A visit by a group of young Israelis highlighted the power of personal stories as a tool for countering the many negative stereotypes regularly heard about Israel.
Organised by the South African Friends of Israel (SAFI), the group showcased their Virtual Reality programme,Survived To Tell, and spoke about their own experiences as citizens of Israel from very different backgrounds.
South African Friends of Israel (SAFI) is a South African Pro-Israel organisation that engages with faith-based, cultural and ethnic groups in South Africa and Africa with the aim of building a grassroots support base for Israel in South Africa.
Survived To Tell is a programme in which the personal experiences of five Israelis on October 7th are available via virtual reality. “Our mission is to spread the stories about those who have survived to tell,” explains the ISRAEL-is website. An Israeli non-profit, ISRAEL-is was established to provide an alternative view of Israel, and it has taken on the task of recording and sharing what happened to particular people during the horrific attacks of October 7th 2023.
Those who attended the various sessions organised in Cape Town had the opportunity to use virtual reality tools – headsets for watching video material and earphones to hear the stories recounted in the videos of five Israelis caught up in the events on the fateful day. The effect is that one feels as if one is with the individual who is telling their own story but in fact many other people may be listening to the same story at the same time. It’s a way to tell these personal accounts across the world and to reach numerous people without incurring all the costs involved in travelling to destinations all over the globe.
The accounts are certainly very poignant – the reality of what many people faced hits the viewer hard, and one is left with great empathy for these victims: although they survived, they will carry the emotional scarring of what they saw and experienced on the day and beyond for the rest of their lives.
One of the female survivors explains how she was terrified of being raped by the Hamas terrorists; another of the devastation of losing her best friend, who went to the Nova Music Festival with her and was killed by the terrorists. Another’s testimony is more philosophical. As he says, “This is not just Israel’s war. It’s everybody’s war. It’s the fight of good versus evil.”
In addition to bringing the virtual reality tools to Cape Town and sharing the real-life experiences of some young Israelis, the delegation that visited included young people who spoke of their own experiences of living in Israel. A 24-year-old Druze woman’s comments were particularly enlightening. “I am an Israeli,”she explained, “but I am not Jewish. I am an Arab but I am not Muslim.” She went on to highlight the extensive equality that the Druze minority enjoys in Israel. She, for instance, was able to study at university and today works for Israel’s Department of Foreign Affairs, and hopes to become an Israeli diplomat. Her story dispels the notion of Israel as an apartheid state.
At one of the events, Christian friends of Israel enjoyed the opportunity to engage with one another and with members of the local Jewish community and the Israeli visitors. It was clear from the informal discussions after the event that our Christian friends are extremely concerned about the misinformation regarding Israel that is being spread within various communities in the country. ●
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