Hummus for
Peace and Coexistence

“When I was a young boy growing up in Israel, I always yearned for peace and coexistence among all people,” says Yaron Semitisky, owner and founder of Olive Tree Natural Foods. “As I grew older, I began to venture out of the kibbutz where I lived in search of some good hummus. Over the years, I stumbled upon some of the very best hummus Israel has to offer. More often than not the creator of these hummus masterpieces were Arabs living in mixed communities like Acre, Jaffa, Nazareth, and Jerusalem, where Arab and Jews lived peacefully side by side. What I witnessed and experienced firsthand at these places; besides the most amazing culinary feat one could imagine, was the actual, lived “peaceful coexistence” by ordinary people from various backgrounds and cultures, enjoying fantastic hummus together, beyond all the rhetoric of politicians, leaders, and ignorant extremists on all sides.”

“And so, for me personally, hummus came to symbolize the real and undeniable possibility of peace among all nations … and since people like to sprinkle olive oil on their hummus, and the olive tree along with the white dove symbolizes PEACE, hence it became our company logo.”