About Jews in Iran

In my "trip report" about my fascinating 2 week trip to Iran, I mentioned briefly that I had been to a Synagogue in Tehran and that I had met with an Iranian Jew. A couple of people asked me to say a bit more about that experience.

I was interested in trying to find out something about Jews in Iran because here in Canada I hear wildly different versions of what life is like for Jews in Iran.

• From the outspoken defenders of the Pro-Israel lobby, I hear that the situation of Jews in Iran is grim indeed. They suffer intensive discrimination and persecution and many of them have had to flee the country.
• From the defenders of the Iranian regime, I hear that Jews are completely integrated into Iranian life and suffer no discrimination at all. There is even a Jewish member of Parliament.

Frankly, I was a little sceptical of both claims, and I was curious to see what I could find out myself.

It took a little snooping. When I asked my (official) Iranian guide where I could find a synagogue, she told me flatly that there weren't any. I didn't believe her. I had read in the Lonely Planet that there were about 30 synagogues in Iran and that the 20,000 Jews in Iran represent the largest concentration of Jews outside Israel in the Middle East.

However, I had understood that many Jews left Iran following the Islamic revolution. Many of them had been supporters of the Shah (who has been strongly allied with Israel) and left when he had to flee the country.

Lonely Planet claims that of the 50,000 Jews who left Iran, the majority went to the USA. It also claims that in 2007 Israel offered cash incentives of $60K per family to Iranian Jews to immigrate to Israel but that few took up the offer, and that the offer was rejected outright by the "Society of Iranian Jews". (LP Iran, pp 57-58)

I then asked one of my Iranian contacts if he could help me find a synagogue. At first, he didn't understand what I meant. (I couldn't tell if that was just a translation problem). When I explained it was a "Jewish church", he offered to call a Jewish friend of his to find out. If his friend was available, he would introduce him to me.

The Jewish friend was busy, and couldn't meet us, but he told my contact where his synagogue was.  So we set off by car, but unfortunately, when we got there, it was completely closed up, behind high walls topped with an iron fence. High up, I could se some writing in Hebrew letters.


The first synagogue we went to was closed, but I knew it was a synagogue because I could see a Hebrew inscription high on the wall.


(How to interpret the fence? Lots of other buildings in the neighbourhood were also behind walls topped with fences. Its hard to know if this has anything to do with being Jewish in Iran, or whether its just being careful in an urban centre.)

We wandered around a bit, and met an old man, who identified himself as Jewish. He said the synagogue was closed. (I couldn't tell if he meant it was closed that afternoon or closed "for good".) However, he told us where there was another one.

So we got back in the car, and after about 20 minutes of more driving around Tehran we came to the address indicated. There was nothing on the outside of the building which indicated what it was. We could hear voices of young children coming from inside, and there were a number of women hanging around on the sidewalk. After a while, they were joined by kids and headed off. The women were all wearing head scarves or hijab, and it didn't occur to me that they might be Jewish.

Eventually, we found a custodian who let us in. It turns out that this was a rather large (and well appointed) Synagogue, attached to a Jewish School. We walked around the Synagogue which was deserted. We were told there was some kind of big ceremony to take place that night. I thought it might be a good place to meet people, but our hotel was quite a way away and it wasn't clear if we would be welcome in any event. So I didn't come back.


The second synagogue was empty but the custodian let us in to take a few pictures. it seemed well appointed. I counted seats for about 200 people



The "altar" seemed ready for use. The custodian told us that preparations were being made for a big celebration that evening. (I later understood that is was Passover).

However, my same friend, ever helpful made contact with a representative of the Jewish community in Tehran, who offered to meet us the next day.

So I got to meet Farhad Aframian, Head of the Cultural Committee and member of the Board of directors of the Tehran Jewish Committee. Mr. Aframian, about 35 or so, identified himself as a lawyer, practicing in Tehran, who is also on a voluntary basis editor of the Committee's news magazine, of which he gave me a few copies in English and Farsi.

(For more info you can go to his website: http://www.iranjewish.com/English.htm)



Farhad Aframian was relaxed and happy to chat, but unfortunately we were very constrained by time as traffic had held him up, and I had to leave for another meeting after less than a half an hour.

 In our short conversation, I wanted to get clarity on two issues.

First - whether he felt there was any significant discrimination against Jews in todays Iran - in housing, education or employment for example. His answer was that while there is some discrimination - it is not severe, it is discouraged by the government, and in any event it isn't any worse than that suffered by other non muslims in iran (e.g. Zoroastrians, or Armenian Christians). He told me for example that there are 4 Jewish schools in Tehran - 2 for boys and 2 for girls, including the one I had seen at the synagogue the day before.

