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ABSTRACT
Over the past decade (2006–18), a number of Israelis from Iranian background initiated Civilian Relations Building Initiatives (CRBIs) dedicated at bridging the divide with the Iranian people and help in preventing war between Israel and Iran. They mostly use information technologies (IT), including social media and radio platforms, to connect with the Iranians and have been successful at gaining such an Iranian audience. Given the important role that such CRBIs could play in defusing the growing Israeli-Iranian tensions, this pioneering study aims at evaluating how effective these CRBIs have been and analyze the obstacles they confront.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. “Iranian-Israelis” refers to Israeli citizens who were born in Iran.
2. See “Judeo-Persian Communities”, Encyclopedia Iranica, for a detailed summary of the Jewish community in Iran from pre-Islamic times to the Pahlavi period.
3. Interviews with: Penhasi; Avginsaz; Eilam-Gindin.
4. “IT (Information Technology)”, A Dictionary of Science, 422.
5. Schultz, Information Technology, 31–41.
6. Interviews with: Penhasi, Avginsaz, Eilam-Gindin and Shay.
7. TeHTel and Voice of Israel – Persian.
8. Parsi, Treacherous Alliance, 5–13.
9. ‘Unofficial dialogue and problem-solving activities aimed at building relationships and encouraging new thinking that can inform the official process. Track 2 activities typically involve influential academic, religious, and NGO leaders and other civil society actors who can interact more freely than high-ranking officials. Some analysts use the term track 1.5 to denote a situation in which official and non-official actors work together to resolve conflicts.’ USIP, “Tracks of Diplomacy.”
10. ‘Diplomacy undertaken by individuals and private groups to encourage interaction and understanding between hostile communities and involving awareness raising and empowerment within these communities. Normally focused at the grassroots level, this type of diplomacy often involves organizing meetings and conferences, generating media exposure, and political and legal advocacy for marginalized people and communities.’ USIP, “Tracks of Diplomacy.”
11. ‘A term for operating on several tracks simultaneously, including official and unofficial conflict resolution efforts, citizen and scientific exchanges, international business negotiations, international cultural and athletic activities, and other cooperative efforts. These efforts could be led by governments, professional organizations, businesses, churches, media, private citizens, training and educational institutes, activists, and funders.’ USIP, “Tracks of Diplomacy.”
12. Such as Jones, Track Two Diplomacy.
13. Such as Diamond and McDonald, Multi-track Diplomacy.
14. A relatively recent publication, originally published as a series of articles in Israel Affairs 18, no. 1 (January 2012), was later published as a book; see: Handelman, People-to-People Diplomacy.
15. See, for example, Kaye, Nader and Roshan, Israel and Iran.
16. In spite of having friendly bilateral relations during the Pahlavi period and a tense one since 1979, the Israeli-Iranian relations have always involved also back-channel diplomacy, whether through ex-officials, merchants/businessmen or third-party nationals. It could be said that the existing studies contain aspects of Track-Two or Multi-Track diplomacy.
17. There are two exceptions: One Wish Jerusalem was created in Israel, but the project continues in Los Angeles by Joseph Shamash who is an American; and Avi Shmilo’s Iran-Israel Friendship Group during his residence in Israel, but later moved to Germany.
18. Interviews with: Shay; Penhasi; Avginsaz; and Moradian.
19. Interviews with: Shay; Penhasi; and Avginsaz.
20. Interview with Shay.
21. Interview with Avginsaz.
22. Interview with Penhasi.
23. Interview with Amir. Since early January 2018, the program was cut to one hour.
24. Interview with Eshaqi.
25. Starting in 2013, to date (October 2018) six books in this series have already been published.
26. See note 21 above.
27. Edry, “Israel and Iran,” TED Talk at TEDxJaffa.
28. Interviews with Penhasi.
29. See note 21 above.
30. Ibid.
31. Edry, “Israel and Iran”; and Elgot, “Israel Loves Iran”.
32. Reference is to the summer 2014 Persian class.
33. Interview with Eilam-Gindin.
34. Interview with Pour-Rostamiyan. In this regard, it should be reminded that in 1962 the Israeli government sent a large reconstruction mission to the earthquake-stricken Qazvin province.
35. Kaplan and Haeinlein, “Users of the World, Unite!”
36. The website (http://thepeacefactory.org) has turned into a portfolio site of Edry’s social media activism initiatives.
37. Israel-Loves-Iran Facebook page.
38. Iran-Israel Friendship Group Facebook page.
39. Interview with Shay; Radio Radisin Facebook page.
40. See note 21 above.
41. Interview with Moradian.
42. See note 20 above.
43. Ibid.
44. Interview with Amir.
45. See note 21 above.
46. Ibid.
47. See note 33 above.
48. See note 41 above.
49. See note 22 above.
50. See note 20 above.
51. See note 44 above.
52. A session is defined as a group of interactions a user engages in within 30 minutes. Whatever a user does on the site, like browsing TeHTel’s pages or commenting on the site itself, before they leave constitutes a session.
53. Interviews with: Penhasi and Shay.
54. See note 22 above.
55. See note 21 above.
56. Interviews with Avginsaz and Eilam-Gindin.
57. Interview with Avginsaz. The possibility of the caller from Turkey being bogus and actually an IRI agent should also be considered.
58. See note 20 above.
59. See note 41 above.
60. In this respect, one of the authors has participated (and from time to time continues to participate) in a number of Track-Two and Multi-Track diplomatic efforts, but none of those have resulted in any meaningful results as far as defusing the tension between the Israeli and Iranian governments. It is only during TeHTel’s four years of operation that the authors feel that meaningful change was practically taking place between the Iranian and Israeli people.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
S. Shahvar
S. Shahvar is Professor of Iranian Studies at the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Director of the Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at the University of Haifa.
M. Sepahan
M. Sepahan was an intern at the Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at the University of Haifa during 2014–2015 academic year, currently an account executive in the US.