Israel and Iran: A love story?
-
0:01 - 0:03On March 14, this year,
-
0:03 - 0:06I posted this poster on Facebook.
-
0:06 - 0:09This is an image of me and my daughter
-
0:09 - 0:11holding the Israeli flag.
-
0:12 - 0:15I will try to explain to you about the context of why
-
0:15 - 0:17and when I posted.
-
0:17 - 0:20A few days ago, I was sitting waiting
-
0:20 - 0:23on the line at the grocery store,
-
0:23 - 0:26and the owner and one of the clients
-
0:26 - 0:28were talking to each other,
-
0:28 - 0:30and the owner was explaining to the client
-
0:30 - 0:33that we're going to get 10,000 missiles on Israel.
-
0:33 - 0:38And the client was saying, no, it's 10,000 a day.
-
0:38 - 0:40(Laughter)
-
0:40 - 0:45("10,000 missiles") This is the context. This is where we are now in Israel.
-
0:45 - 0:49We have this war with Iran coming for 10 years now,
-
0:49 - 0:52and we have people, you know, afraid.
-
0:52 - 0:56It's like every year it's the last minute
-
0:56 - 0:58that we can do something about the war with Iran.
-
0:58 - 1:02It's like, if we don't act now, it's too late forever,
-
1:02 - 1:04for 10 years now.
-
1:04 - 1:07So at some point it became, you know, to me,
-
1:07 - 1:10I'm a graphic designer, so I made posters about it
-
1:10 - 1:14and I posted the one I just showed you before.
-
1:14 - 1:17Most of the time, I make posters, I post them on Facebook,
-
1:17 - 1:19my friends like it, don't like it,
-
1:19 - 1:20most of the time don't like it, don't share it,
-
1:20 - 1:22don't nothing,
-
1:22 - 1:24and it's another day.
-
1:24 - 1:28So I went to sleep, and that was it for me.
-
1:28 - 1:31And later on in the night, I woke up
-
1:31 - 1:33because I'm always waking up in the night,
-
1:33 - 1:36and I went by the computer and I see all these red dots,
-
1:36 - 1:39you know, on Facebook, which I've never seen before.
-
1:39 - 1:40(Laughter)
-
1:40 - 1:42And I was like, "What's going on?"
-
1:42 - 1:46So I come to the computer and I start looking on,
-
1:46 - 1:49and suddenly I see many people talking to me,
-
1:49 - 1:51most of them I don't know,
-
1:51 - 1:54and a few of them from Iran,
-
1:54 - 1:57which is -- What?
-
1:57 - 2:00Because you have to understand,
-
2:00 - 2:04in Israel we don't talk with people from Iran.
-
2:04 - 2:06We don't know people from Iran.
-
2:06 - 2:10It's like, on Facebook, you have friends only from --
-
2:10 - 2:13it's like your neighbors are your friends on Facebook.
-
2:13 - 2:16And now people from Iran are talking to me.
-
2:16 - 2:20So I start answering this girl, and she's telling me
-
2:20 - 2:24she saw the poster and she asked her family to come,
-
2:24 - 2:26because they don't have a computer, she asked her family
-
2:26 - 2:31to come to see the poster, and they're all sitting in the living room crying.
-
2:31 - 2:32So I'm like, whoa.
-
2:32 - 2:36I ask my wife to come, and I tell her, you have to see that.
-
2:36 - 2:39People are crying, and she came, she read the text,
-
2:39 - 2:41and she started to cry.
-
2:41 - 2:44And everybody's crying now. (Laughter)
-
2:44 - 2:47So I don't know what to do, so my first reflex,
-
2:47 - 2:50as a graphic designer, is, you know, to show everybody
-
2:50 - 2:54what I'd just seen, and people started to see them
-
2:54 - 2:57and to share them, and that's how it started.
-
2:57 - 3:00The day after, when really it became a lot of talking,
-
3:00 - 3:02I said to myself, and my wife said to me,
-
3:02 - 3:04I also want a poster,
-
3:04 - 3:07so this is her. (Laughter)
-
3:07 - 3:12Because it's working, put me in a poster now.
-
3:12 - 3:15But more seriously, I was like, okay, these ones work,
-
3:15 - 3:19but it's not just about me, it's about people from Israel
-
3:19 - 3:19who want to say something.
