From Muslim to Orthodox Jew: EP 04: A Window into the Life of Timor David Aklin

Born and raised in Jaffa (Tel Aviv - Yafo) Israel, Timor David Aklin was brought up from an early age to hate Jewish people and the Zionist ideology.

Today, he is both Jewish and Zionistic.  His story is incredibly rare, and in this episode you'll hear all about it.

He speaks about:

--What his early life was life growing up in a Muslim family
--How he was taught both in school and in his family to hate the Jews
--How his family responded to 9-11 as well as terror attacks against Israelis
--How he responded to the October 7th Hamas massacre and large scale attack on Israel
--How he is reaching out to Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza, and what they are sharing with him

Connect with Timor:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timoraklin/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TimorAklin

This episode is hosted by Dr. Azi Jankovic, educator and co-organizer of HumanityPOV.


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Transcript

Shure MV7-12: 0:00

Welcome to the humanity POV podcast. You're going to hear from a diverse array of morally courageous voices who understand that true humanitarianism is not selective. Together, we can amplify these voices for progress and shed light. On solutions to the issues. That affect all of us. Thank you so much for being here now, let's get started.

0:26

My name is Dr. Ozzie Jankovic. I'm an educator. And I'll be hosting the first series of episodes.

AZI: 0:33

I'm so excited to get into your story because first of all, I told you the other day, I think you're a hero and you totally shrugged that off because you're so humble and then I asked you, how many people are there that were raised in religious Muslim families who are radicalized actually to hate Jews, to hate Israel? Who have now become orthodox Jews. And what was your answer?

TIMOR: 0:59

Close to zero. Like there's me, I don't know anyone else really. I have met a couple of people that converted, but they're not religious at all. They're not wearing a kippah or anything of the sort they're in a relationship like a Jewish woman and they get married and these things happen. Sometimes they go to the police or like they work in the police or they work in the, they go to the army. And then they meet each other and then they become a couple. And then eventually that might pop up.

AZI: 1:26

Timor, your story is so incredibly unique. You were raised in central Israel. You were raised in South Tel Aviv. In a religious Muslim household, can you tell us about a little bit about your daily life as a young child?

TIMOR: 1:43

My life was like a rollercoaster, like I literally have sagas. When I think about being four, I remember my grandma's house. I remember in that area back then, it's just in front of the beach in Yafo. There weren't that many houses or buildings. All of these today, they came later on. I remember just land everywhere. I remember very violent people. I remember weapons always in sight. I remember, just a reality where it's you're always waiting for something to happen. It's like, all the time. It's you're anticipating something. You feel it in the air, the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they move. And you're four, you're not supposed to know these things, but you can know. Because once you see someone get shot for the first time, or you just hear the gunshots, or you just sense the violence, you immediately go, What was that? At that age, you're trying to Digest and break it down like trying to figure out what was going on, but there was no time for me to do that because Even my mother like she never even tried to sugarcoat anything It was always like it's our family. It's the way they are and It was very abusive. So when I think about for I have this image I'm walking in like this corridor my grandma's house, which is a massive house. It's three stories It has maybe more than 20 people in it and multiple families, same buildings, same entrance and everything. You go in, you see the sea in the background because it's big glass window. And as you go in, you just see. Police everywhere like a raid or dogs like police dogs, just sprinting everywhere or like just something intense. My family did and usually someone gets arrested and then it gets arrested for a while. It's not like you get arrested for a day. So whenever something like that happened when I was young. One goes in for 9 years, the other for 10, the other 12, the other 7, the other 4, the other 5. So every time it was someone else, because it had so many uncles. There were basically 11 brothers and 3 sisters. So 11, they did not have a father around, no father figure, no male figure to really follow. Each person now wants to be Mr. Macho. And they just began making their small empires and fighting each other. Even though they're brothers,

AZI: 4:28

Now, if you and I were to walk through Tel Aviv today, if a tourist were to come to Tel Aviv and see the Muslims, the religious Muslims, Jews, religious, non religious people from all backgrounds, all types, it looks on the outside, like a peaceful place. But what I'm hearing from you is that there was something else going on beneath

TIMOR: 4:47

the surface. There's always something else going on beneath the surface, It's really something because most people really feel like Jaffa is this beautiful place. It's all peaceful. It's all great, but they just drive through Jaffa. They're not in Jaffa. They don't sleep in Jaffa. They don't wake up in Jaffa. They don't stay in Jaffa in this area, which is just it's like the suburbs of Tel Aviv. So I do believe there is some progress, like there has been some positive change over the years. But it's still, it's a very bad and mean place.

