Luai Ahmed, 30, grew up in Yemen, where he was taught from a young age, or “brainwashed” as he describes it to hate Jews and Israel.

When he was 20, he fled from Yemen to Sweden after Al-Queda threatened his family due to the work of his mother, Amal Basha, a peace and women’s rights activist.

In Sweden, he met an Israeli for the first time in his life, later describing how due to the brainwashing he received as a child against Jews and Israelis, he felt “his hair standing on end” when he realized he was looking at “the creature” called an Israeli and Jew. He later met other Jews and Israelis in Sweden and began realizing that he had been fed a pack of lies.

A writer and a successful social media influencer, Ahmad decided to dedicate his career to fighting antisemitism. That was before the October 7 attack, when he knew very little about Israel as a country, (except that there were ‘settlers’ there and the government was ‘terrible’). When he visited Israel for the first time after the October 7 attack, he was shocked to his core when he realized that Jews, Christians, and Muslims peacefully co-exist in Israel. After his visit, he began using his platform for pro-Israel content.

Recently, he was interviewed on Channel 12 by Yosef Haddad, a pro-Israeli Israeli-Arab journalist and social activist.

Ahmad began by describing the Houthi takeover of Yemen: “When the Houthis took over, they took over by force. It is a violent terrorist group that literally grabbed their arms and weapons and decided to go to the Yemeni ministries and institutions, pointed their guns at the people, and said, ‘If you don’t leave, we’re going to  kill you.’ They took over the country through a coup. Their slogan is ‘Death to Israel, curse on the Jews,’ and this is their main mission. They exist to destroy Israel and hate the Jews.”

Ahmed described his childhood: “In Yemen, I didn’t even know that people like you existed. I didn’t even know that there were Arabs in Israel. I thought that if you’re an Arab living in Israel, there is a high chance that you might be killed by Jews, that if you meet Jews outside of Israel, they will probably kill you or steal your money.”

“When I was in mosques in Sana’a as an eight-year-old, I would sit and repeat after my Imam, who would say at the end of the prayer, ‘May G-d destroy Israel.’ And I, as a child, would say, ‘Amen, may G-d kill the Jews.’ So since I was a child, I was brainwashed into hating Jews and Israel,” he recounted.

Ahmed said that “his cousin is part of the Houthis. I have cousins who are launching missiles at us, cousins who sink ships. Yes, it’s sad to say, but you know, we both sat in the same mosques and read the same things and said, ‘Death to Israel, may God kill the Jews,’ so I understand that they are still brainwashed.”

“After October 7, I decided to come to Israel to see everything for myself. I was very scared. I was actually trembling on the airplane. I was a hundred percent sure that when I arrived here I would be assaulted, a Jew would spit on me, and if people found out where I was from, I would be beaten on the street.”

“When I decided to come, I informed my friends and  family, and most of my friends, my family, my brother, my best friend, all blocked me.”

“I decided to go to the Tel Aviv Museum because I knew there was an exhibition for the hostages. I was so shocked that my jaw dropped on the floor, and then every day I stayed in Israel, I fell in love with the country, the society, the culture. I’ve never seen Arabs, Christians, Jews, and Muslims co-existing in the same country like this. It changed my brain chemistry.”

“When October 7 happened, I saw that my friends and family and people who are so close to me saying that Hamas are freedom fighters, Hamas are the saviors of the Arabs in the Middle East. It affected me on a personal level to see that the people I grew up with, my family and friends and people I love so much, are so ignorant and hateful.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)