FOOD FIGHT: Yale dining hall removes 'Israeli' from couscous dish

Reports emerged late Monday night that Yale University has removed the word Israeli from its “Couscous Salad with Spinach and Tomatoes” dish. 

The X account LibsofTikTok posted a before and after picture. 

SCOOP: This week @Yale changed the name of a popular food item in their dining halls which has been on the menu for years. It’s called “Israeli Couscous Salad” and they removed the word “Israeli.” Why would they do that?

Here’s the before and after: pic.twitter.com/PNhz3zB17k

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 12, 2023

Yale University student Sahar Tartak confirmed on X that the omission occurred. 

”Imagine returning to your dining hall to find that salad labels were renamed to remove mention of the salads being “Israeli.” That happened at Yale this week,” she wrote. “It’s the subtle changes and redactions that are the most pernicious.”

Imagine returning to your dining hall to find that salad labels were renamed to remove mention of the salads being “Israeli.” That happened at Yale this week. It’s the subtle changes and redactions that are the most pernicious.

— Sahar Tartak🇮🇱 (@sahar_tartak) December 12, 2023

Campus Reform reached out to Yale University to confirm whether dining staff had swapped out the grains or relabeled the same food. As Tablet reports, couscous and Israeli couscous differ in size, texture, and production method. 

Yale has neither responded to Campus Reform’s request for comment nor confirmed that its dining staff swapped out the grains in the dish to make the new label factually accurate. 

Earlier this semester, Yale Daily News erroneously edited Tartak’s op-ed to refute her claims that Hamas had raped women and beheaded men. Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Zachary Marschall analyzed anti-Semitism at Yale in an editorial after the student newspaper retracted the false information.