Itai Erdal is a Canadian who was born in Jerusalem and now lives in Vancouver, according to several online profiles. Erdal served in the Israeli military for three years around the early 1990s in Palestine and Lebanon. He has since offered mixed feelings on Israel.

He told an arts publication in Vancouver: “When I was in the army, I felt like I was doing the right thing […] Like my mother said, ‘If you go, you can be kind to people.’ And so I thought I would be the one soldier who’s gonna be nice to everyone. And only when I was there I realized all that people see when they see me is a guy in a uniform with a gun. They don’t know that I’m nice. They don’t care if I’m for them. I’m still oppressing them! They don’t care if I’m conflicted about what I’m doing. I’m still the person who’s stopping their life from being normal. […] Only after years of living in Canada, it became so clear to me that what I did was wrong.”

Speaking on what he wishes to accomplish with his work, Erdal said, “So me as a Jewish person who loves Israel and all my loved ones live there and I’m very proud to be Jewish: I can criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic. My goal is that they can criticize Israel, too, without concern of being anti-Semitic.”

Since coming to Canada after his military service, Erdal has worked in the arts industry. His website notes: “An award winning lighting designer, photographer, writer and performer, Itai is the founder of The Elbow Theatre in Vancouver.” It adds, “Itai has designed over 350 shows for theatre, dance and opera companies in 44 cities around the world.”