A VISION FOR PALESTINE & MY MESSAGE TO THE YOUTH
September 7, 2024I was interviewed by Iran’s Omid TV channel in a series called “Palestine 2040” directed at Iranian Youth.
We overviewed the following topics in the interview:
1. The criticality of the media space for Palestine
2. How and when my attention turned towards Palestine.
3. My experience in the United States meeting the Palestinian Mission to the UN.
4. A vision for Palestine in 2040
5. A message to the youth
Thank you @bist_40 for this opportunity and for your continued support of the Palestinian cause!
If you advocate for TRUTH & JUSTICE, SHARE to spread the knowledge
English Script:
Host: Hello, thank you for accepting our invitation. Please introduce yourself for our audience.
Daizy: Okay, sure. My name is Daizy Gedeon. I’m an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. I’ve been in the field of media for more than 40 years. I’ve covered the Middle East and global affairs, and my expertise really is in Lebanon and the Middle East. I am of Lebanese background, and currently, I am living in Lebanon, although today I am in America to do some interviews with the Palestinian mission of the United Nations.
Host: Thank you. Would you please inform us about your pro-Palestine activities?
Daizy: Since the war in Gaza began on October 7th, I’ve been very engaged in the topic because it’s such a global issue. This is not about just the Palestinians, although their problem is our problem and has been going on for more than 70 years. And I felt compelled to begin working and exposing the situation because I believe in truth and justice. These are the values that I work on, and I cover stories that relate to truth and justice and everything that is happening to the Palestinians defies truth and justice. So, I began posting stories on all my social media and reviewing, curating stories from around the world including political and social commentary on the situation in Gaza, and becoming a platform for their voice to be heard around the world. So, the most important thing that has changed the situation for the Palestinians is what we are doing on social media because we all know that the Western mainstream media whom I worked for, for many years, I worked for the News Group for Rupert Murdoch in Australia, in London, and around the world, I worked for Channel 4 in London, I worked for the Times Group in London. And all of these institutions as well as everything else, you know, the CNN and all of those organizations are very propagandized towards Israel and American policy, and the difference that we have made on social media by spreading the word and making sure that we put it in English and Arabic because all of my work has Arabic subtitles or English subtitles, is to ensure that the message is transferred around the world, disseminated to people, and we have seen tremendous uprising among all groups of people, all ages, white people, black people, colored people, everyone, rising for Palestine.
Host: Ms. Gedeon, I know you have been working for years on the Palestinian cause and you are doing some actions. How and when have started supporting Palestine?
Daizy: Really I have been pro-Palestinian since the 90s when I first became interested, and in working in the field of media as a journalist on the Middle East I became awakened to the problem in the Middle East and the problem in the Middle East because I’m Lebanese, I was grew up in Australia and we had very one-sided news about Lebanon. I didn’t like Lebanon from when I was a child because everything was very negative. Then when I went to Lebanon in the 90s, I discovered, sorry, the 80s, late 80s, I discovered that the story they were telling us around the world was not correct, and I became very interested in finding out about the whole problem in the Middle East, and I discovered how bad the problem of the Palestinians was too, and I started as I was an editor on the Australian newspaper, I started to cover stories more in-depthly about Lebanon and Palestine and the Palestinian problem and the Middle East issues to provide a voice and a platform that was more accurate about the situation and the people of the Middle East, you know, all of the Middle East, the Iranians, the, you know, it’s very hard sometimes to get into deep too much on all countries. You have to specialize. But it made me wake up to all of the Western media’s commentary on all countries from the Middle East and the way they were presenting those stories. So, you know, I became very passionate about the rights of the Palestinians and I always, always believed that the peace in the world, stability in the world will never be achieved until the Palestinian problem is solved, until the Palestinians have a homeland and have their rights and so this has been inside me for, you know nearly 40 years, and I do whatever I can now, I’ve diverted all of my attention to the Palestinian cause because this is a humanity cause.
Host: Thank you. Ms. Gedeon, I wanted to ask you what is your wish for 2040?
Daizy: 2040? You know my dream for Palestine, my dream is to be able to visit Palestine way before 2040. My dream is that it is rebuilt, revived, and restored and the Palestinian people live with integrity and with dignity, in freedom with all of their rights and they are able to operate and run their own government and the people live freely and humbly as they are because they are one of the most humble people in the world. And their faith in God is unshakable, unbreakable, and God will protect them. So, my vision for them is to fulfill the mission of their right to independence, and that they are established and a member of the international community with all of their rights in the United Nations, and we are all traveling and visiting them and supporting them and sharing in their wonderful culture and faith.
Host: I would like to ask you a final question. Our program’s audience is young people. What message do you have for our audience, in Palestine 2040 program, who are Iranian teenagers?
Daizy: Look, I love the youth. I have a lot of followers who are youth, and I love the youth. I have three children, they are now 19 to 24-years-old, and I encourage them like I encourage your youth to always believe in your values. This has to be your foundation. If you do not have strong values, you will easily be manipulated. So, understand what it is that is important to you and why it is important to you, and build your life upon this. But remember, you are a human being that God created with a mission to serve God and serve humanity and to do this with dignity. So, understand yourself first and always stand up for your rights with dignity, in a peaceful way, and do it intelligently. We don’t have to resort to violence. We don’t have to resort to anger. We have to understand the other person who might be different to us, who might have a different opinion, but we must, if we can’t see them and see why they have this opinion, it’s very hard then to convince them of our opinion. So first we must see the other and then we must understand how to talk to them in a way that will make them understand our viewpoint. Always stand in someone else’s shoes. As a journalist, it’s my responsibility and it is very effective to be able to do that because then you can ask better questions, and you will get more from the person you are interviewing and you will be able to convince them more if you are having a disagreement or debate about something but just understand that they have a different way and you need to cooperate. This is the way of the world. I tell my children this story, no one finger is the same and God, he makes us all different but the same. We need each other. We are human beings, and we need to work together with love, with integrity, and with respect. That’s my message.
Host: Thank you. Thank you for accepting our invitation.
Daizy: Thank you. Bye.