AZI: 5:21

So you have made a change in your life. You're now 30 years old and you left your religious Muslim upbringing. And you're now living your life as an Orthodox Jew by choice.

TIMOR: 5:33

My experience with Judaism, it was something beautiful. It's really hard for me to explain it to people. It's very hard to find the words to describe it. It felt natural. It felt like I was going home. It felt like this is where I belong, and I understand that not everyone's going to accept it. I understand that some people will find it difficult. I understand that there might be opposition from everywhere, People just think what is this Modi? What is he doing? No one really knows. It was not so difficult for me to do the spiritual transformation, but it was just harder on the outside. It was harder to be a Jew outside, like in public, because I knew there would be severe repercussions. I do get harassed. From time to time I suffer, sometimes I want to just get up and leave, but I know I can't, but it was worth it. If I could go back and do it again, I would do it again. And I do feel like I belong with the Orthodox Jews, But I did grow up around a lot of anti semitism and I grew up around like a lot of stereotypes and false accusations and character assassination of the Jewish people so it's just what I was fed it's like you were, you're consuming information and knowledge, people at school, work at home. And wherever you go, it's all very anti Semitic. So even if you yourself don't want to be this way, you are being forced to be this way. And when I was 17, I got really deep into this whole, religion thing. I was obsessed with Islam. I enjoyed it for a while. And then there were too many accusations against the Quran and Islam and Muhammad the prophet and all the things that he's done. So I wanted to know if these things were real. So I kept researching and researching. And the more I did, the more I realized that I'm in something that is not real. And I was extremely sad at first. I was depressed for a while because it doesn't make you happy. It's your whole life. It's your who you are. It's what you tell yourself it's like waking up and it's like a slap on your face.

AZI: 7:43

Even though you were living in central Israel, you were taught explicitly to hate Jews. Yes. What did that look like?

TIMOR: 7:49

Let's say you turn on TV and there's something on the news, and the news is usually in Arabic. And it's Al Jazeera and stuff like that. There's always something about Israel, something about something that is going on. And you can just hear the people at the house bashing, 9 11. I remember the celebrations, I was eight years old, but I remember people dancing and clapping and singing and people put a turban on my head. Started calling me Bin Laden and they were dancing with me because I was tall and lanky and skinny and they're like, okay, like him, is

AZI: 8:21

nine years old and you remember this was a celebration in your home. Was it a celebration in your community?

TIMOR: 8:29

11. Yeah, 9 11 was, was a holiday. It was it was an event. It was the event to be in, people were obsessed. Arabs at home, 24 hours watching the reports, being filled with happiness, especially when they found out they did it. So they were extremely happy about it.

AZI: 8:50

From where you're sitting now, looking inside of that culture, people are watching the news, watching 3, 000 people die in an instant. in a terror attack, and they're celebrating. What is the psychology of that?

