Before Errachid Montassir’s first visit to Israel in 2022, his family in Morocco tried to dissuade him from making the trip. “You’re going to get killed by the Israelis,” they told him.
Despite the ominous prediction, the 28-year-old ecotourism entrepreneur and climate activist survived his first stay unscathed. Last week, he came again, as part of a delegation from Arab and Muslim countries to promote tolerance in the Middle East through Holocaust education in the shadow of the October 7 massacre by Hamas of 1,200 in Israel’s south and the capture of another 253 individuals who were taken hostage to Gaza.
“The thing that struck me the most was realizing the propaganda and the fake news that the media spread in Muslim countries, that make us think that Israelis are the killers,” Montassir said. “We visited a kibbutz [assaulted by Hamas on October 7] and met with families who witnessed their kids dying in front of them. It shocked me deeply.”
The five-day trip was organized by Sharaka (the Arabic word for “Partnership”), a non-profit founded following the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, which promotes people-to-people contacts between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
The Sharaka delegation was comprised of 10 members from various countries in the region, with a strong preponderance of Moroccans (seven), but also a high-profile Pakistani journalist, an outspoken Iranian-Danish social activist and a prominent Canadian author with roots in Egypt and Gaza.
The intensive program included a visit to Yad Vashem, a meeting with a Holocaust survivor, lectures on antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a visit to the Gaza Envelope and the site of the October 7 Supernova festival massacre, but also a culinary tour of the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, a visit to Microsoft offices in Herzliya and more.
As part of the program, participants will also visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland at a later stage.
The best part about joining this wonderful group of people from Iran, Morocco, Pakistan etc is being filled with hope that there are so many people from the Muslim majority world who want peace, progress, and prosperity for everyone. Unfortunately it’s always the voices of… pic.twitter.com/4fFkVBYCKX
— Yasmine Mohammed ???? ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) April 22, 2024
On Thursday, the final day of their trip, The Times of Israel spoke with some delegation members who explained what motivated them to visit Israel and what stereotypes were shattered during the experience. Some of the conversations were lightly edited for clarity.
Yasmine Mohammed: Ex-wife of al-Qaeda terrorist
The cohort included Yasmine Mohammed, a prominent advocate for Muslim women’s rights from Vancouver, Canada.
Mohammed was born in Canada to a Gazan father and an Egyptian mother. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she was raised by her mother, a formerly secular woman who became a fundamentalist after her divorce. Mohammed was forced to wear a hijab from age 9.
At 19, her mother married her off to a high-ranking al-Qaeda member, Essam Marzouk, who had received refugee status in Canada. From the very beginning of their marriage, her husband started physically abusing her.
After the birth of her first daughter, Mohammed managed to escape her oppressive home, build a new life and tell her story to the world. She left Islam, and today she runs “Free Hearts, Free Minds,” an NGO offering free psychological support to closeted ex-Muslims.
Last week’s delegation was Mohammed’s first time in Israel. The social activist described the tour as “emotionally exhausting,” both for the Holocaust education component and for the visits to the sites of the October 7 massacre. Tears welled up in her eyes while she recounted the meetings with October 7 survivors.
One of the most shocking, shameful, and disturbing parts about Israel is how they need bomb shelters EVERYWHERE. In almost every building, in parking lots, in children’s playgrounds. No other country on the planet lives this way. No other airline needs a missile defense system. pic.twitter.com/ajAceKAF9L
— Yasmine Mohammed ???? ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) April 22, 2024
As someone who has known firsthand and has been very vocal about the dangers of radical Islam, Mohammed hoped that the horrific events of October 7 could be a wakeup call, an invitation to stop “infantilizing” and “underestimating” Islamist terror groups, and pay close heed to their threats.
Mohammed said she had also tried to warn her liberal Israeli friends about the threat of Islamist terror before October 7. “It takes one to know one,” she sighed.
“Because Jewish people have such a deep love for humanity and for progress, they tend to think that all people are like that. And it makes me really sad to have to let them know and understand that that’s not the reality we live in,” Mohammed said. “But October 7 burst that bubble.”
In 2019, Mohammed published a foreshadowing book titled “Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam.” She said she used to get questions about the meaning of the title, but today that is no longer the case.
