Is(that)raeli‪?‬ Grant Besner

At long last, welcome to Is(that)raeli?

For our first episode, we spoke with Miri Eisin about the history of immigration to Israel since its founding, the limitations of language to describe complex and often controversial realities, and, even a bit about her fascinating life!

Miri's career began in the IDF as part of the Israeli intelligence community. For over twenty years she served as the head of the combat intelligence and the assistant to the director of Military Intelligence. After retiring from the military, Miri was appointed as the Israeli Prime Minister’s International Advisor and played an important role in the Annapolis Conference. Currently, Miri is one of Israel's main presenters that sheds light on regional geopolitics, security related issues in the global media, and the different narratives within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We had a blast talking to her. Miri is incredibly thought provoking, thorough, and fun. Enjoy!

Ilana Dayan is an Israeli investigative journalist, anchorwoman, and attorney. She is best known as host of the investigative television program Uvda ("Fact") on the Israeli Channel 2, recently dubbed the Israeli 60 minutes.

Ilana was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel with her family at the age of 6. She was drafted to the Israeli Defense Forces during the First Lebanon War and served as producer, editor and correspondent for the Israel Army Radio and was the first woman correspondent in the station's history. Afterwards she studied law at Tel Aviv University and went on to complete her Ph.D. at Yale University. Now, she currently teaches courses on freedom of speech at Tel Aviv University.

Ilana's vast experience and vivid anecdotes make this an episode you won't want to miss!

We're back!

For the next few episodes, we'll be exploring the African asylum seeking community in Tel Aviv. Since the late 1990s up until Israel sealed its southern border in 2012, thousands of Africans from Eritrea and Sudan have fled persecution in their own countries to Israel. Currently, some 38,000 reside in the state with neither refugee status or any path to citizenship. As non-legal residents, these asylum seekers face countless challenges to gain employment, receive an education, and resist deportation.

Over the summer, we spoke with Leah Hecht and Guli Dolev-Hashiloni of the African Refugee Development Center. The ARDC is a grassroots, community-based nonprofit organization that was founded in 2004 by African asylum-seekers and Israeli citizens in order to protect, assist, and empower African refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel. The ARDC began its work as a humanitarian aid organization, and over time has adapted to fit community needs. Currently, it works to address gaps in services created by harsh governmental policies in 4 key sectors: education, livelihoods, advocacy, and rights empowerment. To date, ARDC has served over 15,000 asylum-seekers from a number of countries and operates various educational programs seeking to deepen the social and economic inclusion of asylum-seekers throughout Israel.

In 2010, eighteen-year-old Tesaflem Haile fled persecution in his native Eritrea, embarking on a treacherous two month journey on foot through Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Sinai, before, ultimately, landing in Israel.

We sat down with Tesaflem to learn about what his life has been like in Israel and what challenges asylum seekers in Israel, a community of some 34,000, face today. His is a story of hardship, perseverance, and of all things, software development.

Welcome to Is(that)raeli? Stories and Conversations about what it means to be Israeli...really! Episodes coming soon!