An Israeli newspaper has found itself the target of widespread social media mockery after describing shawarma, a popular street food all over the world, as “Israeli.” RT asked Israelis how they felt about this bold statement.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper sparked accusations of cultural appropriation and unscrupulous thievery after running a story that classified shawarma – the thinly sliced meat that is stacked in a cone-like shape on a vertical rotisserie – as an “iconic Israeli street food.”

Social media users had a hard time stomaching the article, arguing that calling shawarma Israeli was like claiming pizza came from New York. Some internet sleuths even dug through the papers’ archives to reveal that, in a previous article, Haaretz stated that shawarma “arrived to the levant via the Ottoman Empire.”

Israelis interviewed by RT showed support for the notion that shawarma was Israeli, with some seemingly arguing that regardless of where shawarma originates, Israel does it best.

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