion, tomato and mint filled a 15-foot plate. What Abdulhadi relished most was the “political victory”: “It took me 18 months to convince Guinness to enter it under ‘Palestine’ - not ‘occupied West Bank,’ not even ‘occupied Palestine,’ simply Palestine.”

Abdulhadi’s food campaign began when he heard from a friend who’d flown in from the U.S. — he himself lived for years in New York — that El Al, the Israeli national airline, served musakhan, chicken and onion on pita bread spiced with purple sumac, as an “Israeli national dish.”

Abdulhadi found that hard to digest. “Everyone knows musakhan is Palestinian. They’ve tried it before with hummus and falafel. Israeli chutzpah, I call it.”

Once his tabouleh was finally consumed, under his ladle, Palestinian chefs went on to win another heavyweight title, “World’s Largest Musakhan.”

“We need recognition for what we achieve in the normal run of life,” Abdulhadi says. “Like people everywhere we love our children, we’re chefs, businessmen, carpenters, farmers, industrialists, shopkeepers, we’re participants in the society of the world. We’re not just a resistance movement fighting the occupation.”

Biggest tabouleh, gargantuan musakhan — hardly world title categories likely to impress the world. But Abdulhadi also knows the power of providing food for thought: “It’s important that people hear about the inequities of daily life under the occupation, I realize that. But what really impresses is when you can identify with us, just because we are like you. Don’t we also laugh, cry, love, eat well, compete? By competing on the world stage, we show we exist. Sometimes, we can also be best.”

If Israelis sometimes grumble at the biblical burden of being designated “God’s chosen people,” Abdulhadi seems content to be chosen only by a contemporary best-seller rival to the Bible, the Guinness Book of World Records. At the least, his irreverence grants him a sense of freedom he doesn’t get from Israel.

Abdulhadi’s goal now is to create a new category, for Palestine to hold the “Biggest Number of Guinness Titles” title. No wonder he’s earned the nickname, “Mr. Guinness in Palestine” (or should that be “Mr. Palestine in Guinness”).

And Abdulhadi isn’t confining himself to “biggest”: “Last year I applied for Palestine as ‘The Longest Occupation.”’ Now that would be a major title.

He was rebuffed. “They said, ‘Tibet has been longer.’ I said, ‘Tibet didn’t apply.’ They said, ‘You’re just being provocative.’ I said, ‘All right, I’m applying for the title, ‘The Most Wonderful Occupation.”’

What if Israel were to object?

“Great, I’d tell them, ‘Beat me at my own game, end your most wonderful occupation, the sooner the better.’ I’ll be thrilled to surrender all our Guinness titles — just so long as they get ‘The End of the Most Wonderful Occupation’ title.”

 

Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler are Jerusalem-based reporters and documentary filmmakers.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/opinion/24iht-edkessel.html?pagewanted=print