In a powerful dialogue, Fleur provides unique insights into the current challenges facing Jerusalem and Israel, drawing on her extensive political experience. She discusses the profound unity and resilience of the Israeli people in the face of adversity and offers a candid perspective on the global rise of anti-Semitism. As the episode unfolds, listeners are inspired to take action, stand with Israel, and consider what it means to live out their own God-given calling with fearlessness and purpose.
Welcome, everyone, to The Calling’s radio show to all the dreamers. I’m your radio host, Chrysandra Brunson, founder and CEO of The Calling. And it is such an honor to be with all of you today. You know, at The Calling, we have realized that so many people are afraid to go after the dreams that God has put inside each one of our hearts because they are afraid to fail. And that is just plain wrong because if God has given us a dream and we’re not living it out, we are wasting it. And we do not want to die with regret. That’s why the calling we love to inspire, empower, and equip people after God’s calling on their lives to reap the best kind of eternal legacy to have immediate impact on ourselves and our families. And we love to do this through so many different avenues from custom tools and programs, from global conferences, workshops, and speaking engagements, tools and kits. But especially through this radio show where we are able to bring on world-renowned guests. Today is no exception where they’re going to be able to tell us how they’ve been able to pursue their calling, their dream through all the ups and downs and how we can do the same and take action today. You guys, today is so special. We have the one and only the deputy mayor of Jerusalem here with us. And I just… Please excuse me for not pronouncing that so eloquently, but we are so honored to have you here with us. Thank you so much, Chrysandra. Thank you for inviting me. It is such an honor. And you are joining us from Israel right now. Is that correct? That’s right. From Jerusalem. Oh, the beautiful city of Jerusalem. And Fleur, can you just tell us, you know, for our listeners that aren’t familiar with this incredible royal position, can you just tell us what that looks like and what it encompasses?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
so thank you Chrysandra essentially i’ve been a city council member of the city of jerusalem for eight years and deputy mayor for five years and i’m just finishing my term now i will be moving on to national level politics soon at the moment i’ve been appointed special envoy for trade and innovation by the country but um for the moment i’m still in city hall and essentially the reason why it’s significant is because in in america you have many layers of different leadership position regional state county in israel we only have two national call it federal and local that’s it there’s no other layers and so essentially what we’re doing is managing one of the most complicated cities in the world And also, I think what people know less about Jerusalem is that it’s also the most diverse city in the country, where 40% of the population are Muslim Arabs. We have about a 5% Christian population and the rest, a combination of different types of Jewish traditional populations from secular to ultra-Orthodox. And that makes a very interesting laboratory of, you know, we are in a position where we we live side by side and we are constantly developing the models for a shared society. And I really, truly believe that even though Most people believe that the biggest challenges in the Middle East are coming from Jerusalem. But I actually see Jerusalem as the laboratory for the solution of all the problems in the Middle East. Because if we can solve it here, we can solve it anywhere.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Mmm. So powerful. And I got goosebumps when you were sharing that and just the Esther slogan that you are there for such a time as this and in royal position. And I love that you just shared that there’s such synergy going on in Jerusalem. We have to know, how did you hear this calling to come into politics, especially in Israel? How did you how did that come to be when you were a little girl? Did you see these seeds being planted in your heart and how did they blossom?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
well i couldn’t really get away from it because my father held a very important political position in the place that i grew up in in gibraltar which is in the southern tip of spain and it’s a british protectorate gibraltar is like gibraltar to the uk is like puerto rico is to the united states And my father was the first prime minister or chief minister, as they call it there. And so when I was born, he was already in a position of political power. And my parents didn’t exactly encourage me and my sister, my sister and I to join politics. They actually said it was a very difficult life, which it is. But I think that you do in life sometimes what you know. And what you’re used to and what is familiar to you. And so I, for many years, I was a lawyer. Then I was a communications consultant. And when the opportunity arose to step up to the plate, I guess, and run for city council, I just couldn’t say no. Something was pushing me. And I think that people who are in public service have a real calling now. Like I said, it’s a place you come not to make money. It’s a place you come for other people to constantly be in the firing line for people to complain about you, for people to tell you that you’re not doing something well enough. That’s politics. It’s not it’s not a position you you take for any type of gratitude position. But it is a very satisfying position because if you do manage to help from the individual or a neighborhood or a certain population in your city, it’s very, for me, it’s really what life is about to be able to give and serve and make people’s lives better. And that definitely has to be a calling because the sacrifice is just too big.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