TIMOR: 9:04

I just want to give people other ways to understand, like, how we program to hate Jews and stuff. Not just the 9 11 part. I think there are other important parts. For example, I do recall this one time, I was with my uncle, we went to visit someone at the hospital, and there was a Jew, around us when we were at the there was like a yard at the hospital, like an area where people smoke, very open area, kind of thing. And my uncle was extremely disrespectful towards him, for no reason. He did not even know him or anything. He was throwing slurs and trying to provoke him. And the guy was Like a poor guy, the guy wasn't even like responding or anything. was scared, And my uncle's quite big too, like all of my uncles are like over six and up, the guy was just scared, so I asked him Uncle, are you doing that? I felt shy, I felt like embarrassed to be around him. I didn't want to be seen. I was like, I want to hide. I don't want anyone to see my face. That's just how I felt. I was like, that's how you should talk to them, and that's how they will respect you. So that was one case. And there are other cases as well. I'm going to give you another one. A cousin, I go to visit a cousin. That's in Yafo. These situations are here in Gaza is now in the West bank. This is not in a settlement or whatever. No, this is right here. I go to visit a cousin and. They're just doing all this shady stuff they don't share it with me on anything they're not, because they know me like this righteous guy who never does anything bad, like never sold drugs, never did anything the awful things my entire family's done. I've always been a working guy, like my whole life. I go visit them many years ago. And they have Jewish neighbors. And when their Jewish neighbors come home, they're doing the same exact thing that my uncles done to that guy at the hospital. Growing up you couldn't be soft as a kid. If I tried just to go and pick up a plate and I was being polite with it, look, at the way he's picking up that plate. I'm like why is he so soft? Man up like it slapped just like one of the cousins or something. I have 80 something cousins. So I grew up in that kind of environment. They had horses at animals. I had to take care of them growing up in that house. That was strange. So

AZI: 11:18

you grew up feeling like you had to be tough and you were sharing a story with us about your cousin who

TIMOR: 11:26

was just bashing his yeah his neighbors and same exact thing. Him, his wife saying awful things that are just like, what, how can you speak like that? And he would say those things and would threaten and all of that. The smile and the Jewish neighbors will just either be quiet, but then the Jews wouldn't really react or respond at all. Because they live there and they want to live at peace. They don't want to have issues with them. So I guess they're okay with being, want to say coexisting, but they're like being, dehumanized and belittled, demeaned every day.

AZI: 12:01

And was that the worst of what you saw in terms of discrimination against the Jews that you lived around growing up?

TIMOR: 12:09

had teachers in the past who, more than just condone terrorist attacks and I've had more than, teacher or two that celebrated proudly when Gilad Chalib was kidnapped and even danced with us yeah, these. Anti Semitism is so in

AZI: 12:25

deep. You were exposed to people celebrating 9 11, celebrating that Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli soldier was taken hostage. they were openly celebrating this.

TIMOR: 12:38

Yeah, more than that. They said it's a shame they only got one. They should have gotten a couple more.

AZI: 12:43

Timur, were you surprised when October 7th happened here in

TIMOR: 12:48

Israel? No, I wasn't surprised it happened. I think you should always expect it. I think what was really surprising is how they did this to us. our reaction time. Our response. It was not good. I was there that day. I went to the Gaza border. I know it was a Saturday. Don't judge me. I know a religious guy, but I I was up really early that day. 637 the rocket started everywhere here and it was nonstop. So I was like, like something, something big is happening because it wasn't just like a rocket, a couple of rocket, one siren, two sirens. No. It was nonstop for about an hour. And because it was nonstop for about an hour and I have no shelter. And my house is made out of plywood and wood. So if a rocket lands, it's over and I have nowhere to go. So I was just sitting here. I was like, okay Let's be cool. It's war. Let's open the phone. Let's figure out what's going on. So I turn on my phone. First I go to the Israeli news, of course. Nothing is being reported. Nothing. There's And I was like, okay, let's go to telegram. And I'm typing it in Arabic. And I'm like seeing, that's seven in the morning. And I'm shaking because what really got me is the first pictures that I saw was old lady, not and they looked Russian because I know how they look like Babushka, the way they have their little thing here and it's tied. And I was like wait a minute. And I think that was in Sderot. And they were like near bus stations. And you can see they're walking canes and stuff like this. And I was just looking at this and I saw them on the ground. And I saw blood everywhere. And I was like It's gotta be photoshopped look at the quality of the image can't be real. It's photoshopped. It's AI generated. Whatever it can't it's no way And then I wait a few minutes and then I'm seeing a clip of a jeep driving around There are people filming from their windows like how fast did it get out there? Look, it's in the groups and in the jeep a lot of jihadi fighters terrorists And they're all like with the headbands and everything all armed from head to toe and in that, truck I'm like what is happening and the rockets are non stop. They're still going And this is all happening and I'm hearing boom all the time and I'm like, what's going on? I feel bad. My first instinct is okay, grab your camera. I took the camera, put it in the bag, grab the tripod, put the bag on put the backpack on my back, sprinted towards the car. It was just like, it was like 7 30, 7 45 in the morning. I was like, ways, location, Gaza. I just drove as far as I could, because I saw in one of the posts that there's a party and people are trying to run. They wrote it in Arabic, and there was like a laughing emoji. Ha, the Israelis are trying to run. And I was like, man, if I go there, something is going to happen. I just know God is with me and something is going to happen, and I know it's going to be a good day. So it's good that I do this, because this is not the first time I had a miracle happen to me on a Saturday. She had her ID card. So showing me she's Israeli because she couldn't speak from that pepper spray and from the impact. She just like almost unconscious. I opened the door. I throw in the car and I drove as fast as I can to the nearest soldier I can find. That's what I was thinking. I was like, look for the nearest soldier. Just find a soldier. you don't have to worry about anything anymore. I was happy she was alive, because I was worried something else might happen, and if I was there witnessing it, it would have been like, I don't know if it would be talking right now. I could be depressed right now, still thinking about this. And this just happened last year. So back to that day, and because I was thinking about another miracle I had on the Shabbat. So on that day you saved her life. Yeah. And that was a Shabbat. You understand? And she accidentally got into that roundabout, she was trying to make a U turn, and she got stopped there. But she wasn't even able to speak Hebrew, she was Russian. can't even read Hebrew, so she doesn't even know where she is. She lost a connection because over there, there are areas where you don't have reception. Your GPS, like there's no Wi Fi, there's no GPS, there's no 4G, it just goes off in some areas and then it comes back. And this

