The Spanish chef José Andrés took the lead in the emotional ceremony that said goodbye on Thursday to the seven collaborators of his NGO, World Central Kitchen (WCK), who were killed on April 1 in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip. A "mistake" - the Hebrew army argued - that caused international outrage.
"I know we all have many unanswered questions about what happened and why. There is no excuse for these murders. The official explanation is not enough. And we obviously continue to demand an investigation into the actions of the Israeli Armed Forces against our team," stated the chef from the altar, adorned with the flags of the nationalities of those murdered.
The chef already called after the attack for an independent investigation into the attack on the WCK convoy and has urged the United States, Australia, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom, countries of origin of the deceased aid workers, to join this call, although Washington He has already refused to do so.
"Food can never be a weapon of war, humanitarian workers can never be a target because they are the best of us," said José Andrés, who said that "every civilian life is sacred and should never be treated as collateral damage."
The chef began his speech by speaking one by one of the seven deceased aid workers: the Palestinian Saifeddin "Safi" Issam Ayad Abutaha; the British John Chapman; the American and Canadian Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom; the British James Henderson and James Kirby; and the Polish Damian Sobol.
On several occasions, but especially when speaking about Australia's Lalzawmi 'Zomi' Frankcom, her voice broke as she spoke and she had to hold back tears. He described her as "the living, beating, smiling heart" of everything the NGO did on the ground to distribute food in conflict zones, where no one else can reach. "She was like a sister to me," she said moved.
José Andrés stated that these losses may "seem small" compared to the almost 200 humanitarian workers who have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war or the more than 34,000 Palestinians who have lost their lives due to the Israeli offensive and the 1,200 Israelis who died in the Hamas attack on October 7.
However, he stated that each of the seven deceased collaborators on his team had a family, friends, a life and a story full of light. “Humanitarian workers can never be a target because they are the best among us,” said the chef, while warning that it is “time to end indifference” in the face of disasters like the one taking place in the Gaza Strip. .
The well-known chef was the keynote speaker at a service officiated by the Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, at the Washington National Cathedral, and by the dean of this cathedral, Randolph Marshall Hollerith, and which featured prayers, hymns and sacred readings of Muslim, Jewish and Christian tradition. The interfaith service lasted almost two hours and was attended by more than 500 people.
The chef, who is also an American citizen, has a close relationship with the current president, Joe Biden, who after the Israeli attack issued one of the strongest statements to date against the Israeli Government, accusing it of "not having done enough to protect humanitarian workers" since the start of the war.
