Iran to Israel, Tehran to Tel Aviv

Mishy Harman (narration): At the end of our last episode, we said that we hoped to air a counterpart episode, one in which people in Iran talk directly to us, here in Israel, and tell us what their lives are like. What are their thoughts? Their fears? What do they want us Israelis to know about their experience of war?

There were a lot of challenges in pulling this off – to begin with there was very limited internet in Iran, and many social media platforms were either down or else heavily restricted. Then, there’s obviously a lot of fear and suspicion, and of course, the elephant in the room, our show is called Israel Story. But with a lot of hard work, primarily by our production intern Ada Perlman and her Iranian contact Hadi Mahdeyan, we managed to receive dozens of messages from folks all over Iran. Many of them were written, rather than recorded, and almost all those who sent them in, asked to remain anonymous and/or make their voices unrecognizable. So employing the true magic of AI, we created Persian-sounding voices who bring you – dear listeners – a tapestry of very real messages from Iranians to Israelis. Here we go.

Ada Perlman: So what’s your daily life in Iran like right now?

Interviewee 33: Well, daily life in Tehran is still very tense. There are checkpoints on most streets. Even traffic police are standing on the streets with Kalashnikovs.

Interviewee 34: The circumstances have changed very quickly.

Interviewee 35: It’s not daily life anymore.

Interviewee 36: I hear the sound of bombs, missiles and anti-aircraft guns in Tehran every night.

Interviewee 37: At first it was difficult, but we’ve gotten used to it and the explosion sounds have become almost normal.

Interviewee 38: Unlike the people of Israel, who are used to rockets and missiles and are trained to deal with it, the majority of Iranian people, especially the generation of people under fifty, have no idea what to do during blasts. In fact, for many, this was the first time they understood what war really is.

Interviewee 39: I can’t do this anymore. All I want is to find a way out of Iran.

Interviewee 40: There’s kind of a panic.

Interviewee 41: The psychological shock became really serious when people realized that bombs didn’t only fall in desert areas, but also in our cities.

Interviewee 42: We’re afraid.

Interviewee 43: We took our stuff and left Tehran.

Interviewee 44: We ran away.

Interviewee 45: Many people from big cities went to their relatives’ homes in villages or smaller towns and they took refuge there. This type of thing caused financial pressures on the host families, and even sometimes led to family fights. Especially since in our culture, counting expenses and splitting the costs is not very common or pleasant.

Interviewee 46: We are separated from our city and our lives.

Interviewee 47: It feels like civilians’ lives in Iran are endangered, and that we’re being used as a protective shield for the mullahs.

Interviewee 48: We only talk about the war and worry about our friends and family. That’s it.

Interviewee 49: I’m experiencing new levels of feelings of loneliness.

Interviewee 50: Some Iranians ran straight back to the mullahs out of fear.

Interviewee 51: The internet is extremely weak, and the VPNs that used to work before the war aren’t working anymore.

Interviewee 52: The motherfucking mullahs cut off the internet and disturbed our lives.

Interviewee 53: It’s not clear what’s happening with online classes. 

Interviewee 54: I’m currently under a lot of stress.

Interviewee 55: For two or three days the streets were completely closed. Now they are starting to open up, but business has dropped significantly.

Interviewee 56: Cafes and restaurants have reduced their opening hours and close earlier.

Interviewee 57: Prices have increased and if I protest, the sellers just say that we are at war.

Interviewee 58: People are afraid that the war will be prolonged and that infrastructures will be destroyed, so they buy a lot of bread to stock up, and this creates very long lines.

Interviewee 59: Something that’s changed in my life since the start of the war is the communication I have with people around me. The most unfortunate incident is the declining affinity between me and my old friend from middle school. She’s always been a good person to me, but I’m now having trouble interacting with her since she follows the Islamic Republic’s national news and I’m bothered by what’s being fed to her as fact. I keep having the urge to talk to her and convince her that the news she’s being fed is the wrong version of events. But I also have to take into account the fact that she comes from an extremely religious family, and that – as a girl – she’s already threatened by so many factors in Iran even without having any anti-regime thoughts. So I try to avoid talking to her about sensitive things at all. The result of this whole situation is that I no longer can have genuine conversations with her because of the massive gap in our political views and I’m afraid this might ruin our friendship. So in these past few days, I’ve been mourning the potential loss of our friendship and I still haven’t found a way to fully cope with it.

Interviewee 60: I spend my days babysitting and taking care of my siblings, even though I had no experience doing this before and suddenly this responsibility was given to me.

Interviewee 61: Now that there’s a ceasefire, employees will go back to work, but the military presence is still very felt.

Interviewee 62: People are still worried about future or sudden attacks by Israel, and they avoid crowded gatherings. Interviewee 63: I think on both sides we don’t really trust this ceasefire.

Interviewee 64: Life is returning to how it was before the war.

Ada Perlman: So if you could say something to someone in Israel right now, what would you want to tell them?

Interviewee 65: My message is that the war is not the war of the Iranian people, it is the war of the regime.

Interviewee 66: Both my family and I agree that Israel is not our enemy.

Interviewee 67: You should know that the only thing that unites most people here is that we oppose the corruption and tyranny of the Islamic Republic. Iranians are not defenders of the Islamic Republic. The youth and free people of Iran have never been (and will never be) satisfied with war because we are a freedom-loving nation, and freedom cannot be achieved through war but must be earned from within the people.

Interviewee 68: Every day we curse the government and everyone agrees that Israel should continue its attacks.

Interviewee 69: People of Israel – I’m extremely touched by the empathy you show towards the freedom fighters of Iran in all the social media spaces and it tremendously helps with my feelings of loneliness and helps me imagine better days for Iran.

Interviewee 70: You shouldn’t wait for friends and allies in the world.

Interviewee 71: If people in the West can be so filled with hatred of Jews that they sympathize with the Iranian ayatollahs, the only conclusion you should draw is to never count on them and always be careful.

Interviewee 72: Israel should assume that it has no allies and will have no allies.

Interviewee 73: I would like to mention that a close friend of mine is Jewish and he visited Israel a while ago and sent me beautiful pictures from there!

Interviewee 74: With each day that passes, I yearn more and more for the day that I can finally visit Israel.

Interviewee 75: I also have a small side request for Israelis, and that is to hold your media a little more accountable. If you watch Israeli TV, they make it seem like Israel can’t do anything, while it has been proven many times that it can do a lot.

Interviewee 76: You have brought pride to the region, thanks to the beauty and progress within your culture. I’m truly sorry that you too have been affected by the Islamic Republic.

Interviewee 77: I hope to always keep in touch with you and express my gratitude to you!

Interviewee 78: My message to the people of Israel? Keep going!

Interviewee 79: I hope you stay safe!

Interviewee 80: Stay safe! Especially your little children.