On March 14, this year, I posted this poster on Facebook. This is an image of me and my daughter holding the Israeli flag. I will try to explain to you about the context of why and when I posted.
14. ožujka ove godine, objavio sam ovaj plakat na Facebooku. Ovo je slika mene i moje kćeri koja drži Izraelsku zastavu. Pokušat ću vam objasniti kontekst zašto i kada sam to objavio.
A few days ago, I was sitting waiting on the line at the grocery store, and the owner and one of the clients were talking to each other, and the owner was explaining to the client that we're going to get 10,000 missiles on Israel. And the client was saying, no, it's 10,000 a day. (Laughter)
Prije par dana, sjedio sam čekajući u redu u trgovini, vlasnik i jedan od kupaca su razgovarali, vlasnik je objašnjavao kupcu kako ćemo ispaliti 10,000 projektila na Izrael. A kupac je rekao, ne, ispaliti ćemo 10,000 na dan. (Smijeh)
("10,000 missiles") This is the context. This is where we are now in Israel. We have this war with Iran coming for 10 years now, and we have people, you know, afraid. It's like every year it's the last minute that we can do something about the war with Iran. It's like, if we don't act now, it's too late forever, for 10 years now.
("10,000 projektila") To je kontekst. To je gdje smo sada u Izraelu. Ovaj rat s Iranom dolazi već 10 godina i mi, ljudi smo, znate, uplašeni. Kao da je svake godine posljednja minuta da učinimo nešto u vezi rata s Iranom. Kao da, ako ne djelujemo sada, će biti prekasno, i tako već 10 godina.
So at some point it became, you know, to me, I'm a graphic designer, so I made posters about it and I posted the one I just showed you before. Most of the time, I make posters, I post them on Facebook, my friends like it, don't like it, most of the time don't like it, don't share it, don't nothing, and it's another day. So I went to sleep, and that was it for me. And later on in the night, I woke up because I'm always waking up in the night, and I went by the computer and I see all these red dots, you know, on Facebook, which I've never seen before. (Laughter) And I was like, "What's going on?" So I come to the computer and I start looking on, and suddenly I see many people talking to me, most of them I don't know, and a few of them from Iran, which is -- What? Because you have to understand, in Israel we don't talk with people from Iran. We don't know people from Iran. It's like, on Facebook, you have friends only from -- it's like your neighbors are your friends on Facebook. And now people from Iran are talking to me.
U jednom mi je trenutku postalo, znate, ja sam grafički dizajner, pa sam napravio plakate o tome i objavio onaj koji sam vam pokazao maloprije. Većinom napravim plakate, objavim ih na Facebooku, moji prijatelji kliknu Sviđa mi se, ne kliknu, uglavnom im se ne sviđaju, ne podjele ih, ne učine ništa i tako dođe novi dan. Otišao sam spavati i to je bilo to za mene. Ali kasnije te noći, probudio sam se jer se uvijek budim po noći i sjeo sam za kompjuter i ugledao sve one crvene točkice, znate, na Facebooku, one koje nikad prije nisam vidio. (Smijeh) I mislio sam si, "Što se događa?" I tako sam sjeo za računalo i pogledao, odjednom mi se javlja mnogo ljudi, većinu njih ne poznajem, neki od njih su iz Irana, to je -- Molim? Jer morate razumjeti, u Izraelu ne pričamo s ljudima iz Irana. Ne poznajemo ljude iz Irana. To je poput, na Facebooku, imamo prijatelje samo iz -- vaši susjedi su vam prijatelji na Facebooku. I sada ljudi iz Irana pričaju sa mnom.
So I start answering this girl, and she's telling me she saw the poster and she asked her family to come, because they don't have a computer, she asked her family to come to see the poster, and they're all sitting in the living room crying.
I tako sam počeo odgovarati toj djevojci, i ona mi kaže da je vidjela plakat i pitala obitelj da dođe, jer oni nemaju računalo, zamolila je svoju obitelj da dođu vidjeti plakat, i tako su svi sjedili u dnevnoj sobi plakajući.
So I'm like, whoa. I ask my wife to come, and I tell her, you have to see that. People are crying, and she came, she read the text, and she started to cry. And everybody's crying now. (Laughter)
Bio sam šokiran. Rekao sam svojoj ženi da dođe, i rekao joj, moraš ovo vidjeti. Ljudi plaču, došla je, pročitala je tekst i ona je počela plakati. I sad svi plaču. (Smijeh)
So I don't know what to do, so my first reflex, as a graphic designer, is, you know, to show everybody what I'd just seen, and people started to see them and to share them, and that's how it started. The day after, when really it became a lot of talking, I said to myself, and my wife said to me, I also want a poster, so this is her. (Laughter) Because it's working, put me in a poster now.
