Israel and Iran: A love story?

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Prevodilac: Boško Eraković Lektor: Andrea Jovanovic

On March 14, this year,

14. marta ove godine,

I posted this poster on Facebook.

okačio sam ovaj poster na svom Fejsbuk profilu.

This is an image of me and my daughter

Ovo je slika mene i moje ćerke

holding the Israeli flag.

kako držimo izraelsku zastavu.

I will try to explain to you about the context of why

Pokušaću da vam objasnim kontekst razloga

and when I posted.

i vremena kad sam ga okačio.

A few days ago, I was sitting waiting

Pre nekoliko dana, čekao sam

on the line at the grocery store,

u redu u prodavnici,

and the owner and one of the clients

a vlasnik i jedan od klijenata

were talking to each other,

su pričali

and the owner was explaining to the client

i vlasnik je objašnjavao klijentu

that we're going to get 10,000 missiles on Israel.

da ćemo poslati 10.000 projektila na Izrael.

And the client was saying, no, it's 10,000 a day.

Klijent je govorio: "Ne, već 10.000 na dan."

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

("10,000 missiles") This is the context. This is where we are now in Israel.

("10.000 projektila") Ovo je kontekst. Mi smo sada ovde u Izraelu.

We have this war with Iran coming for 10 years now,

Imamo taj rat sa Iranom koji se priprema već 10 godina

and we have people, you know, afraid.

i imamo ljude koji su uplašeni.

It's like every year it's the last minute

Kao da je svake godine poslednji trenutak

that we can do something about the war with Iran.

da preduzmemo nešto povodom rata sa Iranom.

It's like, if we don't act now, it's too late forever,

Ukoliko sad nešto ne preduzmemo, kasno je zauvek

for 10 years now.

i tako već 10 godina.

So at some point it became, you know, to me,

U jednom trenutku sam odlučio da preduzmem nešto,

I'm a graphic designer, so I made posters about it

ja sam grafički dizajner i napravio sam postere o tome

and I posted the one I just showed you before.

i postavio sam onaj koji sam vam već pokazao.

Most of the time, I make posters, I post them on Facebook,

Većinu vremena pravim postere i postavljam ih na Fejsbuk,

my friends like it, don't like it,

mojim prijateljima se ili sviđaju ili ne,

most of the time don't like it, don't share it,

uglavnom im se ne sviđaju, ne dele ih,

don't nothing,

ništa ne rade

and it's another day.

i svane novi dan.

So I went to sleep, and that was it for me.

Otišao sam na spavanje i to je bilo to što se mene tiče.

And later on in the night, I woke up

Probudio sam se tokom noći,

because I'm always waking up in the night,

uvek se budim tokom noći

and I went by the computer and I see all these red dots,

i otišao sam do kompjutera i video sve te crvene tačke

you know, on Facebook, which I've never seen before.

na Fejsbuku, koje nikad ranije nisam video.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And I was like, "What's going on?"

Pitao sam se: "Šta se dešava?"

So I come to the computer and I start looking on,

prišao sam kompjuteru i počeo pregledati

and suddenly I see many people talking to me,

i odjednom sam video mnoge ljude kako pričaju sa mnom,

most of them I don't know,

većinu nisam poznavao,

and a few of them from Iran,

i nekoliko njih iz Irana

which is -- What?

što je - šta?

Because you have to understand,

Morate da shvatite,

in Israel we don't talk with people from Iran.

mi u Izraelu ne pričamo sa ljudima iz Irana.

We don't know people from Iran.

Ne pozanjemo ljude iz Irana.

It's like, on Facebook, you have friends only from --

Na Fejsbuku, imate prijatelje samo iz -

it's like your neighbors are your friends on Facebook.

prijatelji su vam komšije.

And now people from Iran are talking to me.

A sad ljudi iz Irana pričaju sa mnom.

So I start answering this girl, and she's telling me

I tako ja počnem da odgovaram jednoj devojci, a ona mi govori

she saw the poster and she asked her family to come,

kako je videla poster i kako je zamolila svoju porodicu da dođu,

because they don't have a computer, she asked her family

jer oni nemaju kompjuter, zamolila ih je

to come to see the poster, and they're all sitting in the living room crying.

da dođu da vide poster i oni svi sede u dnevnoj sobi i plaču.

So I'm like, whoa.

Bio sam zaprepašten.

I ask my wife to come, and I tell her, you have to see that.

Pozvao sam svoju ženu da dođe i rekao joj da mora da vidi to.

People are crying, and she came, she read the text,

Ljudi plaču i ona je došla, pročitala tekst

and she started to cry.

i takođe počela da plače.

