The Bridge Builders

The people carrying the conversation

Peace is not signed by states alone — it is carried by people who refuse to hate. These are some of the Iranians and Israelis keeping the conversation alive.

Iranian voices

Many of Iran's bridge-builders cannot be named — to name them is to endanger them. Here is one who chose to be seen.

Hamed Fard

حامد فرد · חמד פרד

Iranian rapper and activist

Hamed Fard is an underground Iranian rapper, born in Shiraz in 1989, who turned protest music into an instrument for freedom and human rights. He is one of the exiled Iranian voices who chose to stand publicly beside Israelis against the Islamic Republic.

After the 7 October 2023 attacks he joined a delegation of Iranian exiles hosted by Israel's Foreign Ministry — visiting Gaza-border communities and sheltering from rockets in Haifa — where the group raised the Lion-and-Sun flag beside Israel's and insisted the war is with Khamenei, not the Iranian people.

SourcesYnetnews · magazine
Instagram · @hamedfard

Architects of the Accord

The Cyrus Accords (پیمان کوروش) were written by two teams — Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's and an Israeli minister's.

Five people stand outdoors at an Israeli water-treatment plant with circular tanks behind them; Minister Gila Gamliel, in the centre, shakes hands with a member of the visiting Iranian delegation, several wearing the Lion-and-Sun lapel pin, September 2025.
Minister Gila Gamliel (centre) receives the Iranian delegation dispatched by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi at an Israeli water-treatment plant, September 2025.Photo: courtesy of the Rise Iran campaign (iranopasmigirim.com)

Gila Gamliel

گیلا گملیئل · גילה גמליאל

Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science & Technology · author of the Cyrus Accords

Gila Gamliel is the Israeli cabinet minister who prepared the Cyrus Accords (پیمان کوروش) together with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's team, naming them after the Persian king who freed the Jews. She is the government's most active voice reaching out to the Iranian people.

On 1 September 2025 she received an Iranian expert delegation together with President Herzog, framing it as “the Cyrus Accords, a continuation of the Abraham Accords” and offering Israel's water technology to a future free Iran; weeks earlier she had told Iranians, “Next year in a free Tehran.”

SourcesJNS · Sept 2025FDD · 15 Aug 2025
X · @GilaGamliel

Israeli voices

Israelis who speak past the regime, directly to the Iranian people.

Official portrait of Naftali Bennett, a man wearing a knitted kippah, a dark suit and a blue tie, standing before the Israeli flag and a bookshelf, June 2021.
Naftali Bennett, official portrait, 2021.Photo: Avi Ohayon / GPO Israel · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia

Naftali Bennett

نفتالی بنت · נפתלי בנט

Prime Minister of Israel, 2021–2022

Naftali Bennett served as Israel's prime minister in 2021–2022 and remains a leading political voice. He speaks to Iranians directly and repeatedly, drawing a sharp line between the regime and the people.

During the June 2025 fighting he posted a video telling Iranians, “Israel is not at war with the Iranian people — we're at war with the regime… if you act, Israel will stand with you,” and on 29 December 2025 released a second address, “Rise Up!,” as anti-regime protests spread.

SourcesNaftali Bennett (X) · June 2025Iran International · 29 Dec 2025
X · @naftalibennett
Close official portrait of Amichai Chikli, a man with short dark hair in a dark blazer over a light-blue shirt, against a dark grey background, 2022.
Amichai Chikli, official Knesset portrait, 2022.Photo: Reuven Kupitzinski · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia

Amichai Chikli

امیخای چیکلی · עמיחי צ׳יקלי

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs & Combating Antisemitism

Amichai Chikli is Israel's minister for diaspora affairs and, alongside Gamliel, one of the two ministers with sustained outreach to Iranians and the Iranian diaspora. He frames the confrontation with Tehran as a fight for freedom, not a war on Iran's people.

In June 2024 he met Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi in the United States to strengthen ties between the Iranian and Jewish diasporas, and he has sent Persian-language messages to Iranians — “Soon in Tehran.”

SourcesIran International · 7 June 2024The Jerusalem Post
Studio portrait of Emily Schrader, a woman with blonde hair swept to one side, wearing a bright pink blazer over a white blouse against a plain grey background, 2024.
Emily Schrader, 2024.Photo: Asaf Drori · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia

Emily Schrader

امیلی شریدر · אמילי שריידר

Israeli-American journalist · founder, Iran Israel Alliance

Emily Schrader is an Israeli-American journalist and news anchor and one of the most active Israeli voices building civil ties with the Iranian people. She founded the Iran Israel Alliance and co-founded the Cyrus Fund, which brings technology to Iranians.

In December 2023 she initiated an open letter against the regime and Hamas co-signed by 55 women leaders from 12 Middle Eastern countries; in October 2025 the Islamic Republic placed her second on its official “hostile media” enemies list — a measure of how far her Persian-facing work reaches inside Iran.

SourcesJNS · Oct 2025emilyschrader.net
emilyschrader.net

Read on

The Cyrus Accords

The real Israel–Iran framework these builders are working toward — written, sourced, dated.

The Voice from Jerusalem

Menashe Amir broadcast to Iran in Persian from Jerusalem for six decades — a builder before the word.

Hearts & Minds

What Iranians and Israelis actually say about one another — in their own words.