Reuniting Iran and Israel as friends, emphasizing a 3,000-year history of Persian–Jewish kinship and shared biblical roots.
Honoring women of Iran through murals inspired by Mahsa Amini and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, spotlighting regime violence and women killed in protests.
Using Oct. 7–themed art to connect Israeli and Iranian stories, including murals of Israeli-Iranian soldier Shirel Haim Pour and an Iranian protester maimed by the regime.
Elevating Queen Esther and the concept of “Esthers of the World, Rise Up” as a symbol of courageous women standing up to tyranny.
Explaining the spiritual and biblical connection between Jerusalem and ancient Elam (in modern Iran) as a theological basis for Jewish–Persian friendship.
Raising global awareness about the oppression of women in the Islamic Republic, including allegations of poison gas attacks on Iranian schoolgirls.
Demonstrating that Israel stands with the women of Iran, highlighting that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country allowing these anti-regime murals.
Using “mural diplomacy” and public art as unconventional foreign policy and grassroots PR for Israel, countering what he calls Israel’s “terrible PR.”
The number 18 murals as a symbol of “chai” (“life”) in Jewish tradition, and why that prophetic number defines the scope of his project.
His personal story: Iranian-born, raised in California by a church community, Christian faith, and why he has never returned to Iran yet still deeply identifies with the Iranian people.
Working with Israeli graffiti artists across Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Haifa, Netanya, and Mevaseret to create nine completed murals so far.
Self-funding the entire project, repeatedly returning to the U.S. to work and finance each new mural, with no institutional or government funding.
The Iranian regime’s propaganda response to his work, including Tehran street banners with missiles and the threat “400 seconds to Tel Aviv.”
The visit of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to one of his murals in Netanya and its significance for the Iranian opposition in exile.
What he has learned from Israeli culture about disagreeing passionately yet maintaining love and respect, and how that contrasts with polarization in America.
Hooman Khalili is an Iranian‑born visual artist, filmmaker, and creative director based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose current work centers on large‑scale murals about Iran, Israel, and the struggle of Iranian women.
Hooman Khalili is an Iranian-born, San Francisco–raised radio personality, filmmaker, and mural artist whose work bridges entertainment, faith, and “mural diplomacy” between the Iranian and Jewish peoples. Over two decades in media and a growing portfolio of high-impact public art, he has built a unique platform that connects Hollywood, Israel, and the global struggle for freedom in Iran.
For 21 years, Hooman was a fixture on the “Sarah and Vinnie” Morning Show on Alice Radio 97.3 FM (CBS Radio) in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he served as phone screener, on-air movie critic, and celebrity interviewer. He covered the Grammys, MTV VMAs, Sundance Film Festival, Super Bowl 50, and numerous CBS TV premieres, interviewing A‑list figures such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Donald Trump, Tom Hanks, Robert Downey Jr., Harrison Ford, Jerry Seinfeld, George Lucas, and Maroon 5, and he was the last person to interview Hunter S. Thompson before his death. Over the years, he collaborated with every major Hollywood studio, promoting more than 1,000 films and earning a reputation as a trusted partner between filmmakers and audiences.
Hooman’s pioneering spirit in film led him to write, direct, and shoot “Olive,” the first full-length feature movie captured entirely on a cell phone, using a Nokia N8. The film, starring two-time Academy Award nominee Gena Rowlands with original music by Dolly Parton, qualified for Academy Award consideration and drew international attention to the creative potential of mobile filmmaking. He also lent his voice to Pixar’s hit “Cars,” further extending his creative footprint into animation.
In recent years, Hooman has become known globally for his “mural diplomacy” project, a series of public murals in Israel and the United States that honor the 3,000‑year bond between Persians and Jews and amplify the voices of the Iranian people. Drawing from the biblical connection between ancient Elam (in modern Iran) and Jerusalem, and inspired by figures like Queen Esther, his works celebrate “Esthers of the World” and particularly the women leading the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement against the Islamic Republic. His Oct. 7–themed murals, unveiled across Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth, Netanya, and Mevaseret, juxtapose Israeli victims and heroes with Iranian protesters maimed or killed by the regime, visually linking their struggles for freedom.
