Baladi Politics: The Social Life of an Untranslatable Agri-Culinary Category in Palestine/Israel

Amidst the vibrant culinary scene in Israel and Palestine, the concept of “Baladi” emerges as a polysemic and untranslatable term, deeply rooted in Arabic language. It represents a multifaceted range of meanings, encompassing notions of domesticity, earthly connections, communal identity, and local authenticity. However, this concept is not only a culinary marker but is also charged with profound socio-political significance, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian context. Our presentation delves into the “social life” of Baladi in Palestine and Israel, exploring how this concept operates ontologically and epistemologically within various culinary-agricultural fields. Through socio-historical analysis, multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork (including participant observations in farms and restaurants in the Palestinian villages Al-Walaja and Battir, as well as Beit Jala in the West Bank, and in the village Ein Rafa in Israel), and in-depth interviews (N=33) with Israeli chefs, Palestinian farmers, environmental activists, entrepreneurs, and conservationists, we trace the major moments in the evolution of Baladi. As the Baladi discourse moves back and forth between Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli culinary spheres, it encapsulates the complexities of culinary identity, cultural resistance, and contested spatial narratives. Thus, we describe the dialectical processes of its appropriation and commodification in the Jewish-Israeli context, while in the Palestinian context, the concept of Baladi acquires new meanings related to heritage, gastro-national resistance, and environmental decolonization. Theoretically, our presentation contributes to the discussion of untranslatable culinary categories within the context of a global market economy, ongoing colonialism, political violence, and the struggle over space and identity.