I think that you blew away all of our minds and our hearts. We are how you are able to articulate the beauty of serving in politics. And I think so many people hear the narrative or they get involved physically. for the false reasons, but really to really have that calling of politics, it is of service and it’s the ultimate servant to humanity. And for you to see that as a little girl and your parents to echo it, not to get involved unless you really feel like this is what your calling is, I think is the greatest wisdom that we could all hear. And it’s such a platform to get involved in any way to be able to serve your neighborhoods, your community, your nation. When you were little, so as your father was your role model, was there one situation that you saw in his leadership that has now guided you today? I mean, many.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
I have very high standards of what I see a public servant to be because he was very honest, but he was also very humble. And so he never believed that his position made him any better than anybody else. And I think a lot of people who gain a little bit of power or stay in power for a while somehow think that they’re above people. And what they don’t realize is that they’re there serving the people and the people are their boss. It’s not the other way around. And the people can kick you out. And they ultimately decide if you get to stay or not. And I think my father knew that instinctively. Like I said, he was a very humble person. He decided not to take his governor’s mansion. He decided he wanted to stay in our house so that we wouldn’t grow up in an environment where we thought we were above anyone else. I always say that people always tell their children how special they are. And my parents were always telling us how we weren’t special. They didn’t want us thinking that my father’s position gave us any type of, you know, any type of superiority. And they were very, very careful. So I did learn a lot from my parents, always willing to help anyone, never saying no to people. And ultimately, the most important lesson my father taught me, I think, and I think a lot of politicians don’t really know this or never got the memo is, is that you also have to know when it’s time to leave. Never outstay your welcome. Somebody once said that every political career ends in failure. And my father didn’t because he knew when he had to leave. And so he smelt that it was his time to go. He smelt people needed a change. And he left. And he left on a high. He didn’t leave losing. And that’s, I think, a very important lesson that I’ve learned from him.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
To elevate and empower the next person up. That is incredible. And what a legacy. And for you to be able to grow up in that environment, to then be able to have this incredible opportunity and historic position right now in Jerusalem. How did you get to Israel for such a time as this? And we want to be able to hear what is going on.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So I’ve been in Israel for 23 years. I was always a Zionist from when I was a young girl. I came here for my wedding when I was 14 and I wanted to come back. I love the idea of the Jewish people finally having self-determination after so many thousands of years of exile. We are from this region. We are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. The people of Israel are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. Yeah. And I was very excited by that prospect. I grew up, I went to live in London. I am a lawyer by profession. I graduated law school. I practiced law for a little bit. And then I met my husband and he said to me on the second day, you know, I want to tell you, I want to move to Israel. I’m like, yes. Oh. I’ll marry him. Good job. He had the vision. So we got married and we moved to Israel 23 years ago. Actually, it was just our 23rd anniversary in Israel last week. Congratulations. And our four children were born here in Israel. So they are first generation Israelis.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Beautiful, beautiful. And Fleur, so then what made you get involved? You said you’ve been involved in the servitude of politics for the last eight years. City Hall. City Hall. How did you initially, did someone come up to you or who initiated this process? Did the prime minister ask you? No.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
No, no. First of all, local government and national government completely separate. Although, you know, there are, of course, connections and projects to do together with the federal government. But essentially, what happened was that I was at the time I was a strategic communications consultant. After I left law, I was a nonprofit. I’ve had a few careers, which I’ve enjoyed each one of them. I love kind of moving on.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Well, it makes you who you are, like to keep changing and evolving. Yes.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So each one of my careers has lasted like five to eight years. So I used to be in nonprofit for many years. I was a director of a small nonprofit organization. And then I became a communications consultant and I used to help companies and politicians to do effective messaging, public speaking, strategic communications, essentially. What do you need to say to get what you want? And somebody recommended me as an advisor to a small political party in the city of Jerusalem. And I thought to myself, oh, this is interesting. Something new for me, political communications consulting. I always liked the idea of being involved in politics in some way. So I started consulting this small party who had a messaging problem. And I kind of, as I advanced.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
I feel like majority do. Yeah.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
As I was helping them out, they were like, Ooh, would you like to run with us? And all of a sudden I thought to myself, you know, I’m a, I’m a believer. I’m a person of faith. So I thought to myself, you know, when God opens a door, you should walk through it. And it’s, Not every day you get the offer to step up to the plate.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
We had to take a short break, but we want to hear how you stepped up to the plate. You guys, we have the great honor of being able to have the deputy mayor of Jerusalem on with us. And you cannot wait to hear what she has in store. And towards the end, you’re going to hear how to take action on behalf of Israel. Stay tuned. Hi guys, this is Chrysandra Brunson, host of To All The Dreamers. I am so happy to introduce personal training, nutritional guidance, and behavioral change coaching. Healthy, happy, and heavenly for your wellness, spirit, soul, and body. Contact Mimi Kroger at healthyhappyandheavenly.com.