-
3:19 - 3:22So I'm going to shoot all the people I know, if they want,
-
3:22 - 3:24and I'm going to put them in a poster and I'm going to share them.
-
3:24 - 3:28So I went to my neighbors and friends and students
-
3:28 - 3:32and I just asked them, give me a picture, I will make you a poster.
-
3:32 - 3:35And that's how it started. And that's how, really,
-
3:35 - 3:38it's unleashed, because suddenly people
-
3:38 - 3:41from Facebook, friends and others,
-
3:41 - 3:44just understand that they can be part of it.
-
3:44 - 3:46It's not just one dude making one poster,
-
3:46 - 3:49it's -- we can be part of it, so they start sending me pictures
-
3:49 - 3:52and ask me, "Make me a poster. Post it.
-
3:52 - 3:56Tell the Iranians we from Israel love you too."
-
3:56 - 4:00It became, you know, at some point it was really, really intense.
-
4:00 - 4:04I mean, so many pictures, so I asked friends
-
4:04 - 4:07to come, graphic designers most of them,
-
4:07 - 4:10to make posters with me, because I didn't have the time.
-
4:10 - 4:12It was a huge amount of pictures.
-
4:12 - 4:16So for a few days, that's how my living room was.
-
4:16 - 4:20And we received Israeli posters, Israeli images,
-
4:20 - 4:25but also lots of comments, lots of messages from Iran.
-
4:25 - 4:29And we took these messages and we made posters out of it,
-
4:29 - 4:32because I know people: They don't read, they see images.
-
4:32 - 4:35If it's an image, they may read it.
-
4:35 - 4:38So here are a few of them.
-
4:38 - 4:40("You are my first Israelian friend. I wish we both get rid of our idiot politicians, anyway nice to see you!")
-
4:40 - 4:43("I love that blue. I love that star. I love that flag.") This one is really moving for me because it's the story
-
4:43 - 4:47of a girl who has been raised in Iran
-
4:47 - 4:53to walk on an Israeli flag to enter her school every morning,
-
4:53 - 4:56and now that she sees the posters that we're sending,
-
4:56 - 4:59she starts -- she said that she changed her mind,
-
4:59 - 5:02and now she loves that blue, she loves that star,
-
5:02 - 5:04and she loves that flag, talking about the Israeli flag,
-
5:04 - 5:08and she wished that we'd meet and come to visit one another,
-
5:08 - 5:13and just a few days after I posted the first poster.
-
5:13 - 5:16The day after,
-
5:16 - 5:18Iranians started to respond with their own posters.
-
5:18 - 5:22They have graphic designers. What? (Laughter)
-
5:22 - 5:24Crazy, crazy.
-
5:24 - 5:28So you can see they are still shy, they don't want to show their faces,
-
5:28 - 5:29but they want to spread the message.
-
5:29 - 5:31They want to respond. They want to say the same thing.
-
5:31 - 5:35So. And now it's communication.
-
5:35 - 5:38It's a two-way story. It's Israelis and Iranians
-
5:38 - 5:41sending the same message, one to each other.
-
5:41 - 5:42("My Israeli Friends. I don't hate you. I don't want War.")
-
5:42 - 5:47This never happened before, and this is two people
-
5:47 - 5:49supposed to be enemies, we're on the verge of a war,
-
5:49 - 5:52and suddenly people on Facebook are starting to say,
-
5:52 - 5:56"I like this guy. I love those guys."
-
5:56 - 6:01And it became really big at some point.
-
6:01 - 6:04And then it became news.
-
6:04 - 6:08Because when you're seeing the Middle East, you see only the bad news.
-
6:08 - 6:10And suddenly, there is something that was happening
-
6:10 - 6:13that was good news. So the guys on the news,
-
6:13 - 6:15they say, "Okay, let's talk about this."
-
6:15 - 6:18And they just came, and it was so much,
-
6:18 - 6:21I remember one day, Michal,
-
6:21 - 6:23she was talking with the journalist, and she was asking him,
-
6:23 - 6:27"Who's gonna see the show?"And he said, "Everybody."
-
6:27 - 6:33So she said, "Everybody in Palestine, in where? Israel?
-
6:33 - 6:36Who is everybody?""Everybody."
-
6:36 - 6:37They said, "Syria?" "Syria."
-
6:37 - 6:39"Lebanon?""Lebanon."