And everybody's crying now. (Laughter)

Odjednom svi plaču. (Smeh)

So I don't know what to do, so my first reflex,

Nisam znao šta da radim, moja prva reakcija,

as a graphic designer, is, you know, to show everybody

kao grafičkog dizajnera je da pokažem svima

what I'd just seen, and people started to see them

šta sam upravo video i ljudi su to videli

and to share them, and that's how it started.

i počeli da dele i tako je sve počelo.

The day after, when really it became a lot of talking,

Dan posle, kada se već mnogo pričalo o tome,

I said to myself, and my wife said to me,

rekao sam sebi i supruga mi je rekla,

I also want a poster,

ja takođe želim poster,

so this is her. (Laughter)

ovo je ona. (Smeh)

Because it's working, put me in a poster now.

Pošto ima efekta, stavi me sad na poster.

But more seriously, I was like, okay, these ones work,

Šalu na stranu, shvatio sam, OK, ovi su upalili,

but it's not just about me, it's about people from Israel

ali nisam samo ja u pitanju, već i ljudi iz Izraela

who want to say something.

koji žele da kažu nešto.

So I'm going to shoot all the people I know, if they want,

I zato ću da slikam sve ljude koje znam, ako žele,

and I'm going to put them in a poster and I'm going to share them.

staviću ih na poster i podeliću to sa svima.

So I went to my neighbors and friends and students

Otišao sam kod komšija, prijatelja i studenata

and I just asked them, give me a picture, I will make you a poster.

i pitao sam ih da mi dozvole da ih slikam a ja ću im napraviti poster.

And that's how it started. And that's how, really,

I tako je počelo. I tako je, zapravo,

it's unleashed, because suddenly people

zaživelo, jer su odjednom ljudi

from Facebook, friends and others,

sa Fejsbuka, prijatelji i drugi,

just understand that they can be part of it.

shvatili da mogu da budu deo toga.

It's not just one dude making one poster,

Nije to samo neki lik koji pravi poster,

it's -- we can be part of it, so they start sending me pictures

već - možemo da učestvujemo i počeli su mi slati slike

and ask me, "Make me a poster. Post it.

moleći me: "Napravite meni jedan poster. Podelite ga.

Tell the Iranians we from Israel love you too."

Poručite Irancima da ih mi iz Izraela takođe volimo."

It became, you know, at some point it was really, really intense.

U jednom trenutku bilo je zaista, zaista naporno.

I mean, so many pictures, so I asked friends

Toliko slika, pa sam zamolio prijatelje

to come, graphic designers most of them,

da dođu, takođe grafičke dizajnere većinom,

to make posters with me, because I didn't have the time.

i da prave postere sa mnom, jer ja nisam imao vremena.

It was a huge amount of pictures.

Bila je to ogromna količina slika.

So for a few days, that's how my living room was.

Tako je izgledala moja soba nekoliko dana.

And we received Israeli posters, Israeli images,

Dobijali smo izraelske postere, slike,

but also lots of comments, lots of messages from Iran.

ali i dosta komentara i poruka iz Irana.

And we took these messages and we made posters out of it,

Napravili smo postere i od tih poruka,

because I know people: They don't read, they see images.

jer znam ljude: oni ne čitaju, oni vide slike.

If it's an image, they may read it.

Ako je slika, možda će je i pročitati.

So here are a few of them.

Pa evo nekoliko postera.

("You are my first Israelian friend. I wish we both get rid of our idiot politicians, anyway nice to see you!")

("Ti si moj prvi prijatelj Izraelac. Želim da se obojica rešimo naših idiota političara, kako god, bilo mi je drago!")

("I love that blue. I love that star. I love that flag.") This one is really moving for me because it's the story

("Volim tu plavu. Volim tu zvezdu. Volim tu zastavu.") Ovaj je posebno emotivan za mene jer je priča

of a girl who has been raised in Iran

o devojci koja je vaspitana u Iranu

to walk on an Israeli flag to enter her school every morning,

da gazi po izraelskoj zastavi svakog jutra pri ulasku u školu,

and now that she sees the posters that we're sending,

a sada kada je videla naše postere,

she starts -- she said that she changed her mind,

rekla mi je da je promenila mišljenje

and now she loves that blue, she loves that star,

i sada voli tu plavu boju, tu zvezdu

and she loves that flag, talking about the Israeli flag,

i voli tu zastavu, misleći na izraelsku zastavu,

and she wished that we'd meet and come to visit one another,

poželela je da se sretnemo i posetimo

and just a few days after I posted the first poster.

i to samo nekoliko dana pošto sam postavio prvi poster.

