Forget Hezbollah and Hamas. The latest chapter in the Israeli-Arab conflict is all about hummus, the chickpea dip that is a staple of American college cafeterias.

At Princeton and DePaul Universities, Palestinian students and their supporters have challenged the sale of Sabra hummus in an effort to focus attention on accusations that Israeli military forces violated human rights.

Sabra is based in Queens and Virginia, and a spokeswoman said the company had never contributed “hummus or anything else” to the Israeli military. But one of Sabra’s joint owners is the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that according to its Web site provides financial support to the Golani brigade, part of Israel’s military force. (The other joint owner is PepsiCo.)

At Princeton this week, students voted down, 1,014 to 699, a Princeton Committee on Palestine referendum calling for the student government to ask the university’s dining services for “an alternative brand of hummus in addition to Sabra.”