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CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
We are back. Thank you for listening to all the dreamers radio show. I’m your host, Chrysandra Brunson, founder and CEO of the calling. And it is such an honor to be with all of you today. You guys, we have been listening and just having such a huge blessing of having the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur on with us. And so you were just telling us about, uh, being able to step up to the plate and being able to come on board of empowering other people to strategically communicate. And then what happened?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So then I was asked if I wanted to be part of this political party and run for city hall. And I really had to think about it because I knew what that involved. I wasn’t alien to that world. And I knew that it would involve a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, especially when you’re running a campaign. You’re never home when you’re in a political campaign. And and I thought about it, but I couldn’t say no. Like I said, you know, when you believe and you think that God has put you here for something significant or meaningful and you somehow want to make the world a better place and what you found it for your children. So when I was asked, I thought about it and I came back and I said, OK, I’ll do it. Not every day God opens those types of doors. And there’s been difficult ups and downs, political ups and downs. But somehow, you know, I’m still here. It’s all good.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Yes. And there’s no coincidence that you are in this position and your humility that you were brought up with that are just instinctive to your bones that with your father being the prime minister, a prime minister of one of the greatest nations and now to be in Israel. What is can you just tell all of us this? What is going on in Israel currently in our modern day and what you have had to face in Jerusalem? A lot of people like to say that that’s the center of the nation and Israel. what we need to do about it.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So honestly, when I moved to Israel in March 2001, it was the middle of the second intifada. That was 23 years ago. And buses were blowing up with suicide bombers and cafes. And we lived in such a crazy reality that my husband and I would walk into a cafe and we’d say, okay, where should we sit in case there’s a suicide bomber where we will be less injured? I mean, imagine living that way. But this is how we were living. And I didn’t think anything could get worse than that. I mean, eventually, about six, eight months, it passed. A lot of people did die. It was a very bloody intifada with a lot of innocent civilians dead. And let me just remind everybody that that happened because Israel had the audacity to offer a two-state solution to the then leader of the Palestinian people, Yasser Arafat, who not only rejected the two-state solution, what they keep saying they want is, He also decided to launch a bloody urban war as a response to Israel’s generous offer to the Palestinians for statehood. So that’s the context. So I never thought it would get worse than that. But unfortunately, I was wrong. On the 7th of October, there was a brutal massacre that killed women, children, the elderly, babies, raped women and brutally took 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip where they are being hidden. in dungeons, badly treated, women sexually assaulted, and the elderly not being given the medical care that they need. That is something we never, ever thought would happen in Israel. The scenes that we saw on October 7th are scenes that are tantamount to the brutality of the Holocaust. And in our own sovereign country, we never thought. We’ve unfortunately had to face many wars, and we never started any of them. And we won all of them. but we never saw this level of brutality. And so the country is in shock and in trauma, but it’s also gone into action and resilience. And with the action and resilience has come incredible unity, which we were very disunited before October 7th. We were going through constitutional reform that a lot of people opposed, and we were very, very divided. And this has brought us all together. The cracks, unfortunately, are beginning to show again, but people like myself and others are working very hard to keep the unity of the country. And not only are we facing the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, a day later, two days later, when the bodies of the murdered were not even called in their graves, we saw a complete… upheaval of anti-semitism around the world including in your country people not only blaming israel for the massacre that was done on us but also blaming us essentially for everything going on in the world right now And what essentially we’re facing is what the Jewish people have faced for many different generations. And that is an uprising of Jewish hatred that want to destroy our country. When people in March say from the river to the sea, they mean that Jews should all die or go into the sea. That’s what they actually mean. And when you see Jewish students harassed on campus, what you’re seeing is a modern day Nazism. And what’s interesting about anti-Semitism is that anti-Semitism always cloaks into a justifiable cause. So 500 years ago, when my family were kicked out of Spain, Jews were Christ killers. And 100 years ago, when Jews were being carted into Auschwitz, it’s because Jews were responsible for the economic collapse of Germany. Of course, they invent lies. They use Jews as scapegoats. And then they go ahead and try to delegitimize our existence. And that’s what’s happening right now. I see this in a very clear… historical context. But the difference today is that we have a country with sovereignty. We have an army. And today, Jewish blood has a price.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