The day after,

Dan posle,

Iranians started to respond with their own posters.

Iranci su počeli da odgovaraju svojim posterima.

They have graphic designers. What? (Laughter)

Imaju grafičke dizajnere. Šta? (Smeh)

Crazy, crazy.

Ludo, ludo.

So you can see they are still shy, they don't want to show their faces,

Kao što vidite, još uvek su stidljivi, ne žele da pokažu svoja lica,

but they want to spread the message.

ali žele da šire poruku.

They want to respond. They want to say the same thing.

Žele da odgovore. Žele da poruče istu stvar.

So. And now it's communication.

I sada je to komunikacija.

It's a two-way story. It's Israelis and Iranians

Dvostrana priča. Izraelci i Iranci

sending the same message, one to each other.

šalju istu poruku jedni drugima.

("My Israeli Friends. I don't hate you. I don't want War.")

("Moji izraelski prijatelji. Ne mrzim vas. Ne želim rat.")

This never happened before, and this is two people

Ovo se nikad ranije nije desilo, a radi se o ljudima

supposed to be enemies, we're on the verge of a war,

koji bi trebalo da budu neprijatelji, na ivici smo rata

and suddenly people on Facebook are starting to say,

i odjednom ljudi na Fejsbuku počinju da govore:

"I like this guy. I love those guys."

"Sviđa mi se ovaj čovek. Sviđaju mi se ti ljudi."

And it became really big at some point.

I postalo je zaista veliko u jednom trenutku.

And then it became news.

A onda je postalo vest.

Because when you're seeing the Middle East, you see only the bad news.

Kada gledate Srednji Istok, vidite samo loše vesti.

And suddenly, there is something that was happening

I odjednom se dešavalo nešto

that was good news. So the guys on the news,

što je dobra vest. Ljudi na vestima kažu:

they say, "Okay, let's talk about this."

"OK, hajde da pričamo o ovome."

And they just came, and it was so much,

I jednostavno su došli, nije baš bilo lako.

I remember one day, Michal,

Sećam se jednog dana,

she was talking with the journalist, and she was asking him,

Mihal je pričala sa novinarom i pitala ga je:

"Who's gonna see the show?"And he said, "Everybody."

"Ko će sve videti emisiju?" A on je odgovorio: "Svi."

So she said, "Everybody in Palestine, in where? Israel?

Na to ga ona pita: "Svi u Palestini ili gde? Izraelu?

Who is everybody?""Everybody."

Ko su ti svi?" "Svi."

They said, "Syria?" "Syria."

"Sirija?" "Sirija."

"Lebanon?""Lebanon."

"Liban?" "Liban."

At some point, he just said, "40 million people are going to see you today.

U jednom trenutku je samo rekao: "40 miliona ljudi će vas gledati danas.

It's everybody." The Chinese.

To su ti svi." Kinezi.

And we were just at the beginning of the story.

A tek smo na početku priče.

Something crazy also happened.

Nešto ludo se takođe desilo.

Every time a country started talking about it,

Svaki put kada bi neka zemlja počela pričati o tome,

like Germany, America, wherever,

kao Nemačka, Amerika, koja god,

a page on Facebook popped up with the same logo

nova stranica bi osvanula na Fejsbuku sa istim logom

with the same stories, so at the beginning

istim pričama, tako da smo na početku

we had "Iran-Loves-Israel," which is an Iranian

imali "Iran-voli-Izrael", što je iranski odgovor

sitting in Tehran, saying, "Okay, Israel loves Iran?

iz Teherana koji kaže: "OK, Izrael voli Iran?

I give you Iran-Loves-Israel."

Dajem vam Iran-voli-Izrael".

You have Palestine-Loves-Israel.

Imate i Palestina-voli-Izrael.

You have Lebanon that just -- a few days ago.

Imate i Liban, to je od pre samo nekoliko dana.

And this whole list of pages on Facebook

I čitavu listu stranica na Fejsbuku

dedicated to the same message,

posvećenih istoj poruci,

to people sending their love, one to each other.

ljudima koji šalju poruke ljubavi jedni drugima.

The moment I really understood that something was happening,

Trenutak kad sam stvarno shvatio da se nešto dešava,

a friend of mine told me,

prijatelj mi je rekao,

"Google the word 'Israel.'"

"Izguglaj reč 'Izrael'."