Nisam znao što da napravim, pa je moj prvi refleks, jer sam grafički dizajner, pokazati svima što sam upravo vidio, ljudi su ih vidjeli i dijelili, i tako je sve počelo. Sljedećega dana, kada se već puno pričalo o tome, rekao sam, a i moja žena isto, I ja želim plakat, ovo je ona. (Smijeh) Sada kada ovo radi, stavi i mene na plakat.
But more seriously, I was like, okay, these ones work, but it's not just about me, it's about people from Israel who want to say something. So I'm going to shoot all the people I know, if they want, and I'm going to put them in a poster and I'm going to share them.
Ali sad ozbiljnije, primijetio sam da ovo funkcionira, ali tu se ne radi o meni, tu se radi o ljudima iz Izraela koji žele nešto reći. Tako da ću uslikati sve ljude koje znam, ako oni to žele, i stavit ću ih na plakate koje ću podijeliti.
So I went to my neighbors and friends and students and I just asked them, give me a picture, I will make you a poster. And that's how it started. And that's how, really, it's unleashed, because suddenly people from Facebook, friends and others, just understand that they can be part of it. It's not just one dude making one poster, it's -- we can be part of it, so they start sending me pictures and ask me, "Make me a poster. Post it. Tell the Iranians we from Israel love you too." It became, you know, at some point it was really, really intense. I mean, so many pictures, so I asked friends to come, graphic designers most of them, to make posters with me, because I didn't have the time. It was a huge amount of pictures. So for a few days, that's how my living room was.
Tako sam otišao do susjeda i prijatelja i studenata i jednostavno ih zatražio, dajte mi sliku i ja ću vam napraviti plakat. I tako je sve počelo. Tako je, zapravo, započeto, odjednom su ljudi s Facebooka, prijatelji i ostali, shvatili da mogu biti dio toga. Ne radi se samo o jednom tipu koji je napravio jedan plakat, to je -- mi možemo biti dio toga, stoga su mi počeli slati slike i pitali me, "Napravi mi plakat. Objavi ga. Reci Irancima da ih i mi iz Izraela također volimo." Postalo je, znate, u jednom trenutku vrlo, vrlo naporno. Mislim, toliko slika, pa sam pitao prijatelje da dođu, većina njih su grafički dizajneri, i izrađuju plakate sa mnom, jer ja nisam imao dovoljno vremena. Bila je to ogromna količina slika. Tijekom par dana, ovako je izgledala moja dnevna soba.
And we received Israeli posters, Israeli images, but also lots of comments, lots of messages from Iran. And we took these messages and we made posters out of it, because I know people: They don't read, they see images. If it's an image, they may read it.
Primili smo izraelske plakate, izraelske slike, ali isto tako puno komentara, mnoštvo poruka iz Irana. Uzeli smo te poruke i napravili plakate od njih, jer znate ljude: Oni ne čitaju, oni gledaju slike. Ako je nešto slika, možda je pročitaju.
So here are a few of them.
Ovdje su prikazane neke od njih.
("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 iz Izraela. Volio bih kad bismo se oboje riješili naših idiotskih političara, u svakom slučaju, drago mi je što te vidim!")
("I love that blue. I love that star. I love that flag.") This one is really moving for me because it's the story of a girl who has been raised in Iran to walk on an Israeli flag to enter her school every morning, and now that she sees the posters that we're sending, she starts -- she said that she changed her mind, and now she loves that blue, she loves that star, and she loves that flag, talking about the Israeli flag, and she wished that we'd meet and come to visit one another, and just a few days after I posted the first poster.
("Volim tu plavu boju. Volim tu zvijezdu. Volim tu zastavu.") Ova je jako dirljiva za mene jer je to pričao djevojci koja je u Iranu odgojena da svako jutro hoda preko Izraelske zastave kako bi ušla u školu, i sada kada vidi plakate koje šaljemo, kaže -- rekla je da je promijenila mišljenje, i sada voli tu plavu boju, voli tu zvijezdu i voli tu zastavu, govoreći o izraelskoj zastavi, i želi da se nađemo, dođemo jedno drugome i upoznamo se, i to samo par dana nakon što sam objavio prvi plakat.