-
6:39 - 6:43At some point, he just said, "40 million people are going to see you today.
-
6:43 - 6:46It's everybody." The Chinese.
-
6:46 - 6:52And we were just at the beginning of the story.
-
6:52 - 6:54Something crazy also happened.
-
6:54 - 6:57Every time a country started talking about it,
-
6:57 - 7:00like Germany, America, wherever,
-
7:00 - 7:06a page on Facebook popped up with the same logo
-
7:06 - 7:07with the same stories, so at the beginning
-
7:07 - 7:11we had "Iran-Loves-Israel," which is an Iranian
-
7:11 - 7:16sitting in Tehran, saying, "Okay, Israel loves Iran?
-
7:16 - 7:18I give you Iran-Loves-Israel."
-
7:18 - 7:20You have Palestine-Loves-Israel.
-
7:20 - 7:22You have Lebanon that just -- a few days ago.
-
7:22 - 7:26And this whole list of pages on Facebook
-
7:26 - 7:28dedicated to the same message,
-
7:28 - 7:34to people sending their love, one to each other.
-
7:34 - 7:37The moment I really understood that something was happening,
-
7:37 - 7:40a friend of mine told me,
-
7:40 - 7:42"Google the word 'Israel.'"
-
7:42 - 7:46And those were the first images on those days
-
7:46 - 7:48that popped up from Google
-
7:48 - 7:51when you were typing, "Israel" or "Iran."
-
7:51 - 7:56We really changed how people see the Middle East.
-
7:56 - 7:58Because you're not in the Middle East.
-
7:58 - 8:00You're somewhere over there, and then you want to see the Middle East,
-
8:00 - 8:01so you go on Google and you say, "Israel,"
-
8:01 - 8:03and they give you the bad stuff.
-
8:03 - 8:07And for a few days you got those images.
-
8:07 - 8:10Today the Israel-Loves-Iran page
-
8:10 - 8:15is this number, 80,831, and two million people last week
-
8:15 - 8:18went on the page and shared, liked, I don't know,
-
8:18 - 8:21commented on one of the photos.
-
8:21 - 8:25So for five months now, that's what we are doing,
-
8:25 - 8:30me, Michal, a few of my friends, are just making images.
-
8:30 - 8:32We're showing a new reality
-
8:32 - 8:34by just making images
-
8:34 - 8:37because that's how the world perceives us.
-
8:37 - 8:40They see images of us, and they see bad images.
-
8:40 - 8:45So we're working on making good images. End of story.
-
8:45 - 8:50Look at this one. This is the Iran-Loves-Israel page.
-
8:50 - 8:53This is not the Israel-Loves-Iran. This is not my page.
-
8:53 - 8:56This is a guy in Tehran on the day of remembrance
-
8:56 - 8:59of the Israeli fallen soldier
-
8:59 - 9:03putting an image of an Israeli soldier on his page.
-
9:03 - 9:06This is the enemy.
-
9:06 - 9:08What?
-
9:08 - 9:10("Our heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their dearests in terror attack in Bulgaria")
-
9:10 - 9:12And it's going both ways.
-
9:12 - 9:16It's like, we are showing respect, one to each other.
-
9:16 - 9:21And we're understanding. And you show compassion.
-
9:21 - 9:26And you become friends.
-
9:26 - 9:29And at some point, you become friends on Facebook,
-
9:29 - 9:31and you become friends in life.
-
9:31 - 9:34You can go and travel and meet people.
-
9:34 - 9:37And I was in Munich a few weeks ago.
-
9:37 - 9:41I went there to open an exposition about Iran
-
9:41 - 9:43and I met there with people from the page
-
9:43 - 9:46that told me, "Okay, you're going to be in Europe,
-
9:46 - 9:48I'm coming. I'm coming from France, from Holland,
-
9:48 - 9:51from Germany," of course, and from Israel people came,
-
9:51 - 9:55and we just met there for the first time in real life.
-
9:55 - 10:00I met with people that are supposed to be my enemies
-
10:00 - 10:03for the first time. And we just shake hands,
-
10:03 - 10:05and have a coffee and a nice discussion,
-
10:05 - 10:07and we talk about food and basketball.
-
10:07 - 10:09And that was the end of it.
-
10:09 - 10:12Remember that image from the beginning?
-
10:12 - 10:20At some point we met in real life, and we became friends.