And those were the first images on those days

To su bile prve slike koje su tih dana

that popped up from Google

bile rezultat Gugl pretrage

when you were typing, "Israel" or "Iran."

kad ste ukucali: "Izrael" ili "Iran".

We really changed how people see the Middle East.

Zaista smo promenili način na koji ljudi doživljavaju Srednji Istok.

Because you're not in the Middle East.

Jer vi niste na Bliskom Istoku.

You're somewhere over there, and then you want to see the Middle East,

Vi ste negde tamo i želite da vidite Bliski Istok,

so you go on Google and you say, "Israel,"

odete na Gugl i napišete: "Izrael"

and they give you the bad stuff.

i daju vam sve najgore stvari.

And for a few days you got those images.

I nekoliko dana biste imali te slike u glavi.

Today the Israel-Loves-Iran page

Danas je Izrael-voli-Iran stranica

is this number, 80,831, and two million people last week

koja broji 80.831 člana i dva miliona ljudi je prošle nedelje

went on the page and shared, liked, I don't know,

posetilo stranicu i šerovalo, lajkovalo, ne znam ni sam,

commented on one of the photos.

komentarisalo neku od slika.

So for five months now, that's what we are doing,

To je ono što radimo već pet meseci,

me, Michal, a few of my friends, are just making images.

ja, Mihal, nekoliko prijatelja, jednostavno pravimo slike.

We're showing a new reality

Pokazujemo novu realnost

by just making images

prosto praveći slike

because that's how the world perceives us.

jer nas na taj način svet zapaža.

They see images of us, and they see bad images.

Vide slike nas i vide loše slike.

So we're working on making good images. End of story.

Mi radimo na stvaranju dobrih slika. Kraj priče.

Look at this one. This is the Iran-Loves-Israel page.

Pogledajte ovu. Ovo je Iran-voli-Izrael stranica.

This is not the Israel-Loves-Iran. This is not my page.

Ovo nije Izrael-voli-Iran. Nije moja stranica.

This is a guy in Tehran on the day of remembrance

Ovo je čovek u Teheranu koji na dan sećanja

of the Israeli fallen soldier

na pale izraelske vojnike

putting an image of an Israeli soldier on his page.

stavlja sliku izraelskog vojnika na svoju stranicu.

This is the enemy.

Ovo je neprijatelj.

What?

Šta?

("Our heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their dearests in terror attack in Bulgaria")

("Naše najiskrenije saučešće porodicama koje su izgubile svoje najdraže u terorističkom napadu u Bugarskoj")

And it's going both ways.

I obostrano je.

It's like, we are showing respect, one to each other.

To je zapravo međusobno iskazivanje poštovanja.

And we're understanding. And you show compassion.

Razumevanja. Samilosti.

And you become friends.

I postajete prijatelji.

And at some point, you become friends on Facebook,

U jednom trenutku se sprijateljite na Fejsbuku

and you become friends in life.

i postanete prijatelji i uživo.

You can go and travel and meet people.

Možete da putujete i upoznajete ljude.

And I was in Munich a few weeks ago.

Bio sam u Minhenu pre nekoliko nedelja.

I went there to open an exposition about Iran

Otišao sam da otvorim izložbu o Iranu

and I met there with people from the page

i sreo sam se tamo sa ljudima sa stranice

that told me, "Okay, you're going to be in Europe,

koji su mi rekli: "OK, bićete u Evropi, dolazim.

I'm coming. I'm coming from France, from Holland,

Dolazim iz Francuske, Holandije, Nemačke."

from Germany," of course, and from Israel people came,

Naravno, došli su i ljudi iz Izraela

and we just met there for the first time in real life.

i sreli smo se uživo prvi put u životu.

I met with people that are supposed to be my enemies

Sreo sam se sa ljudima koji bi trebalo da mi budu neprijatelji,

for the first time. And we just shake hands,

prvi put. Rukovali smo se,

and have a coffee and a nice discussion,

popili kafu i imali lepu diskusiju,

and we talk about food and basketball.

pričali smo o hrani i košarci.

And that was the end of it.

I to je bio kraj te priče.

Remember that image from the beginning?

Sećate se one slike sa početka?

At some point we met in real life, and we became friends.

U jednom trenutku života smo se upoznali i postali prijatelji.

And it goes the other way around.

Deluje to i povratno.

