Born in Damascus and raised in Lebanon, where she spent 18 years, Rawan Osman grew up believing what politicians, teachers, media, and leaders all said about Jews, Zionists and Israelis: they were one in the same, and they were the enemy. She was, as she described, a “fan” of Hezbollah — the extremist Islamic group considered a terror entity by the Canadian government.
With the tune of an antenna, she could view Israeli television, but to the ire of her parents. Hebrew became associated with the language of the enemy.
She moved back to Syria in 2011 and left for France as war began, eventually moving to Strasbourg in 2018 for academic study.
Until she lived in the Jewish Quarter in Strasbourg in her twenties, she had never met, let alone spoken, to any Jews. But a pivotal moment of chance occurred during a shopping trip in a grocery store.
There, within close proximity, she saw Jews with religious head coverings and side locks. In a panic, she left her belongings and raced to her home, where she faced her own triggers and deep-seated fears of Jews.
Upon her return to the store, she was greeted with kindness by the Jewish shop owner — what would be the first of many positive interactions she would have with Jews, and a transformation in the making. “It was a journey for me, detoxing from the propaganda I was bombarded with was not an easy thing to do,” she said.
In an effort to expand her understanding, she has since visited areas in the Gaza envelope hit by the October 7 attacks, as well as the Auschwitz death camp.
Her new views haven’t come without cost: some family and friends, particularly those in Syria and Lebanon, cut their ties when she denounced Hamas.
Osman spoke at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 3, 2025, delivering a speech in which she declared that Israel is not the problem, and called out the regimes of Qatar, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria for their roles in human rights violations and perpetuating conflict.
Today, at 42, she lives in Germany, and uses her social media following of a quarter-million to build bridges and promote understanding about Israel among Arabic speakers.
Osman will be in attendance at the Canadian cinema premiere of
Tragic Awakening
, Sept. 15, in Toronto, a documentary in which she stars, alongside its producer, Rabbi Raphael Shore, who will also attend the screening. The film, which has been viewed half a million times via streaming and screen, describes the ever-morphing virus of antisemitism through the ages, until today.
Dave Gordon interviewed Osman for National Post:
What were you taught about Jews?
I grew up in Lebanon, but then I lived in Syria for four years. I lived in Saudi Arabia for one and a half years, and I lived in Qatar less than a year. I travelled in the Arab world, and there is a consensus that the Jew is the lowest of the low and evil.
The belief was that the Jews don’t mind instigating a “fake Holocaust.”
Can you describe the roots of the Islamic antisemitism that pervaded the region?
This discrimination affects all non-Muslims, and that continued for 1,400 years, because the Jews — the non-Muslims — were inferior to Muslims and they would be dhimmis, a lowered status.
Another dimension of antisemitism arose in the 1920s while the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. Arab intellectuals were adopting ideas coming from the West about nationalism and the concept of a nation-state. They learned the news about the Zionist movement’s project plans. To counter that, they wanted their own individual national projects in Palestine.
During the British Mandate (1922-1948), there was a wicked political and religious leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. He realized there was a way to turn the conflict between the Muslims and the Jews, or the Jews and the Arabs, into a holy war. Otherwise, the Jews were going to find a way to find a compromise with (British) leadership and establish the Jewish state.
He was an Islamist, and he decided to remind the Arab world of the importance of Jerusalem, based on no proof, that Jerusalem is a place where Prophet Muhammad, one time, flew to heaven, starting on a rock that is part of the Western Wall complex today.
Amin al-Husseini dwells on this story and says he estimated that Al Aqsa, which translates to the farthest mosque, is the one near the rock where Muhammad went to heaven, and Muslims need to claim it back.
Otherwise, he believed, the Jews were going to establish a Jewish state and take the Muslim third-holiest place away.
If you go to the archives, you will realize that the Dome of the Rock and mosque were abandoned for centuries under the Ottoman rule.
Amin al-Husseini called for a Pan-Islamic Congress in Jerusalem in 1931, called upon Arab leaders, mostly Muslims, but also Christians. There was a pamphlet distributed in that conference, that included Christian propaganda imported from Europe, and stories from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc. (the notorious antisemitic Russian forgery).
Hezbollah introduced the same kind of hatred that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem introduced back in the 20s. This is an intensive and adamant commitment to removing Israel, no matter how long this will take.
When I started reading the history, the background of Hezbollah, the manifesto, I understood that we are brainwashed. They reject the notion of Lebanon as a state. They do not acknowledge political borders, and they are working towards making Lebanon an extension of the Islamic Republic in Iran.
What message do you have for Palestinian leadership?
Especially after October 7, you are not fit for governing. You are not safe for your own children. You make up stories, and were always involved in terrorism or corruption. If you truly want a Muslim entity, you are welcome to live in Jordan. If you identify with Israeli values, you are welcome to stay. You also have the same responsibilities. You have to contribute and give to your communities, to your country. Only then we can move on and build something viable for all of us to start building a new Middle East.
How did you get involved in the film?
Raphael Shore called me to ask if I would narrate the documentary. At the beginning, I said ‘no,’ because it should have an Israeli voice, not mine. But once he explained that my participation might incentivize more people to watch it, I agreed.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
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