The day after, Iranians started to respond with their own posters. They have graphic designers. What? (Laughter) Crazy, crazy. So you can see they are still shy, they don't want to show their faces, but they want to spread the message. They want to respond. They want to say the same thing. So. And now it's communication. It's a two-way story. It's Israelis and Iranians sending the same message, one to each other.
Sljedećega dana, Iranci su počeli odgovarati svojim plakatima. I oni imaju grafičke dizajnere. Molim? (Smijeh) Ludo, ludo. Možete vidjeti kako su još stidljivi, ne žele pokazati svoja lica, ali žele poslati poruku. Žele odgovoriti. Žele reći istu stvar. To je komunikacija. To je dvosmjerna priča. Izraelci i Iranci šalju istu poruku, jedni drugima.
("My Israeli Friends. I don't hate you. I don't want War.")
("Moji Izraelski prijatelji. Ja vas ne mrzim. Ja ne želim Rat.")
This never happened before, and this is two people supposed to be enemies, we're on the verge of a war, and suddenly people on Facebook are starting to say, "I like this guy. I love those guys." And it became really big at some point.
Ovo se nikad prije nije dogodilo, ovo su dvoje ljudi koji bi trebali biti neprijatelji, mi smo na rubu rata i odjednom ljudi na Facebooku pričaju: "Sviđa mi se ovaj čovjek. Volim ove ljude." U jednom trenutku to je postala velika stvar.
And then it became news. Because when you're seeing the Middle East, you see only the bad news. And suddenly, there is something that was happening that was good news. So the guys on the news, they say, "Okay, let's talk about this." And they just came, and it was so much,
Postala je vijest. Jer kada vidite Bliski Istok, vidite samo loše vijesti. I odjednom, događalo se nešto, što su bile dobre vijesti. Tako su ljudi na vijestima rekli: "U redu, hajd'mo pričati o ovome." I jednostavno su došli, bilo je veoma,
I remember one day, Michal, she was talking with the journalist, and she was asking him, "Who's gonna see the show?"And he said, "Everybody."
sjećam se jednog dana, Michal, pričala je s novinarom, i pitala ga je, "Tko će sve vidjeti ovu emisiju?" A on je odgovorio, "Svi."
So she said, "Everybody in Palestine, in where? Israel? Who is everybody?""Everybody."
Pa je ona rekla, "Svi u Palestini, gdje? Izraelu? Tko su ti svi?" "Svi."
They said, "Syria?" "Syria."
I oni su rekli, "Sirija?" "Sirija."
"Lebanon?""Lebanon." At some point, he just said, "40 million people are going to see you today. It's everybody." The Chinese. And we were just at the beginning of the story.
"Libanon?" "Libanon." U jednom trenutku, rekao je, "40 milijuna ljudi će te vidjeti večeras. To su svi." Kinezi. A mi smo tek na početku priče.
Something crazy also happened. Every time a country started talking about it, like Germany, America, wherever, a page on Facebook popped up with the same logo with the same stories, so at the beginning we had "Iran-Loves-Israel," which is an Iranian sitting in Tehran, saying, "Okay, Israel loves Iran? I give you Iran-Loves-Israel." You have Palestine-Loves-Israel. You have Lebanon that just -- a few days ago. And this whole list of pages on Facebook dedicated to the same message, to people sending their love, one to each other.
Nešto nevjerojatno se također dogodilo. Svaki put kada bi neka država počela pričati o tome, poput Njemačke, Amerike, tkogod, na Facebooku bi iskočila stranica s istim logom i istim pričama, tako smo na početku imali "Iran-Voli-Izrael", na što je Iranac iz Teherana rekao, "U redu, Izrael voli Iran? Dajem vam Iran-Voli-Izrael." Imate Palestina-Voli-Izrael. Imate Libanon koji je-- prije par dana. Ovo je čitavi popis stranica na Facebooku posvećenih istoj poruci, ljudima koji šalju ljubav jedni drugima.
The moment I really understood that something was happening, a friend of mine told me, "Google the word 'Israel.'" And those were the first images on those days that popped up from Google when you were typing, "Israel" or "Iran." We really changed how people see the Middle East. Because you're not in the Middle East. You're somewhere over there, and then you want to see the Middle East, so you go on Google and you say, "Israel," and they give you the bad stuff. And for a few days you got those images. Today the Israel-Loves-Iran page is this number, 80,831, and two million people last week went on the page and shared, liked, I don't know, commented on one of the photos.
