The following is a summary of what hoder noted down from his latest Israel trip.


Visiting Israel, breaking a major taboo

"If things work smoothly at the Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport, I'll be in Tel Aviv tomorrow morning. This is huge for me.
This might mean that I won’t be able to go back to Iran for a long time, since Iran doesn't recognize Israel, has no diplomatic relations with it, and apparently considers traveling there illegal. Too bad, but I don't care.
Fortunately, I'm a citizen of Canada and I have the right to visit any country I want.I'm going to Israel as a citizen journalist and a peace activist.As a citizen journalist, I'm going to show my 20,000 daily Iranian readers what Israel really looks like and how people live there.

The Islamic Republic has long portrayed Israel as an evil state, with a consensual political agenda of killing every single man and woman who prays to Allah, including Iranians.I'm going to challenge that image.There are many Iranian Jews residing in Israel now –including the president and the minister of defense. Many still speak Persian and love where they were born and raised. I'm going to talk to them and show Israel and Iran from their point of view.

Historically, Persians and Jews have mostly lived in peace and have helped one another a great deal. But now, for whatever reason, they are perceived as enemies - even though they’ve never actually harmed one other, despite the existence of hard line leaders on both sides.But now, given Iran's persistence on its nuclear program (which obviously is a cover for a nuclear weapons program) and the new wave of threats Ahmadinejad is posing to Israel's existence, the possibility of a harsh response by Israel is higher than ever.

As a peace activist, I'm going to show the Israelis that the vast majority of Iranians do not identify with Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric, despite what it looks like from the outside.I'm going to tell them how any kind of violent action against Iran would only harm the young people who are gradually reforming the system and how the radicals would benefit from such situation.During my visit, I'm going to blog in both English and Persian, take a lot of pictures and record numerous video and audio reports and make a few podcasts.But like a real ciziten journalist, I’ll have to depend on my readers' support, especially financially. The more support you give, the more effective I can be as a citizen journalist and a peace activist."


Focusing only on Iranian-Israeli realations

"One thing I have to clarify here is that my focus in this trip is only on Iran and Israel relationship and when I talk about peace, I mean between these two states.

As a non-religious Iranian (which means I'm a non-Arab, just in case some people don't know that), my interest, at least in this trip, is not in issues between Arab world and Israel.

What I'm trying to primarily do here is to try to help Israelis and Iranians have a better understanding about one another and contribute to stop the dangerous process of de-humanization that both side are doing.
That's why I'm trying to talk to as many Iranians here to remind my audience inside Iran about the great ties between the two nations.
Also to show Israelis what an Iranian who was born and raised in Tehran, under the Islamic Republic of Iran's watch, looks like and how millions of Iranian young men and women are different with what the media and the government portrays."

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