-
10:20 - 10:23And it goes the other way around.
-
10:23 - 10:26Some girl that we met on Facebook
-
10:26 - 10:29never been in Israel, born and raised in Iran,
-
10:29 - 10:32lives in Germany, afraid of Israelis
-
10:32 - 10:34because of what she knows about us,
-
10:34 - 10:38decides after a few months of talking on the Internet
-
10:38 - 10:41with some Israelis to come to Israel,
-
10:41 - 10:46and she gets on the plane and arrives at Ben Gurion
-
10:46 - 10:52and says, "Okay, not that big a deal."
-
10:52 - 10:55So a few weeks ago, the stress is getting higher,
-
10:55 - 10:58so we start this new campaign
-
10:58 - 11:01called "Not ready to die in your war."
-
11:01 - 11:04I mean, it's plus/minus the same message,
-
11:04 - 11:08but we wanted really to add some aggressivity to it.
-
11:08 - 11:11And again, something amazing happened,
-
11:11 - 11:14something that we didn't have on the first wave of the campaign.
-
11:14 - 11:18Now people from Iran, the same ones who were shy
-
11:18 - 11:20at the first campaign and just sent, you know,
-
11:20 - 11:22their foot and half their faces,
-
11:22 - 11:25now they're sending their faces, and they're saying,
-
11:25 - 11:34"Okay, no problem, we're into it. We are with you."
-
11:34 - 11:37Just read where those guys are from.
-
11:37 - 11:40And for every guy from Israel,
-
11:40 - 11:43you've got someone from Iran.
-
11:51 - 11:54Just people sending their pictures.
-
12:11 - 12:13Crazy, yes?
-
12:13 - 12:15So --
-
12:15 - 12:23(Applause)
-
12:24 - 12:32So you may ask yourself, who is this dude?
-
12:32 - 12:35My name is Ronny Edry, and I'm 41, I'm an Israeli,
-
12:35 - 12:40I'm a father of two, I'm a husband,
-
12:40 - 12:45and I'm a graphic designer. I'm teaching graphic design.
-
12:45 - 12:48And I'm not that naive, because a lot of the time
-
12:48 - 12:52I've been asked, many times I've been asked, "Yeah, but,
-
12:52 - 12:55this is really naive, sending flowers over, I mean — "
-
12:55 - 12:59I was in the army. I was in the paratroopers for three years,
-
12:59 - 13:02and I know how it looks from the ground.
-
13:02 - 13:07I know how it can look really bad.
-
13:07 - 13:11So to me, this is the courageous thing to do,
-
13:11 - 13:14to try to reach the other side before it's too late,
-
13:14 - 13:16because when it's going to be too late, it's going to be too late.
-
13:16 - 13:21And sometimes war is inevitable, sometimes,
-
13:21 - 13:25but maybe [with] effort, we can avoid it.
-
13:25 - 13:28Maybe as people, because especially in Israel,
-
13:28 - 13:32we're in a democracy. We have the freedom of speech,
-
13:32 - 13:35and maybe that little thing can change something.
-
13:35 - 13:39And really, we can be our own ambassadors.
-
13:39 - 13:46We can just send a message and hope for the best.
-
13:46 - 13:48So I want to ask Michal, my wife, to come with me
-
13:48 - 13:53on the stage just to make with you one image,
-
13:53 - 13:55because it's all about images.
-
13:55 - 14:00And maybe that image will help us change something.
-
14:00 - 14:03Just raise that. Exactly.
-
14:03 - 14:06And I'm just going to take a picture of it,
-
14:06 - 14:09and I'm just going to post it on Facebook
-
14:09 - 14:14with kind of "Israelis for peace" or something.
-
14:17 - 14:19Oh my God.
-
14:19 - 14:22Don't cry.
-
14:22 - 14:23Thank you guys.
-
14:23 - 14:35(Applause)
- Title:
- Israel and Iran: A love story?
- Speaker:
- Ronny Edry
- Description:
-
When war between Israel and Iran seemed imminent, Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry shared a poster on Facebook of himself and his daughter with a bold message: "Iranians ... we [heart] you." Other Israelis quickly created their own posters with the same message -- and Iranians responded in kind. The simple act of communication inspired surprising Facebook communities like "Israel loves Iran," "Iran loves Israel" and even "Palestine loves Israel."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:57
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Israel and Iran: A love story? |