After almost 500 days as a hostage, Iair Horn tells me his family is struggling to return to normal. They gather for their traditional Argentinian barbecue, but they cry as they eat. They can’t stop thinking about his brother Eitan, who is still a hostage, starving somewhere underground in Gaza.
Starving our fellow human beings is meant to deny their humanity. Iair says he lost 30 kilograms (65 pounds) in weight as his captors gave him scraps to eat while feasting on full meals of chicken and rice. The tunnels, he says, are full of food.
There’s a reason why all the great religions tell us to feed the hungry. It’s what I hear around the Passover table with my Jewish friends, inviting all who are hungry to come and eat. It’s what I know from the Book of Matthew: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.”
It’s what we learn from the hadith of Imam Ahmad: “The best of you are those who feed others.”
At World Central Kitchen, the international aid group I founded, I have witnessed this truth around the world, after natural disasters and man-made catastrophes. In the worst of situations, the best of humanity shows up.
In Israel, where we have cooked and distributed more than two million meals, we have seen the best of humanity show up to feed strangers sheltering from Hezbollah and Iranian missiles. Israelis feeding families, the elderly, the sick. Rebuilding community one plate at a time.
In our kitchens in Gaza, which I visited last week, you can see the same. Palestinians feeding strangers – the young, the sick, the elderly – rebuilding community one plate at a time. They are the best of humanity, working in the very worst of situations.
These Palestinians need our support. At our kitchens in Deir-al Balah, you can see the young leaders running our teams: culinary, community outreach, supply chain and distribution. They are the kind of leaders everyone should want to see in Gaza: professional, responsible, caring for their community.
'Some people say there is no hunger in Gaza, that it’s all propaganda or lies. Hunger may be invisible, but desperate people are not. How desperately hungry do you need to be to risk your life to find food?'
Some people say there is no hunger in Gaza, that it’s all propaganda or lies. Hunger may be invisible, but desperate people are not. How desperately hungry do you need to be to risk your life to find food?
The great religions do not say we should only feed the hungry if they can prove they are starving.
Hunger in Gaza was bad before the full blockade of food and aid in March. After the blockade, despair turned into anarchy.
In recent weeks, there have been clear signs that the flow of aid trucks is improving, but we have a long, long way to go. Months of malnutrition take months of food to recover.
That’s why we have a plan to cook and distribute one million hot meals a day. Unlike bulk foods like bags of flour, hot meals are no use to looters because they are hard to resell. Besides, if you are living in a tent with no fuel or clean water, a hot meal is always better than a bag of dry rice.
I have cried listening to kibbutz families talk about what they suffered on October 7. I have cried listening to Gazans talk about losing entire families. Nobody should suffer such overwhelming grief or live in fear of massacres.
Chef José Andrés Photo: PRThere is great suffering on all sides. Everyone is grieving, or knows someone who is. We are still grieving the loss of our seven friends in an Israeli airstrike last year.
Nobody wins the competition of suffering. Peace in Northern Ireland, like peace in the Basque Country, only came when leaders were willing to stop scoring points and start seeing the humanity standing in front of them.
At a time of deep suffering, I know there is little room to care for others. But as the great Elie Wiesel said: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
It’s time to end the indifference. It’s time to prioritize the hostages like Eitan Horn. It’s time to support the best of humanity in Gaza, not just hate the worst.
Feeding strangers is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign that we are the best of humanity, living through the worst of situations.
- Chef José Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen.