The Sweet Nostalgia of the ‘Israel Loves Iran’ Project

I recently stumbled upon this lovely TEDxJaffa talk given by Ronny Edry, an Israeli graphic designer. It’s from 2012, back when most people still felt strongly that Facebook connected people—and the relationship between Israel and Iran was fraught in familiar ways.

Edry told the story of an unusual poster he made: a photo of himself holding an Israeli flag, with his young daughter perched on his hip, over which boldly colorful text declared, “Iranians, We Will Never Bomb Your Country, We ❤️ You.”

He made the poster in response to a conversation he heard at the grocery store in Israel, where the owner and customers worried about Iranian bombs coming their way. The fear: They were going to get ten thousand missiles a day reigning down on their heads.

“‘Ten thousand missiles.’ This is the context,” said Edry. “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.”

A graphic designer makes posters, so he made the “We ❤️ You” poster, shared it on Facebook, and went on with his life. “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,” he said good-naturedly.

But this poster was different.

Suddenly, Erby had friends from Iran. And they were surprised and grateful. “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.”

And then he had a sudden rush of orders for posters—from other Israelis who wanted photos of themselves with the same language. So, he decided to make it a thing. “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.”

Click through to hear his sweetly funny tale—it’s definitely better in his voice—and the many, many beautiful posters he made from Israeli and Iranian Facebook messages, as well as the posters Iranian designers made in return. You’re going to want to watch all the way to the end, trust me.

Edry’s thing turned into a thing.

Enjoy this bit of hope from way back in 2012, when Israelis and Iranians swapped posters and got to know each other better, and when Facebook helped make life a little bit better for a volatile corner of the world.

Where there’s a ❤️ there’s a way.

Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com

On Point

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On Background

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Quote

"During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not."

—Maya Angelou in an interview with CNN (2011)