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Magazine I Interview

One of Israel’s most prominent voices, Yoseph Haddad has been traveling the world speaking about life in the Holy Land in all its complexity, since long before the October attacks. We sat down with him to discuss how he deals with the challenges of advocating for Israel and about his dream of Jewish-Arab partnership in a strong and unified Israel / By Maya Cohen “Our only weapon is the truth. And with it we will prevail”

everything changed for you on October 7 th . “October 7 th was the biggest disaster to have ever befallen the State of Israel. And yet, we quickly realized that the world had a very different idea of what had happened and of what we experienced here. Why? Because anti-Israel activism has been propagated around the world for years now. Since the 7 th , Israeli hasbara has been at the center of my life, and many people have helped me disseminate my work around the world. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Am Israel for its incredible commitment to the hasbara effort”. He who believes is never afraid Haddad grew up in Nazareth, and today divides his time between his hometown and Tel Aviv, where he shares an apartment with his

“I’ve always advocated for Israel”, says Yoseph Haddad, right at the start of the interview we’re conducting a day after his return from a hasbara marathon in the US and a few days before he leaves for London for another week of the same. “After I was injured in the Second Lebanon War and went on a long post-army trip like all Israelis do, as an Arab-Israeli, I often found myself explaining what Israel stands for, as I met people on my travels. But only in 2018 did I decide to devote myself entirely to advocacy activism. I founded an Arab-Israeli association that focused on internal societal affairs with the aim to bridge the gap between Arabs and Jews”, he explains. “We began doing Israeli advocacy for the outside world when we realized that as Arab Israelis, Christian, Druze, and Muslim, our voices carried more weight”. I imagine that like everybody else,

partner Emily, an American-Israeli journalist born to a Christian mother and a Jewish father. “I define myself as a Nazarene”, he says with a smile. “Emily is an American-Israeli, a journalist, and an excellent hasbara and human rights activist. Among other battles, she is involved in the fight for the rights of Iranian women”. Do you two even have time to yourselves, with all this activism and advocacy? “The hasbara work I do is pro bono. I’m a journalist for I24 News and I’m also a lecturer. I’ll admit that time has been short since October 7 th . Sometimes I force myself to take an hour’s break or two, watch a tv show, sit down for a chat with Emily, visit family. I always say it’s important to go on living our lives, but we must never forget what happened on October 7 th – that’s why I’m always doing whatever

26 ATMOSPHERE APRIL 2024