The troublemakers in the flesh. (image source: http://chewandswallow.wordpress.com/)

It all started with a chickpea.

Harmless, you say? Not so, the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) retorts.

And the battle begins. If you haven’t heard about The Great Chickpea Debate that has consumed campus for the past week or so, read on. You might be confused as to what’s really being debated, what you’ll be voting on, or just what this means for your taste buds.

So let’s take a step back and look at what’s actually brought us here.

Round 1: The controversy begins with PCP’s concerns about the Strauss group, partial owner of Sabra, the company that manufactures all the hummus sold on campus. In a petition to ban Sabra hummus, PCP President Yoel Bitran ’11 writes,

Sabra is partially owned by the Strauss group, which is an Israeli company that has a history of supporting the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. The Golani brigade is known as a particularly reckless one and has been accused by human rights organizations of numerous human rights violations…The Princeton Committee on Palestine objects to the fact that Sabra is the only hummus brand that is offered in most university stores, and that students who wish to eat this traditional Arab food are forced to buy a product that is connected to human rights abuses against Arab civilians.

PCP creates this “Boycott Sabra Hummus” event on November 14 and things start to heat up.