“They don’t have to ask me that anymore because they can see how the West has empowered [Islamists] to the point that they’re in the streets yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’ [a cry of celebration] when they found out that Iran was sending UAVs,” she said, referencing the April 13 attack, in which Tehran launched a swarm of around 300 attack drones and missiles from its territory toward the Jewish state.
‘Every time I would open my mouth, people would think I was an alarmist’
“I was feeling scared, angry, worried, frustrated, infuriated when nobody could see. Every time I would open my mouth, people would think I was an alarmist,” she said, decrying the fact that critics of radical Islam are often silenced with accusations of Islamophobia.
“I think now it has really been uncovered. Now people are starting to listen,” she added. “I don’t know how long that will last, because people spend not even a fraction of a second acknowledging how Jews have been victimized yet again, and then immediately they move on.”
Ahmed Qureish: Pakistani journalist
Ahmed Qureish, 45, is a veteran Pakistani journalist and analyst who has worked for various media outlets in the Middle East.
A fluent Arabic speaker, he spent the early years of his life in Kuwait, which at the time (late 1970s to early 1980s), played host to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. Kuwait hosted the first training camps for Palestinian fedayeen (guerrilla fighters).
He recalled that as a child, his Palestinian school friends would take him to see the training grounds, where the fedayeen simulated kidnappings and hijackings.
Today, Qureishi is a media personality in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Pakistan has no diplomatic ties with Israel, but he maintained that being a well-known journalist gives him “a certain audience,” and people listen to what he has to say about Israel – even if they mostly disagree with him.
His visit to the Jewish state with the Sharaka delegation was his third trip to the country. Following one of his past visits in 2022 and a meeting with President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem, the journalist lost his job with the Pakistani national broadcaster.
Qureishi, however, was unfazed, and has returned to Israel once again, motivated by his love for history, and his interest in the common Abrahamic roots of Jews and Muslims.
“We [Muslims] must understand Israel and its history, and not completely reject it,” he said. “The Quran mentions the Bani Isra’il [Children of Israel] and says that Allah gave them this land. The first direction of prayer in Islam was Jerusalem, not because of Al-Aqsa, but because it was the direction of prayer of the Jewish people.”
To Qureishi, there are also more pragmatic reasons for countries in the region to forge relations with the Jewish state. “Israel is a success story,” he added. “Who wants to be friends with losers?”
I found #Jerusalem peaceful and serene tonight as I entered the city after landing in #Israel, more than a day after the massive attack by #Iran.
And far from a sense of panic, Israelis, many Palestinians, and also Arab Israelis are satisfied at how the Iranian attack was… pic.twitter.com/bqKIZjRpLp— Ahmed Quraishi (@_AhmedQuraishi) April 16, 2024
Qureishi has long been involved in the fight against radical Islam. He worked in strategic counter-extremism communications in Pervez Musharraf’s administration (2001-2008) and contributed to the US post-9/11 outreach to the Muslim world.
“Peace in the region will come from reconciliation with our past, which includes the Jewish people and Israel – together with all the other peoples that came to live in this land,” he predicted.
Qureishi further expressed his harsh condemnation of Hamas for its brutality and callousness, a feature of all jihadi movements.
‘We all have a stake in this fight’
“Hamas has used mosques, hospitals and civilian buildings. It’s the exact same story of what the Pakistani military and the US Army faced fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he recalled. “In some instances, mosques and schools had to be blown up because they were booby-trapped and al-Qaeda had hidden weapons inside.”
Countries in the region should open a common front in repelling Islamist terror, Qureishi maintained.
“If Hamas wins over Israel, it’s bad news for Pakistan, for Saudi Arabia, for Egypt, for Jordan. We all have a stake in this fight,” he added.
Faiçal Marjani: Moroccan coexistence activist
For the past 14 years, Faiçal Marjani has run an NGO in Morocco called “Maroc Coexistence Association,” which works to promote interreligious dialogue and fight xenophobia and antisemitism.
Faiçal had been in Israel in the past, but never during a war. He recalled with a mix of horror and awe the night of April 13, when drones and rockets from Iran and other countries rained down over the delegation’s hotel in Jerusalem
“It was terrible. I saw the rocket from my balcony, like Star Wars, and heard an awful noise. And then we all ran to the shelter,” he said.
The Israeli response to the shock attack surprised him, both on the military and the civilian level.