AZI: 16:55

is an Arab village near, where you live?

TIMOR: 16:59

this is Kalkilia near Kfar Sabah. So I was just saying this is like another Shabbat miracle ahead, but let's go back to October

AZI: 17:07

7th. October 7th. Yeah. You wake up in the morning and you check the Israeli news, there's nothing there. You go on Telegram and on the Arabic channels. And you are seeing the nightmare unfold in real time. What happens next?

TIMOR: 17:20

drive as fast as I can. I realize I'm just five, six kilometers from the border. It was like almost about an hour drive. I was after Nativot. After Nativot, I get there and I'm hearing gunshots. Like I'm hearing like gunshots being sprayed. Like I can't actually see the fights. But I'm hearing, tatatatatata. And as soon as I get there, rockets. And they've never felt closer, that's as close as it gets to the source. They never felt closer when you look up. Cause over here, when we see them in the sky, they're so far up in the sky and they get intercepted. But down like down there, it was quite low. And then I see this cop pushing me and they're all like tactical gear, head gear, everything. And they look like they're going to war and they're police. They're not like army people. they're pushing me to the side and we're just taking shelter behind the tree. Because rockets were landing where we were and there was one landing that was like so miraculous It was like so miraculous it landed 200 meters away from us and as it landed there was a car that was coming from that direction And we saw the car and we saw the landing and it was like right where they were we thought it was over and then we see the car just driving through the smoke coming out after the impact and it was just like a moment of like victory of happiness. It was just like, wow, they survived. Like, how amazing is this? Like just jumping happiness is like a moment to witness. Afterwards the police did not allow me to go any further. They said, this is it's there's fighting going on, like right there or where it's like, there's fighting. You can hear this. You're not going anywhere. Afterwards, I saw a guy that they did allow him to go in, but they, it wasn't easy. I have the videos, by the way, I was filming because he was trying to fight them and go inside. And he's my mother is in there. You will not tell me not to go. And I was like, they're fighting, they're a terrorist. You do realize there are terrorists, like they're armed from hand to toe, RPGs, everything. It's you're not going to stop me. I'm going to go see my mother. That's in the morning. And they didn't stop him he said it's his mother. Anyone in there and I was just there standing and I was like, man, I really want to go with him I don't know why but I just felt like I should go with him and I felt like something big was gonna happen But the police they wouldn't let me go any further. So that was the nearest point where I was staying. And then I was just waiting for something to happen. I was like, something will happen. And then they will need my help. I'm arrogant thinking like this, but I was just sitting in the corner on the pavement all day. Rockets landing, not too far from what I'm at. And you can smell them all day and you see the smoke and you see everything like a battle zone. We're in a battlefield and I'm just sitting while they're all armed and standing and you know on guard. They're waiting for someone to come from somewhere and yeah that was my October 7th. And Timur,

AZI: 20:17

What was it that kept you sitting there? Why didn't you want to run away?