Hooman has committed to creating 18 murals—a number symbolizing “chai,” or “life,” in Jewish tradition—and to date has completed half of them, all without institutional or government funding. He repeatedly returns to the United States to work and self-finance each new mural, partnering on the ground with Israeli graffiti artists and communities. His work has attracted attention from across the Iranian diaspora, including a visit from exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to one of his Netanya murals, and has drawn propaganda pushback from the regime, which has answered his images with Tehran billboards boasting missiles and the threat “400 seconds to Tel Aviv.”
Beyond media and art, Hooman’s life is shaped by his Christian faith and deep commitment to service. Raised in California by a church community after leaving Iran as a child, he has never returned to his birth country but continues to identify strongly with the Iranian people and their fight for dignity and freedom. He has served on humanitarian missions in South Africa, Costa Rica, Armenia, Bali, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mexico, Germany, Greece, Uganda, and South Sudan, as well as long-term on the streets of San Francisco with people experiencing homelessness. He previously directed the choir at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in San Francisco and today volunteers his creative skills to make short movies with terminally ill children battling cancer.
Across radio, film, public art, and humanitarian work, Hooman Khalili has emerged as a multifaceted creative force who uses storytelling in all its forms to honor the women of Iran, support Israel, and remind the world that Persians and Jews are not enemies but ancient friends.
Hooman Khalili’s Woman Life Freedom Mural Project is a global public‑art initiative spotlighting the bravery of Iranian women, honoring Persian–Jewish friendship, and visually opposing the Iranian regime’s oppression. Through a growing series of large-scale murals in Israel, the United States, and beyond, he uses walls as a “street-level foreign policy” campaign linking the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran with the Jewish and Israeli story.
At the heart of the project are portraits of women—both Iranian and Israeli—who have become symbols of resistance, including Mahsa Amini and Israeli‑Iranian soldier Shirel Haim Pour, whose faces often appear side by side. By pairing victims of Iran’s Islamic Republic with victims of Hamas’s October 7 attack, the murals argue that Persians and Jews are fighting the same extremism and that their suffering and courage are interconnected. Many works carry the banner “Esthers of the World, Rise Up,” invoking Queen Esther as a model for modern women standing up to tyranny.
The project is deeply rooted in biblical imagery, especially verses from Jeremiah that describe God placing His throne in both Jerusalem and Elam, an ancient region in modern Iran. Hooman uses these texts to frame Persians and Jews not as enemies but as ancient allies whose destinies are spiritually linked, reinforcing his goal “to reunite Iran and Israel as friends” after 3,000 years of shared history. Each mural weaves scriptural references, Persian motifs, and Israeli symbols into a single visual language of solidarity.
Hooman initially set a prophetic goal of painting 18 murals—“chai” or “life” in Jewish numerology—and by late 2024 had completed that number across Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth, Netanya, Mevaseret, and other locations. The work has since expanded, with later pieces such as the Ibim mural near the Gaza border and a major installation at Rice University becoming part of what is now a 19‑plus mural series. These works often feature multiple Iranian and Persian Jewish women whose stories embody the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
The murals are created in partnership with Israeli graffiti artists and local institutions but are financed almost entirely by Hooman himself, who repeatedly travels back and forth from the U.S. to fund and produce each piece. His Ibim mural near Gaza and his Rice University mural in Houston mark important milestones: one situating Iranian women’s struggle literally on Israel’s conflict-ridden border, the other bringing the message to a U.S. campus and embedding it in a 14,000‑tile mosaic that unites Mahsa Amini and Shirel Haim Pour as shared heroines. Across all of them, the project functions as a loud, colorful insistence that Iranian women, Israeli women, Persians, and Jews stand shoulder to shoulder against the same darkness.
Unveiled October 28th 2024
The final mural is the collage of all 17 murals combined. This series is concluded by summarizing the entire journey and themes of the mural project in a single artwork
Mural 18
Unveiled October 28th 2024
The final mural is the collage of all 17 murals combined. This series is concluded by summarizing the entire journey and themes of the mural project in a single artwork
First Station in Jerusalem
See his other murals here: https://www.hooman.tv/mural.html
Hooman Khalili is an Iranian-born, San Francisco–raised radio personality, filmmaker, and mural artist whose work bridges entertainment, faith, and “mural diplomacy” between the Iranian and Jewish peoples. Over two decades in media and a growing portfolio of high-impact public art, he has built a unique platform that connects Hollywood, Israel, and the global struggle for freedom in Iran.
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