Jonathan Elkhoury, an activist originally from Lebanon but currently in Israel, has been known to share his life experiences with the world. With his courageous step forward, he presents his unique background into today’s views.
When he was just nine years old, Elkhoury found himself being forced out of Lebanon along with thousands of others. Around this time, the population of Lebanon was split between the Shia Muslims, Christian Lebanese, and the Sunni Muslims, leading to many conflicts between the groups because of their differences. In Southern Lebanon there was a military group that was formed called the Southern Lebanon Army (SLA), in which they worked together with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to prevent attacks from terrorist groups inside Lebanon from attacking Israel and to create a peace between the two. After many years of being in coalition, Israel left Lebanon leading to the threat of Hezbollah towards the people in cohorts with the SLA. Anyone that had anything to do with the group was set to be murdered for being “traitors” to the country. This led many to seek refugee in Israel as they knew they would be safe there. Elkhoury’s family was part of this movement as his father was a soldier in the SLA and they knew if they were to stay there they would not last another day.
With this move he was suddenly placed in a position of being different from everyone else but instead of taking that into account and hiding his differences, he embraced and shared it with others. “When I came to Israel at the age of nine, I found myself in a situation where I’ve kind of stopped just being this, young kid that just moved from Lebanon to Israel, and had a regular life, in a way, I’ve kind of started to become a storyteller about my personal story, moving from Lebanon to Israel, and not only my personal story, but I’ve kind of started to become some sort of a representative of the community that I’m part of, because everyone was really interested to know what group I’m in,” Elkhoury said. “Who were we? And why did the Lebanese come to Israel?” He was transformed from this young Lebanese boy to a figure that showcased what it meant for him to arrive in a new country, telling his story about his previous life.
He became an activist the second he stepped into the role of storyteller. He would answer questions of why the Lebanese people were even in Israel as well as why he would take part in being Israeli. When he was forcefully moved he didn’t just find a new place to live but he also found out who he could be. “A lot of people are surprised to hear not just about the Lebanese community, but also our life in Israel as minorities in general, Elkhoury said. “That’s how I found myself speaking about my personal story, because I always say that what led to this is that I started as a kid in my school answering questions that my fellow students asked me, but then when I did my national service, because I felt, as a citizen that I need to contribute to the society I truly found myself.” His connection to who is today further grew as he advocated for the right to begin to contribute to his community. With his help, in 2012 he was able to become a spokesperson for a group called the Israeli-Christian recruitment forum which calls for Christians to join the military. This obviously caused a worldwide fuss. “What is happening to this Christian group in Israel that is asking to join the IDF? Do they have equal rights? Are they Israeli citizens? That’s where I kind of started to find myself speaking out to the international community about our situation as minorities living in Israel,” he said. People wanted to know what was going on in Israel and where did this all come from. These questions are what continued his ongoing role.
On October 7, 2023, Israel was surrounded by hatred and Elkhoury needed to speak out not just in English, but in Arabic as well. In the first month of the war he found himself focused on sending the message out of what was happening to the people of Israel to the Muslim world. He described the torture that the men, women, children, and elderly were facing as “what Hamas did goes against every Islamic literature and teaching,” he said. It was important to him as a citizen to step forward and help. Unfortunately for him, in the same month of October, an Arab media report by someone who collaborated with Hezbollah was exposing Arab speakers that were advocating for Israel on social media. At one point he noticed that his personal information was shared as well, meaning that millions of people around the world had his phone number and a countless amount of them even wrote threatening messages to him. One could imagine this to be terrifying, especially being a widely known person.
Overall, going from the threatened young Lebanese boy he was, he stepped into the role of an activist and was able to come out with more understanding and a further impact on the world today, spreading further knowledge on not just the Israeli community, but the Arab community aswell.