TIMOR: 20:21

I don't know. I think there's nothing in this world that is as satisfying as saving a life. I feel that would have been the greatest feeling ever to just, that to someone. So I was just, I was trying to help in any way, shape, or form. I didn't care if it was an ambulance who needed someone. I didn't care if it was a firefighter. I didn't care who it was. If someone needed another pair of hands, I was like, I'm here at your disposal. just how I felt that day. went back home around 9 PM. Cause I was like, how long can I stay like this? I've after 14 hours, I was just like somewhere else mentally at that point when I drove back to Tel Aviv and I was hearing the rockets here, like I didn't even flinch because I was just like I guess so used to like all those explosions back there and they're so loud, more than here because they're closer, so it was definitely different. different. I was feeling for all the people living in the south all these people that were living in the building not far from there. having to be in shelter all day, probably Shabbat day long. They had to sit in a shelter because it was nonstop. I have no idea how many thousands of rockets they fired that day, but that was a lot.

AZI: 21:29

It you grew up in a home in schools that celebrated. terror attacks. They And here you are today telling me that there's no greater satisfaction for you than saving a life, helping someone. How did you get from point A to point Z? Literally the opposite of how you grew up. Do you think that there are other people like you, Timor? Or do you think that you're unique?

TIMOR: 21:55

don't want to think that I'm unique, I'm but I haven't met anyone that went through the things I went through. I feel like it's just, it is a very unique case in my case, my upbringing and the way life unfolded for me. So wasn't a very regular route as most humans go.

AZI: 22:13

you think that there are young, people who also don't believe the anti Semitism and the hate that they're being taught?

TIMOR: 22:20

It's way too deep. Some people are just better at concealing it, others are just, openly anti Semitic. The was a Palestinian guy I interviewed a few months ago from Shechem, Nablus. And he basically made it clear that it doesn't matter what you do for them, they will hate you forever. asked him, do you think about those people who take out their phones and film victims of terror attacks and mock them and make fun of them and post it on social media and do all these things? He goes, I'm the first to do that. like, what? I was like, I'm the first to do that. I was like, why? Because you deserve it. I asked him, but you said you come to Israel and you work here. He has a work permit. Listen, I know some Jews, look at them, yeah, they're nice people they're occupiers. So sometimes like I meet some nice people, they're okay they hire you, they treat you nice. But at the same time, they should be doing that by default. It's all mine. They took it from me. you're programmed to believe your whole life that An occupier came and take and took everything that belonged to your ancestors. And the reason you're not living the best life like those in Dubai and Hawaii and because of these colonialists. That's people are more into Islam 7th century, Ahmed occupation when they came Jerusalem promised it's all it's for theirs forever. Some are like that. And some are, that guy, about they took my rights, so I'm gonna take everything away from them, and I don't care. So

AZI: 23:52

Essentially you're saying there's two types hate. There's the religious hate, that dhimmis, need to be conquered. And then there's this other school of thought, which is history began in 1947. And Jews are colonizers, and they stole our land. And because of that, these people are then videos of people, victims of terror attacks, and making fun of them on social media.

TIMOR: 24:19

months ago, there was a terror attack in Hawara. The father and son, they stopped to wash their car or do something with their car in the middle of the road. Palestinian guy just walked them and he's both took the bullets to the head, father and son. And then there was like videos on'cause I go to TikTok and Telegram and I see these things firsthand and I was seeing videos from over there. People driving they're saying like, RA with shit like, laughing it off. And he took a cigarette and he put it in the court like the corpse's mouth. he's filming himself just making fun of him. I was like, crazy. Like, how can they do that? And that guy said I'm the first to do that. human to human, he says, we can be friends. the humanity in that? can't see it.

