By Siamak Dehghanpour and Arash Karami
Washington, DC |
For
his first speech of the Persian New Year Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei warned the Israeli leaders of any strike on Iran's nuclear facilities
and said "if they make a mistake, the Islamic Republic will raze Tel Aviv
and Haifa to the ground.”
The
war of words between the two nations has become all too common but the recent
failure of nuclear negotiations in Almaty between Iran and P5+1 shows a
potential war is still an option. In the middle of this war of words, graphic
designer Ronny Edry wanted to break this cycle and spread a different message.
So he created a poster that read “Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we
love you” which had a picture of him and his daughter holding an Israeli flag.
The poster, and movement became viral, and Iranians responded in kind. The two
online campaigns became known as “Israel Loves Iran” and “Iran Loves
Israel.”
 |
| Majid Nowrouzi and Ronny Edry |
Ronny
Edry recently spoke with Voice Of America’s Persian language program Ofogh. He
said that, “we do not have a clear view about Iranians in Israel and I guess it
should be the same in Iran; I am sure Iranians have not sufficient knowledge
about Israelis either.”
In
the first anniversary of his campaign, with the help of his American friends;
Ronny, his wife, and his children decided to meet Iranian citizens Majid
Norouzi, his wife, and his children in Missouri.
Of
the hostilities between Israel and Iran Majid Norouzi who studies in Malaysia
said that “I do not need any reasons to be friend with other nations … but I do
need a reason to hate a person or a nation; I searched a lot and found nothing
to have a hostile attitude against Israel in our history; it’s the same for
America and other countries.”
Both
Ronny and Majid have decided to share the experience of meeting one another
with their online and Facebook friends. Ronny Edry said he chose this method
because “Social networks are great tools; you can be in touch with many people
with no costs; that’s great because working for peace has no money in it,
unlike working for war that has lots of money there!” Majid Norouzi added that
“We can include social networks in a new “seven wonders” of today’s world,
especially Facebook that has removed all the barriers and particularly help us
Iranians a lot because we’re being surrounded by walls of mistrust.”
Both
Ronny and Majid are very helpful about the future of their campaign and what
effect it can have. Ronny said that he wants a world “where you can get in a
train in Tel Aviv and go directly to Tehran. That’s a world that I want for my
children. A world with no war and a world that no one knows what the soldiers
are for, a world that people do not know what the fear of being attacked
means.” Majid seconded his words. He said, “I hope my children never learn what
hate means … I hope one day we can travel directly from Tehran to Tel Aviv and
to other countries around the world without any problems.”
Majid
will be attending Holocaust remembrance ceremonies in the US in a sign of
solidarity with Jewish community.
Majid and Ronny are also hoping that President
Obama hears their message of peace and grants them a meeting.
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