Cristina Ávila-Zesatti – Peace Correspondent
Translation by Justine S. Liébana


It was the year 2000 when the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising, exploded in the battered territory of the Middle East. The Arab extremist group Hamas called for a "Day of Anger" after the death of various Palestinians in confrontations with the Israeli police on the so-called Temple Mount...

Even today the world remembers this bloody stage of a stagnant war in the Holy Land, since the first year of a new century in the West dawned with a new phase of hostilities between two ancient tribes: the Arabs and the Israelis.

Far from the violence of the political reflectors, in a formal dinner that was occurring in Positano, Italy, a new idea for the reconciliation of the Middle East was slowly being cooked up during that same year of 2000.

Kevork Alemian, a well-know chef of Armenian heritage, had been brought to Italy for the occasion, however he was not the only "great chef" on the list. At his side were four colleagues... two of Israeli heritage, and two Palestinians. 

After this trip, Kevork returned to his house in the Armenian part of Jerusalem with an idea burning in his mind: that of using his profession to demonstrate that coexistence between the cultures that clashed over the Holy Land was not completely impossible. His recent experience had proved it.

"Each of us was of a different religion, but we created a wonderful energy during that trip. It was fun, we worked together, and we invented some delectable dishes. That's why I decided to create something more organized, following a very simple idea: when people sit at a table, they coexist. So let’s cook for them; Arabs and Israelis, it doesn't matter... Let’s compel them to eat and coexist. Let’s avoid political confrontations with flavors."

Thus, Chefs for Peace, was officially born in 2001, barely a year after Kevork's original idea. The small organization was made up of four chefs at the time, coming from both sides of the conflict, externally confronting a war whose violence was ever increasing.

The Middle East: a "hot potato" for the world

Understanding and explaining the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a gallimaufry that gets more complicated each day.
This area, considered "Holy" by the three principal religions (Catholicism, Judaism and Muslim) has not known the tranquility of said mystic holiness since November of 1947 when the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) voted to divide the Palestinian territory in order to give a portion of it to Israel, which nonetheless would not be an independent State until May of 1948.

And so the hostilities began between two nation that before weren't necessarily enemies, at least not to the extent that it appears today on the television screens and in the headlines of nearly all mass media.

What is definitely true is that it was the UN that fanned the flames that it is trying to put out to this day. With only 33 (out of 57) votes in favor, Palestine was divvied up with 46% of the territory for the Arabs, and 54% for the Jews who, at that time, represented a minority in the region.

But politics has reasons that religious fervor doesn't understand:

"All the independent historians accept that the commotion following the Jewish Holocaust played a fundamental role in the UN's decision," declared the Spanish journalist Miguel Ángel Bastenier, who covered this conflict throughout the last 30 years of his career; that is, neither more nor less than half of the 60 years that the confrontation has already lasted.

Kevork Alemian, like many of the inhabitants of modern-day Jerusalem, has never known peace in this territory. Now he's 56 years old, and the optimism that he has when talking about his absolute conviction that peace in the Middle East is not only possible but that it "shall arrive... someday, somehow" is startling.

His voice is undoubtedly one of patience, the voice of someone who knows that there are things that "can only be cooked on low heat." Today, eight years after its creation, Chefs for Peace already operates with over 30 cooks, whose members have taken the message of peaceful coexistence to countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Thailand, and Japan.

"When we travel together, people can see that we--Muslims, Jews, and Christians--live together without any problem in order to produce our culinary creations... One of the requirements of our group is that all of our recipes are made by mixing ingredients from all three cultures; it's only that particular fusion of flavors that makes our dishes so special... We should achieve the same end with human beings. That's what we aim for," affirms Kevork in the interview with Peace Correspondent.

Rana Bullata, an Arab, is 38 years old and has lived in Jerusalem since she was two. She has never known peace in the Middle East either, yet she speaks of it as if she has seen it before... or perhaps she speaks that way because she has seen it, at least on a small scale, working as "the conductor" who organizes the international logistics of Chefs for Peace.

"When you live in a place like this, you have to be strong if you've decided to work for peace. It's inspiring for me to see how [the chefs] work, because I know they're afraid also, like all of us here. But when they get together, they talk and laugh and forget about whatever is going on outside, and they get to work creating delicacies in the midst of all that tension, to later take them to other countries and be able to talk about peace... I hope that the people can hear us one day as well, hear those of us who don't want conflict," says Rana.