AZI: 25:04

do we go from here, Timur? You exposed to a family who condoned terrorism, a school system that taught you to hate Jews, taught you to hate Israelis. And here you are on the other side, running to help innocent victims of terror, literally the opposite. Where

TIMOR: 25:22

brought the, brainwashed my brain, but they didn't brainwash my heart, I that's why I find a way always to make it right. Even learned it's always a learning process. That's how I see life. I

AZI: 25:33

speak the language of peace and tolerance and coexistence. And I want so badly to believe that there are other people like you. I want to believe that. My Arab neighbors, there's hope. What do you think

TIMOR: 25:49

about that? I, like you said, I do want peace. I want peace more than anything. I wish we could have peace. to give you like a positive message, like a positive ending and tell you that everything's going to be fine, but I don't know. I think what really makes everything worse is that the fact there so many things concealing the truth now we're just finding ways to add more layers and more layers under this hypocrisy. Last week, the Mufti, not this Friday, I was listening to it as well. I didn't realize, I wasn't listening to the Mufti before. I wasn't listening to lessons on the Temple Mount. And the amount of anti Semitism that is being spewed there, and the fact that Muslims from all over the country go to pray there on a Friday, I don't think the country is doing anything. So

AZI: 26:36

you're listening in Arabic. you tell us about what is the Mufti talk about? What is does he say on a Friday morning at the Temple Mount?

TIMOR: 26:45

Yeah, it's Friday noon usually. The Khutbah is just in the middle of the day. are broken into two parts. One, there's the Nakba. Nakba basically never happened, really. We're enough testimonies from enough people. And I have recordings that it never happened. The Arabs were lied to by other Arabs. They were deceived to run away. They were told that they were going to come in and slaughter everyone. And it was better if they just left and came back. And then they couldn't come back because you failed to slaughter everyone. You failed to slaughter everyone and then you would come back. It doesn't really work like that. The Mufti, he really takes something from that past. He takes something that really reminds me of Hajj Amin al Husseini. keeps calling the people who sit in the house, Ya Ibn al Bayt al Maqdis Oh children of the the holy temple. Oh children of Isra'il Mi'raj. Isra'il Mi'raj is the name of the event that took place on the Temple Mount when Muhammad was there and he supposedly, Ascended heaven from there, and he just mentions these stories and how we, we have to put faith in the more of the tune Arabic, Murabitun are those who hold on to the land, the fighters, the terrorists, those who are not willing to let go and give any inch to the occupier, right? So he's praising that. Then he goes and he says, how the ashes are bitter. Then the smell of the scent of life. And then he goes, Oh, how amazing is heaven compared to this world? Blessed are you who seek heaven? All these things, like it's complete incitement. It's insane. If you are there and. You go home right after and you just open TV and seeing kids dying guys and stuff. You're just going to go out and you're going to stab someone. Because that guy just gave you some nice motivation. He just gave you that little pump that pre workout shake. So he gave it to you. And I've been seeing that happen. And it's unfortunate. Two weeks in a row now.

AZI: 28:51

and I go into grocery stores and we do business with all kinds of people and have all kinds of conversations with people who go to that service and who are taught that death is holier than life. do we even go on and exist like this? And what gives you hope? Because

TIMOR: 29:08

me hope is You know, we're going back to October 7. Remember how I sat there and I just had my hands. I was like, there's another pair of hands you can use if you need. I found my way to this. wish there was a way to make everything better. But the government isn't doing anything. And that day, started HIPS, hidden in plain sight when I started, I understood that I have to do something that no one else has done to be this Arab guy who comes out and just says the truth to everyone in the face, not being scared, not having to put any filters, not worried about what people could say or might say. Whether it was Arabs or Jews, whatever. I just came to give you the truth. The absolute truth. I don't want to censor anything. So I did it. And then when I started, these Palestinians to reach out to me. Actually, I received more Palestinians who come to me and they say, how can we help You we can do? Even a guy was just like trying to always tip me off when something is happening. Some of them, they hate the life that they see. And they look at me and they think, oh, can help us. So I do have like maybe three or four Palestinians that contacted me just recently. And they're just desperate. They tell me, help us leave. How can we do this? They just want to leave somewhere else. Become refugees, anything, receive anything that is not this life. Because they're tired of it.

