{"id":23332,"date":"2017-03-10T03:55:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T11:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23332"},"modified":"2017-03-08T13:31:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T21:31:34","slug":"creating-dialogue-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/03\/10\/creating-dialogue-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating dialogue, friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Peace Factory founders Joana Osman and Ronny Edry spoke at the University of British Columbia on Feb. 6. (photo by Zach Sagorin)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael loves Iran,\u201d \u201cPalestine loves Israel,\u201d \u201cIsrael loves Palestine,\u201d \u201cIran loves Israel & Palestine.\u201d The Peace Factory uses social media to connect people in the Middle East, to build relationships and see one another as human beings with visions of peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople may not like the idea of inclusion, the idea of welcoming everyone, but that\u2019s why we are here \u2013 to invite those people to learn about the various cultures and faiths that are around us,\u201d said Shem Arce when introducing the Active Community Dialogue (ACD) event Make a Friend, Make Peace. \u201cWith some dialogue and understanding we can create a community for everyone \u2013 no matter their religion, culture or ethnic background.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arce, a University of British Columbia film studies student from Mexico, recently began ACD with the goal of combating discrimination through meaningful, respectful dialogue and interactions.<\/p>\n

ACD\u2019s Make a Friend, Make Peace event on Feb. 6 featured a presentation from the founders of the Peace Factory: Ronny Edry, an Israeli graphic designer living in Tel Aviv, and Joana Osman, a Palestinian living in Munich. The pair also spoke at King David High School.<\/p>\n

\"image
Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry sent this poster out in 2012, when Israel was considering a preemptive strike against Iran.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UBC event drew dozens of people, and Edry showed the crowd a poster he uploaded to Facebook in 2012, when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu \u201cwas calling for preemptive strike on Iran,\u201d when \u201cit was quite stressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The graphic designer decided to send something else to Iran. He designed a brightly coloured poster with a photo of him holding his daughter and bold text declaring, \u201cIranians \/ we will never bomb your country \/ We \u2665 You.\u201d Edry told the audience that the \u201cfive first comments were \u2018delete it\u2019\u201d but, after leaving the poster online, he was surprised to find that \u201cIranians were commenting on the picture\u201d and a line of communication was created.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something works, do it again,\u201d said Edry. Soon, he added, \u201ca lot of Iranians and Israelis started having a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the security guard of the ACD event, an Iranian-Canadian man, had participated in the Peace Factory movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t know someone and you close your eyes and think of the enemy, you end up thinking of some kind of monster,\u201d said Edry. In Israel, \u201cmost of the time on the TV, they won\u2019t show you the nice people of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, after starting the \u201cIsrael loves Iran\u201d campaign, Edry received pictures from Iranians wanting to join. The movement has enabled many Iranians and Israelis to connect and build friendships online. And it continues to grow, with more than 121,000 likes and more than one million unique visitors each week to the \u201cIsrael loves Iran\u201d Facebook page and more than two million views of Edry\u2019s Ted Talk. The movement is continuing, with \u201cboth sides sharing stories and pictures of themselves,\u201d said Edry.<\/p>\n

With the success of \u201cIsrael loves Iran,\u201d Edry said people were \u201ccoming up to me and saying, \u2018Why don\u2019t you do the same campaign with the Palestinians?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after, Osman founded the group \u201cPalestine loves Israel\u201d to create a platform for Palestinians and Israelis to get to know one another through social media.<\/p>\n

Together, Edry and Osman created the Peace Factory to \u201ctry to rehumanize the [other side] and give them a face and a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osman said building these connections \u201cchanges everything because, once you make a friend on the other side, everything changes for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osman said she asked herself, \u201cAs one person what can you do?\u201d Her answer was, \u201cYou can be part of the change and you start communicating \u2026 if you can change one person\u2019s mind, that may be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThe enemy is nothing like you have in your mind \u2026 and, when you get to see his face and you see nice people,\u201d you realize \u201cthey are not that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Peace Factory\u2019s vision is of a free and democratic Middle East, and they intend to build bridges and friendships to connect people with the same vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not that we deny there is a conflict,\u201d Osman said. \u201cWe have to pay attention to it, but I strongly believe that the solution can\u2019t come from politics, it comes from people, real people connecting to each other\u2026. Once you understand the other side is a real people with real pain \u2026 you come to the conclusion we are one people, one human race, with one goal to live in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more, visit thepeacefactory.org<\/a>. Anyone interested in future ACD events can find out more at acdmovement.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zach Sagorin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Peace Factory founders Joana Osman and Ronny Edry spoke at the University of British Columbia on Feb. 6. (photo by Zach Sagorin) \u201cIsrael loves Iran,\u201d \u201cPalestine loves Israel,\u201d \u201cIsrael loves Palestine,\u201d \u201cIran loves Israel & Palestine.\u201d The Peace Factory uses social media to connect people in the Middle East, to build relationships and see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2462,4330,6817,1798,2085,2721,6818,6816,3556],"class_list":["post-23332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-joana-osman","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-peace","tag-ronny-edry","tag-shem-arce","tag-ubc"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}