Trenutak u kojem sam shvatio da se nešto događa je, prijatelj mi je rekao, "Googlaj riječ 'Izrael'." I ovo su bile prve slike tih dana koje su iskočile iz Googlea kada bi upisali "Izrael" ili "Iran." Zaista smo promijenili pogled ljudi na Bliski Istok. Jer vi niste na Bliskom Istoku. Vi ste negdje drugdje i želite vidjeti Bliski Istok, odete na Google i kažete, "Izrael," a oni vam daju samo loše stvari. Tijekom tih par dana dobivali ste ovakve slike. Danas stranica Izrael-Voli-Iran ima ovaj broj, 80.831, dva milijuna ljudi je prošli tjedan otišlo na stranicu i podjelilo ju, "lajkalo", ne znam, komentiralo na jednu od tih slika.
So for five months now, that's what we are doing, me, Michal, a few of my friends, are just making images. We're showing a new reality by just making images because that's how the world perceives us. They see images of us, and they see bad images. So we're working on making good images. End of story.
Tijekom zadnjih pet mjeseci, to je ono što radimo, ja, Michal i nekoliko mojih prijatelja, jednostavno pravimo slike. Prikazujemo novu stvarnost praveći slike jer znamo kako nas svijet vidi. Vide naše slike, vide loše slike. Tako da mi radimo na stvaranju dobrih slika. Kraj priče.
Look at this one. This is the Iran-Loves-Israel page. This is not the Israel-Loves-Iran. This is not my page. This is a guy in Tehran on the day of remembrance of the Israeli fallen soldier putting an image of an Israeli soldier on his page. This is the enemy. What?
Pogledajte ovu. Ovo je stranica Iran-Voli-Izrael. Ovo nije Izrael-Voli-Iran. Ovo nije moja stranica. Ovo je čovjek iz Teherana tjekom dana sjećanja na Izraelske pale vojnike, stavlja sliku Izraelskog vojnika na svoju stranicu. To je neprijatelj. Molim?
("Our heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their dearests in terror attack in Bulgaria")
("Naša iskrena sućut obiteljima koje su izgubile svoje najdraže u terorističkom napadu u Bugarskoj")
And it's going both ways. It's like, we are showing respect, one to each other. And we're understanding. And you show compassion. And you become friends. And at some point, you become friends on Facebook, and you become friends in life. You can go and travel and meet people. And I was in Munich a few weeks ago. I went there to open an exposition about Iran and I met there with people from the page that told me, "Okay, you're going to be in Europe, I'm coming. I'm coming from France, from Holland, from Germany," of course, and from Israel people came, and we just met there for the first time in real life. I met with people that are supposed to be my enemies for the first time. And we just shake hands, and have a coffee and a nice discussion, and we talk about food and basketball. And that was the end of it. Remember that image from the beginning? At some point we met in real life, and we became friends.
I to vrijedi i za jedne i za druge.. Mi pokazujemo poštovanje, jedni prema drugima. I razumijemo. I pokazujemo suosjećanje. I tako postanete prijatelji. U jednom trenutku, postanete prijatelji na Facebooku, postanete prijatelji u životu. Možete putovati i upoznati ljude. Prije par dana bio sam u Munchenu. Bio sam ondje kako bih otvorio izložbu o Iranu i upoznao sam brojne ljude sa stranice koji su mi reklu, "U redu, bit ćeš u Europi, dolazim. Dolazim iz Francuske, Nizozemske, Njemačke", naravno, došli su ljudi i iz Izraela, ondje smo se prvi puta uživo upoznali. Po prvi puta sam upoznao sam ljude koji bi mi trebali biti neprijatelji Rukovali smo se, popili kavu i lijepo razgovarali, pričali smo o hrani i košarci. I to je bio kraj. Sjećate li se slike s početka? U jednom trenutku smo se upoznali uživo i postali prijatelji.
And it goes the other way around. Some girl that we met on Facebook never been in Israel, born and raised in Iran, lives in Germany, afraid of Israelis because of what she knows about us, decides after a few months of talking on the Internet with some Israelis to come to Israel, and she gets on the plane and arrives at Ben Gurion and says, "Okay, not that big a deal."