AZI: 30:39

are they so

TIMOR: 30:39

miserable? For example, this that recently contacted me. feel for him. I, do. He just got out of jail. He was there for five and a half years. He was accused by like he was in jail in the PA prison, like the one in, prison. So accused him of attempting to set attempting to sell land to a Jew. That was his crime. He was trying to make money. I guess he's selling and the guy was like, okay, I'll sell it to you and you sell it to him.'cause I don't wanna be the guy who sold it to the Jew. So he is being used as a pawn and they're sarcastic game. And he went to prison for it at 22 and now he's 28 and he got out and the abuse, the amount of abuse he's gone through in prison, the things that they've done to him, it's so heartbreaking. When he told me, I cried a little bit because I just, I was like, that's how can they do that? They're so cruel. This Arab world is so cruel. And those who reach that cruelty get to a point where they're like, I don't want nothing to do with this. I don't want to identify as this. I don't want to be this. But it is what it is, I don't people like this who wants to leave. He's

AZI: 31:49

you identify as a Jew, as an Israeli. Yeah. And he's reaching out to you and he wants help. Yeah. What can be done for someone like this young man?

TIMOR: 31:58

So right now, what I've been trying to do for a while now, I've been looking for a lawyer that could help him sue the PA. Cause if we can get him to sue them for all the things they've done to him, we'll have a case. It'll be interesting and we gotta get him out of there he wants to go anywhere in the world, you know So we gotta be an asylum seeker once he's going against the PA He cannot be there anymore He told me he'll die within an hour if they found out that he's like suing them or whatever Unfortunately, most lawyers I know don't deal with things like that. Some of them deal with criminals, some of them deal with immigrations and there's things like this, but not this kind of corruption case against the PA and stuff. This is more political. So I'll need to go elsewhere to find this, but I've been working hard on this. And I get these sometimes I have a guy I've been helping for the past year. He wants to go to Canada. I have another guy from, was a really nice guy, but he's just obsessed. He keeps asking me to help. He wants to be a Jew. Palestinian from Hebron is just all the time please, I want to be a Jew. Please, I want to be a Jew. this exist, yes.

AZI: 33:04

and you. If you could get help, if you had unlimited resources, what would you do to help these people?

TIMOR: 33:14

Palestinians who want to leave. If I could help them leave, that would be great. No, there's that if we can see the PA for with those who have been You know, victims of violence and abuse under the PA and their prisons. man, maybe I should just invest myself into becoming a lawyer so I could represent these people. That's what I've been

AZI: 33:38

to hear your story and it's incredible to hear the inside of how you grew up and what you're seeing. And if I know one thing, Timur, it's that you're just getting started. So I really appreciate your joining me and I hope this will be the first of many conversations.

TIMOR: 33:54

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

AZI: 33:57

Absolutely. Is there any, where can our listeners find you? How can people support you?

TIMOR: 34:02

the best thing you could do is follow me on Instagram and share my content. So right now it's just Instagram and YouTube These are the two places where my platform has been growing. I've been working on my YouTube channel for two and a half years now I've reached 4, 000 subscribers. There's a lot of work hundreds and hundreds of hours of work making all these videos traveling So if you can just go subscribe, it's free share my content. If you like it, here's how you can do it. Just help me get all out there and share my story. So more people can understand what's going on and raise awareness. So that's one way to do this. What's your handle on Instagram, Timur? Instagram is my name. It's Timur Aklin. T I M O R A K L I N. And how about you, Tim? I use the same name everywhere. Timur Aklin.

AZI: 34:55

Incredible. I'm so blessed to have this conversation with you.

Shure MV7-14: 35:01

​To learn more artist support our growing movement. You can visit tiny url.com. Backslash humanity, POV movement. That's tiny url.com. Backslash humanity, POV movement. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll see you on the next episode.