“You have a very strong military, defending the tourists and your people, Arabs, Muslims and Jews alike,” said Marjani. “I felt how people care about each other, asking how they are feeling, telling them not to worry. There was a beautiful solidarity, a sense of togetherness.”
“We are coming to participate in this program, especially at this time, to support Israeli people and to say to the whole world that we are against terrorism,” he added.
“In many Arab countries today there is no security or stability because of radicalism, terrorism and hate. We are against any organization that believes in murdering someone for their race or for their beliefs. We stand with Israelis because they have the right to defend themselves.”
Jaleh Tavakoli: Danish-Iranian activist
Jaleh Tavakoli is blogger, author and activist. Born in Iran to dissidents of the Islamic Republic, she moved to Denmark at the age of nine.
She founded a network in the Scandinavian country called Free Iran, of which she is today the spokesperson. She is also a member of the Clarity Coalition, a human rights non-profit that brings together Muslims, ex-Muslims and experts in the fight against radical Islam. (Yasmine Mohammed is also one of its co-founders).
“The goal of the coalition is really to save the West against Islamists. It’s a big job, but somebody has to do it,” Tavakoli quipped.
In a recent tweet, the activist defined herself as a “proud Iranian Zionist.” “Islamists keep saying that the problem is Israel, but it’s really just a symbol they use to mobilize the Muslim world,” she explained.
????????????????????????Israel here I come. ????????????????????????As the world stops flying over Iran – the country I was born in – I'm flying to the country I’ve felt more and more close to. Now as a proud Iranian Zionist. (Zionism=accpetance of Israel.)
I am so honored to be invited by Sharaka to learn more… pic.twitter.com/tKHYlvPanB
— Jaleh Tavakoli???????????????? (@JalehTavakoli) April 13, 2024
She recalled that before leaving for Israel, she expected the country would be “filled with terrorists everywhere,” but a few days into the trip, she realized she had been grossly misled. “I have never felt more safe.”
“I’m thinking about moving here, to be honest,” she joked, adding that she found Israeli courage “inspiring,” and was intrigued by Israeli history and the diversity of Israeli society.
“You have so many different people and you’re coming together to save your freedom, your democracy, your state. For that, I really believe that you’re the hope of the free world,” said Jaleh.
“In Denmark, being who I am [i.e., an outspoken anti-radicalism activist], I don’t feel safe,” she continued.
“One of the reasons why Europeans are so hesitant today to support Israel is because they’re afraid. Governments are afraid that if they are too pro-Israel, there will be terrorist attacks,” she added. “There are already problems on the street every day because of this conflict.”
Here we are in a neighboring Kibbutz to the border with Gaza. These are the rockets from Hamas.
At Kibbutz Zikim with @EliorMittlman pic.twitter.com/XBlqcaabEm
— Jaleh Tavakoli???????????????? (@JalehTavakoli) April 23, 2024
Tavakoli survived a jihadi terror attack at a free speech event in Copenhagen in 2015. In his shooting spree, the terrorist later assaulted a synagogue and killed the guard, a Jewish Dane.
“I’m so mad at European countries and the US because they think [terrorism] is about Israel. They pretend it’s nothing, and then move on. But these people [i.e., Islamists] will be their problem forever if they don’t put their foot down and say, ‘No, if you’re living here, you must support democracy and freedom.’”
Commenting on the recent drone and missile assault from Iran against Israel, Tavakoli said that “the Iranian regime is the biggest terror organization in the world,” adding that in her view, only an outside military intervention can topple the Islamic Republic, since domestic dissent and multiple waves of protest in recent years have been brutally crushed.
#IraniansStandWithIsrael https://t.co/gfSUco2Mnt
— Jaleh Tavakoli???????????????? (@JalehTavakoli) April 23, 2024
Tavakoli’s visit to Israel provided her with various occasions to draw parallels between the struggles of Iranians and the Jewish people.
“At Yad Vashem, we heard how the Nazi regime worked. People couldn’t protest, even not to their own family, because they were scared. This is the Iranian regime. Even today, people are afraid of telling each other what they’re feeling,” she said.
She said she felt a similar sentiment at the memorial for the victims of the Supernova music rave.
“The people of Iran are unarmed, like the people at the Nova Festival. When I was there, I looked at the faces of the victims. They looked the same as the Iranians. They had nothing to protect themselves with.”
