He was a master storyteller, and a master baby whisperer, having rocked my 7 month old to sleep in the middle of shooting our episode of @PartsUnknownCNN in #Gaza. I wasnāt sure what to expect of him, but upon first setting foot in Gaza where we met, the first thing he said to me was that he was absolutely dumbfounded at what heād witnessed in the West Bank and Jerusalem. āThat is something seriously (expletive) up. And one has to see it to believe it. I told the Israelis-you are not gonna like the cake youāre baking-itās only a matter of time before it implodes.ā He also later confided to me that the episode almost didnāt air āWe fought like hell, though, to tell the stories we didābest we could tell them and Iām, on balance pretty happy-though definite reservations. In any event, all the right people are infuriated.ā The Peabody Awards describes him best when they said āHe (was) irreverent, honest, curious, never condescending, never obsequious.ā RIP @BourdainĀ
Laila El-Haddad, author of Gaza Kitchen and Gaza Mom, who was featured in the Parts Unknown: Jerusalem episode (x)
āUnlike many journalists and foreign visitors who had crossed my path while working as a field producer, Anthony Bourdain did not once put me or anyone I introduced him to in a position to āexplainā our humanity. A man of few words, he embodied what it means to ājust be thereā and be witness to someoneās painful experience without having to provide trivial sympathies or sprinkle salt on wounds still open. [ā¦]
In Arabic we say that hearts are the homes of secrets; some secrets love to torment us and some stay with us until we die. We also say that a life that gives is a life that never ends. That is small consolation to Islam and to me and to so many others who are forever touched and changed by Anthony Bourdainās wild and daring life.
Tony, we send you love in your transition. You once confided, āI wish I didnāt have to leave all the time.ā I hope your feet find their grounding in the other realm.ā
āVivien Sansour, who was Anthony Bourdainās field coordinator and guide in Palestine, in āAnthony Bourdainās visit to Palestine changed lives,ā 2018.