To vrijedi i u suprotnom smjeru. Jednu djevojku smo upoznali na Facebooku nikad nije bila u Izraelu, rođena je i odgojena u Iranu, živi u Njemačkoj, boji se Izraelaca zbog onoga što zna o nama. Nakon par mjeseci pričanja preko Interneta s nekim Izrealcima o dolasku u Izrael, sjela je na avion i stigla u Ben Gurion i rekla, "U redu, ovo nije tako strašno."
So a few weeks ago, the stress is getting higher, so we start this new campaign called "Not ready to die in your war." I mean, it's plus/minus the same message, but we wanted really to add some aggressivity to it. And again, something amazing happened, something that we didn't have on the first wave of the campaign. Now people from Iran, the same ones who were shy at the first campaign and just sent, you know, their foot and half their faces, now they're sending their faces, and they're saying, "Okay, no problem, we're into it. We are with you." Just read where those guys are from. And for every guy from Israel, you've got someone from Iran. Just people sending their pictures. Crazy, yes?
Tako prije nekoliko tjedana, stres je rastao, pa smo započeli novu kampanju pod nazivom "Nisam spreman da poginem u vašem ratu." Više-manje to je jednaka poruka, ali smo jako željeli dodati malo agresivnosti. I opet, dogodilo se nešto nevjerojatno, nešto što nismo imali u prvom valu kampanje. Sada ljudi iz Irana, isti oni koji su bili sramežljivi u prvoj kampanji i poslali, znate, pola svoga lica, sada šalju čitavo lice i kažu "U redu, nema problema, za ovo smo. S vama smo." Pročitajte samo odakle su ovi ljudi. Za svakog čovjeka iz Izraela, imate nekoga iz Irana. Ljudi jednostavno šalju svoje slike. Ludo, zar ne?
So -- (Applause)
Tako -- (Pljesak)
So you may ask yourself, who is this dude?
Možda se pitate, tko je taj čovjek?
My name is Ronny Edry, and I'm 41, I'm an Israeli, I'm a father of two, I'm a husband, and I'm a graphic designer. I'm teaching graphic design. And I'm not that naive, because a lot of the time I've been asked, many times I've been asked, "Yeah, but, this is really naive, sending flowers over, I mean — "
Ja se zovem Ronny Edry, imam 41 godinu, ja sam Izraelac, otac dvoje djece, suprug i grafički dizajner. Podučavam grafički dizajn. Nisam toliko naivan, jer često me pitaju, mnogo puta me pitaju, "Da, ali, ovo je stvarno naivno, slati cvijeće preko, mislim stvarno --"
I was in the army. I was in the paratroopers for three years, and I know how it looks from the ground. I know how it can look really bad. So to me, this is the courageous thing to do, to try to reach the other side before it's too late, because when it's going to be too late, it's going to be too late. And sometimes war is inevitable, sometimes, but maybe [with] effort, we can avoid it. Maybe as people, because especially in Israel, we're in a democracy. We have the freedom of speech, and maybe that little thing can change something. And really, we can be our own ambassadors. We can just send a message and hope for the best.
Ja sam bio u vojsci. Bio sam u padobrancima tri godine, i znam kako stvari izgledaju iz prve ruke. Znam kako mogu izgledati veoma loše. Tako da je meni ovo odvažna stvar koju činim, pokušati doseći do druge strane prije nego li je prekasno, jer kada bude prekasno, biti će prekasno. I ponekada je rat neizbježan, ponekada, ali možda [uz] trud, možemo ga izbjeći. Možda kao ljudi, jer pogotovo u Izraelu, imamo demokraciju. Imamo slobodu govora i možda ta mala stvar može promijeniti nešto. I zaista, možemo biti svoji vlastiti ambasadori. Možemo slati poruke i nadu za bolje.
So I want to ask Michal, my wife, to come with me on the stage just to make with you one image, because it's all about images. And maybe that image will help us change something. Just raise that. Exactly. And I'm just going to take a picture of it, and I'm just going to post it on Facebook with kind of "Israelis for peace" or something.
Zamolio bih Michal, moju ženu, da dođeš sa mnom na pozornicu samo da napravim jednu sliku s tobom, jer sve se vrti oko slika. I možda će nam ta slika pomoći promijeniti nešto. Samo podignite ovo. Upravo tako. I sada ću samo slikati, i objaviti je na Facebooku s tekstom "Izraelci za mir" ili tako nešto.
Oh my God. Don't cry.
Oh moj Bože. Nemoj plakati.
Thank you guys. (Applause)
Hvala vam. (Pljesak)