That’s right. That’s right. And I, you know, I just had the humble experience of being able to be over with you not even less than a month ago, and you being able to speak to our group filled of world leaders from America and also around the world, of us just being able to hear these firsthand experiences and the heartbreak. I think both of us are wearing these incredible necklaces. And Flora, do you want to just share how, I mean, just a quick little break. I mean, this alone and speaking up that this is not okay and that we are not going to tolerate anti-Semitism whatsoever and every single human has the right to life. But what are these necklaces?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So basically, these necklaces resemble the tags that Israeli soldiers wear when they go into battle. Just in case, God forbid, they are killed, they know your name immediately. And that is what this is. But… For the war, somebody decided that this was going to be how we’re going to remember that we have hostages still in Gaza. And it says, bring them home. And in Hebrew, it says our hearts are held captive in Gaza because everybody, everybody is feeling the pain of having those hostages who are somebody’s children and parents and grandparents. It could be any of us. But it happens to be them. And so we’re with them in heart and spirit. We will keep advocating for their release. And we’re not going to stop. We’re not. People want a ceasefire. Yeah. What I say to them is don’t ask for a ceasefire. Ask for the return of the hostages. The ceasefire will ensue.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Yes. Yes. So I was going to ask you, what do you what can we do as everyone tuning in, wanting to stand with Israel? What can we do to be part of this movement and this action to see change? And what’s on the horizon if it if they do not bring our hostages back?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
Well, if they don’t actually cut a deal with us to bring them back, the army is going to go in to find them. The problem at the moment is that the hostages are being used as a defense strategy for those terrorist genocidal leaders of Hamas. So it’s going to be very difficult. But we are still open to cutting a deal with Hamas, which will be painful for Israel because we’ll have to release murderers to get back our innocent civilians, our hostages. But Israel is willing to pay the price as long as we can get those innocent people home. And we pray for their safety and we pray that they come home very soon.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Mm hmm. And I think what’s so beautiful that every nation needs to learn from Israel is the community and the love that you feel that this, just like you mentioned, it’s not just the families and friends. I know the people personally, but every single soul in Israel is feeling the effects and everyone hearing it, that we are responsible for doing something about this issue. Everyone can do something.
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
You can write to your senator, to your representative, and make it clear that any ceasefire should be conditional on bringing all the hostages home.
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
That is right. And you guys, we are coming up towards the end of our show, but we’re going to share how you can actually win one of these priceless treasures to be able to bring to your church, to your family, to your community, to your business. And we’re going to do that here just shortly. But if you are really fast. So many people are not living out what their calling is, their true calling to have that fearlessness. What would you challenge them to do as you are someone fearlessly living out your God-given calling? How can someone else do that that’s tuning in?
FLEUR HASSAN NAHOUM :
So I would say two things. One, I always say to all the young women that I mentor that every day do something out of your comfort zone. Because it’s very easy to spend your whole life just staying within the very safe boundaries of what you know and what you’re comfortable with. But when we only grow when we do something which makes us stretch more. little bit and that means stepping out of your comfort zone i think that’s very important and then secondly just try and find what you love because if you find what you love and you’re good at it because a lot of people love something but they’re not good at it but if you love something and are good at it that is your calling
CHRYSANDRA (Host) :
Yes, that is so great. And you guys, we we want to come alongside your in Jerusalem and Israel. And you’re listening to this for such a time as this. There’s no coincidences. Please. Pull over right now and be entered to win. So you’re going to be able to enter to win one of these incredible necklaces to be able to stand with Israel. We’ll also give more links where you can donate directly to help the nation of Israel right now with just humanitarian aid and to stand with them to show our support and to voice that we are standing with Israel until the hostages come home. And we are going to do that. So Fiore is going to be on our social media. You can find her there. Follow the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. You’ll see the calling nonprofit right there as well. And you’ll be entered to win. You guys, this is a treasure. It’s from Israel. You do not want to miss out on this incredible opportunity. And we just challenge everyone to look inside their hearts. Ask, what would you do if you knew you could not fail? And today is the day to live that out. Just like Fleur just mentioned, do not be afraid. Get out of your comfort zone today. Till next time, dreamer. Keep dreaming big.