Second - whether his association was supported by the government of Iran. He said that all their funds come from within the community.

What to make of all this? I don't know. I can't really draw conclusions based on such little information. But my guess is that life for Jews in Iran is neither as dire as the Israel lobby makes it out to be, nor as rhapsodic as the Iranian government might think. It certainly deserves a bit more investigation.

For interest here is an article I found on the net by a Jew who has lived in the US, Iran and Israel.
 http://www.jewishmag.com/118mag/jews-iran/jews-iran.htm

The Jerusalem bomb - a terrible setback for the Palestinian cause

The recent bomb in Jerusalem - after 7 years of relative peace in that city - is a terrible event. First of all, for the innocent civilians involved. No decent human being can support the use of violence against civilians.

Of course the Israelis, too, attack civilians. Over 400 Palestinian children were killed in the attack on Gaza. And they should be (and were) widely condemned for it.


According to news reports, the bus bombing killed one person and left up to 50 injured



But that is not a justification for anybody else to do the same thing. It is easy to understand the frustration that could have led to this. But it is not morally justified - and equally important - it is a tactical disaster.

Murdering Israeli civilians is a huge setback for the Palestinian cause. Not just because it will drive Israelis even further into the militant camp, (though not many are in a peace camp today), but more importantly, because it will  undercut the sympathy for Palestinians in the West.

The Israel lobby work hard to convince Canadians that Israel is under threat and justifies everything it does to protect its security. If it didn't blocade Gaza, build the wall, imprison Palestinians, etc. etc., Israel says in effect, the Arabs would kill us all. This bomb seems to confirm that message.

No decent Canadian, however sympathetic to the cause of human rights for Palestinians, can approve of this terrorist attack. Many will today be shaken in their belief that Palestinians just want human rights. ("Perhaps they do want revenge", they will wonder. "And if they want "revenge" I don't want any part of it.")

We still don't know who did it. (Hamas is blamed - of course - but who knows??) It doesn't even matter. In fact, the bomb might as well have been placed by Israeli secret agents - judging by the effect it will have. This act will make it much harder to develop support for Palestinians in Canada.

Palestinian Canadians, those who want to develop support for their cause in Canada, must be very disappointed.

Background

Of course, the Jerusalem bombing has a context. It comes after days of mounting tension between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has attacked Gaza several times from the air, killing many Palestinians including children. Hamas has been lobbing more of its ineffective rockets in to Israel.

And then there was that terrible murder near Nablus of 5 Jewish settlers. Of course, the settlers shouldn't have been there in the first place. Of course, it is not clear who murdered them. (Suspicion has fallen on an immigrant worker who was not Palestinian.)

But that has not stopped the Israeli government from telling the whole world that the act was done by Palestinian terrorists. Nor has it stopped Israeli settlers from what they call a "day of Rage" attacking Palestinians all over the West Bank "in retaliation".

On Monday a Palestinian was stabbed by settlers, a shop was set on fire and later a group of settlers were seen stoning Palestinians' cars in Hebron in the southern West Bank. One of the Hebron settlers also ran over a five-year-old Palestinian boy causing moderate injuries while on Sunday an 11-year-old Palestinian girl walking to school was run over. 

Jewish settlers armed with machine guns and accompanied by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers uprooted hundreds of olive trees planted by Palestinian farmers near Bethlehem.

Israel will take full advantage of this opportunity to paint Palestinians in an unfavourable light, and Palestine's western supporters will be nervously holding back, trying to make sense of it.

For more information on the "Day of Rage" and its impact on Palestinians, read here.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54954

Palestinians deserve their human rights. We can develop a broad Canadian base of support for this. But those efforts are seriously undermined when it appears that Palestinians have attacked innocent Israeli citizens.

Is it true that Palestinians "danced in the streets" of Gaza over the murder of the 5 settlers?

A Brand New Myth

In the wake of the horrific murders of five Jewish family members, including three children, in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, a number of conservative blogs have been pushing a story that crowds of Palestinians in Gaza turned out to “celebrate” the murders. The stories were accompanied by photos apparently from Getty Photos.

A Palestinian man is shown offering sweets to Hamas policemen in the streets of the Gaza town of Rafah to celebrate an attack which killed five members of an Israeli family in Itamar

 A Palestinian man distributing sweets in the streets of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on March 12, 2011 to celebrate an attack which killed five Israeli settlers at the Itamar settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus

Ynet news reported, “Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children. Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy ‘is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank.’”

