What’s the craziest thing you’ve done for a cause you believed in? by Khloe, Israel

A few months ago, I was contacted by I24News/Fr, an Israeli channel. They asked me to come and talk about the new laws concerning 35,000 asylum seekers, most of them Eritrean and Sudanese, about to be deported by Israel.

Now here is the thing, I’m an activist. Yes! I vote, I go to protests, I write, I take pictures that I share, I debate with people who don’t share my views… Being threatened by some of them, done.  Being called a traitor, done… but I don’t do TV!

I don’t even watch TV! I forgot what people talk about on TV, so I was like, no way!

I was also afraid to harm the cause I wanted to defend. I mean, I freeze when people take a picture of me, I am very bad at talking in front of people and… I hate the sound of my voice. So, talking on TV!? Again, no way!

So I tried to find another activist to go and do the talking, someone who will know what to say, who will be a better advocate to the cause. But I couldn’t find anyone who would; live in Tel Aviv, speak French, know about that specific topic and be willing to defend this specific cause.

I really didn’t know what to do, so I did something I often do when I don’t know what to do; I talked to my sister. And she simply told me: “I understand. But you’re going to talk anyway because you can actually make a difference. We’ve been outraged, you and me by these new laws, and frustrated because we didn’t know what to do! Well, you have a way to do something now! I am proud of you, your baby nephew is proud of his auntie and Grandma would be the proudest of all! You’re going”.

She always finds the magic words. There was nothing more to say. I took a deep breath, and another one, and another one, and I went there and I tried to explain what I thought about that issue, why we shouldn’t deport people asking for asylum.

 

And here I am: https://video-streaming.orange.fr/actu-politique/erythreennes-et-soudanaises-reclament-la-protection-d-israel-VID0000002zcte.html

And here again: https://video-streaming.orange.fr/actu-politique/le-grand-live-avec-jean-charles-banoun-partie-4-03-04-2018-VID0000002Aa11.html?pid=SIl2WFC2AZWzJ7qSByljitF90Oyhq%2FuTijjNVTqW8eXHvld9E8Rs64WH95P3DwrN3Eh2eAqnfZ4%3D#plmAnchor

 

Khloé, YaLa coordinator.