Some girl that we met on Facebook

Neka devojka koju smo sreli na Fejsbuku

never been in Israel, born and raised in Iran,

koja nikad nije bila u Izraelu, rođena i odgojena u Iranu,

lives in Germany, afraid of Israelis

živi u Nemačkoj, plaši se Izraelaca

because of what she knows about us,

zbog stvari koje zna o nama,

decides after a few months of talking on the Internet

odluči nakon par meseci priče preko interneta

with some Israelis to come to Israel,

sa nekim Izraelcima, da dođe u Izrael,

and she gets on the plane and arrives at Ben Gurion

ukrcala se u avion i stigla na Ben Gurion

and says, "Okay, not that big a deal."

i rekla: "OK, mačji kašalj."

So a few weeks ago, the stress is getting higher,

Pre nekoliko nedelja, stres raste

so we start this new campaign

i pokrećemo novu kampanju

called "Not ready to die in your war."

pod imenom: "Nisam spreman da umrem u vašem ratu."

I mean, it's plus/minus the same message,

Manje-više ista poruka,

but we wanted really to add some aggressivity to it.

s tim da smo hteli da je učinimo malo agresivnijom.

And again, something amazing happened,

I opet se nešto neverovatno desilo,

something that we didn't have on the first wave of the campaign.

nešto što nismo imali tokom prvog talasa kampanje.

Now people from Iran, the same ones who were shy

Odjednom ljudi iz Irana, isti oni koji su bili stidljivi

at the first campaign and just sent, you know,

tokom prve kampanje i slali samo

their foot and half their faces,

sliku svoje noge ili pola lica

now they're sending their faces, and they're saying,

sada šalju svoja lica i govore:

"Okay, no problem, we're into it. We are with you."

"OK, nema problema, sviđa nam se. Sa vama smo:"

Just read where those guys are from.

Samo pročitajte odakle su ti ljudi.

And for every guy from Israel,

I za svakog čoveka iz Izraela

you've got someone from Iran.

imate nekoga iz Irana.

Just people sending their pictures.

Samo ljudi koji šalju svoje slike.

Crazy, yes?

Ludo, zar ne?

So --

Tako da -

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

So you may ask yourself, who is this dude?

Možete se zapitati: "Ko je ovaj lik?"

My name is Ronny Edry, and I'm 41, I'm an Israeli,

Zovem se Roni Endri, imam 41. godinu, Izraelac sam,

I'm a father of two, I'm a husband,

otac dvoje dece, muž

and I'm a graphic designer. I'm teaching graphic design.

i grafički dizajner. Predajem grafički dizajn.

And I'm not that naive, because a lot of the time

Nisam toliko naivan, jer većinu vremena

I've been asked, many times I've been asked, "Yeah, but,

su me pitali, mnogo puta: "Da, ali,

this is really naive, sending flowers over, I mean — "

ovo je zaista naivno, slati cveće -"

I was in the army. I was in the paratroopers for three years,

Bio sam u vojsci. Bio sam paravojnik tri godine

and I know how it looks from the ground.

i znam kako to izgleda.

I know how it can look really bad.

Znam da može izgledati zaista loše.

So to me, this is the courageous thing to do,

Za mene, ovo je hrabra stvar,

to try to reach the other side before it's too late,

pokušaj da dopreš do druge strane pre nego što bude kasno

because when it's going to be too late, it's going to be too late.

jer kad je kasno, nema više povratka.

And sometimes war is inevitable, sometimes,

Ponekad je rat neizbežan, ponekad,

but maybe [with] effort, we can avoid it.

ali možda uz napore, možemo da ga izbegnemo.

Maybe as people, because especially in Israel,

Možda kao narod, jer posebno u Izraelu,

we're in a democracy. We have the freedom of speech,

mi smo u demokratiji. Imamo slobodu govora

and maybe that little thing can change something.

i možda ta mala stvar može da promeni nešto.

And really, we can be our own ambassadors.

Možemo da budemo sami svoji ambasadori.

We can just send a message and hope for the best.

Možemo jednostavno da pošaljemo poruku i nadamo se najboljem.

So I want to ask Michal, my wife, to come with me

Želim da pozovem svoju suprugu, Mihal, da dođe

on the stage just to make with you one image,

na pozornicu samo da naravimo sa vama jednu sliku,

because it's all about images.

jer se sve svodi na slike.

And maybe that image will help us change something.

Možda će nam ta slika pomoći da promenimo nešto.

Just raise that. Exactly.

Podignite to. Upravo tako.

And I'm just going to take a picture of it,

Samo ću da uslikam

and I'm just going to post it on Facebook

i da okačim na Fejsbuk

with kind of "Israelis for peace" or something.

sa porukom "Izraelci za mir" ili nekom sličnom.

Oh my God.

O bože.

Don't cry.

Nemoj da plačeš.

Thank you guys.

Hvala vam ljudi.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)