The story was subsequently picked up by the Israeli press which reported jubilant Muslims crowded Gaza’s streets, handing out candy and sweets in the wake of the murders.Later, it came to North America and has been widely circulated by Zionist circles as a way to prove the basic, inhuman nature of Palestinians.

However, all of these claims appear to be based on a single story from last Saturday in the Israeli tabloid Ynet. http://www.ynetnews.com An internet search shows several pictures of the same man offering sweets to various people. He also seems to have a camera in his other hand. No “jubilant Muslims” are to seen in the background of the pictures. In fact, it looks like a normal day in Rafah.

All this appears to be an elaborate propaganda piece aimed – again – at portraying Palestinians as hate-crazed and Anti-Semitic. In fact, almost all organizations in Palestinian society have denounced the murders and called for an impartial investigation of what happened.

Murder in the West Bank

Last Friday, somebody brutally murdered 5 Israelis in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, near Nablus. Apparently the murderer entered the fenced and guarded compound in the middle of the night, and murdered 5 settlers, including the father and mother and 3 children in their beds.

Five victims - two adults and 3 children

An atrocious act which no circumstance could ever justify.

But who did it? And why?

Immediately suspicion fell on Palestinians. They certainly would have motive. Israeli settlers are illegally occupying Palestinian land, cutting down Palestinian trees, killing Palestinian animals, throwing stones at Palestinian kids. They are protected by the Israeli army. Some Palestinians can't take it any more. That is the objective: to discourage the Palestinians. The settlers believe that God gave them the land of Israel, and they have the God-given right to try to chase the Palestinians away.

(For a concrete example of this daily harassment, see a letter from The Christian Peacekeepers Team in Hebron, which I have reprinted below. Their letters, every week, detail the vicious war that the Israeli "settlers" are waging against the Palestinians in the area.)

But did Palestinians commit the murder? And if so who? A frustrated shepherd? A terrorist cell?

The Israeli Press and the Israeli Government were quick to implicate Palestinian "terrorists". Some attributed the murder to "The Al-Aqsa Brigade" even though they disclaimed any responsibility. (It's hard to image that any political organization would expect to gain sympathy by killing babies). Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing and Hamas also dissociated it self from it.

The Israeli government quickly announced that it would build 500 more settlements in the West Bank in reprisal for the murder. (The announcement was so quick it seems likely they were already planning to do so but that the murder provided a convenient justification that would be hard for the international community to criticise.)

Israel Approves New Construction in Wake of Massacre

In response to this bloody incident the Israeli cabinet approved the construction of several hundred new homes in several different localities in the disputed West Bank, including in Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer. The Associated Press reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office sent a text message to journalists stating that all the new construction has been approved in areas which are considered to be major settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep after a final peace settlement has been reached.

Mideast Newswire 

But do we know who did it? The police investigation is still under way

Now it appears that there is another possible explanation. Apparently the murdered family had one (or more) immigrant Thai workers in their employ. Israel has increasingly resorted to using immigrant workers to do menial and agricultural jobs. One of these workers seems to have had some issues with the family, including the fact that he was owed a significant amount of back wages. According to the Jerusalem Post, he has also been arrested, although police have now put a "gag" order on the press.

I do not know how this will turn out. However, the political temptation to blame the murders on "Palestinian terrorists" seems all too powerful. It has begun to circulate as a 'fact" in the Western Jewish diaspora. And I do not have confidence that the Israeli police investigation will be able to resist the political pressures to put further blame on Palestinian "terrorists".

Here is the most recent post from the Christian Peacemakers Team in Hebron. It gives you an idea of the kind of constant tension that the Palestinians are living under in the West Bank. The CPT is a Christian group dedicated to peace and justice in the Middle East.
You can get on their mailing list by writing to: cpthebron@yahoogroups.com

CPT RELEASE

Settlers from Harsina Attack Palestinian Home

Paulette Schroeder

16 March 2011

On Monday March 14, fifteen (Israeli) settlers from Harsina Settlement attacked the (Palestinian) Jabber home in Baqa’a Valley.  The Jabber home sits at the bottom of the mountain housing the Harsina Settlement. The Jabber family consists of several families including 17 persons with 12 children.  At 2:30 pm fifteen settlers from Harsina Settlement  began throwing stones at the Jabber home  but were stopped by the Israeli Military.  They returned at 6:30pm and stoned the house for one hour with no interference from the Army.

One of the Jabber brothers who lives across the road from Harsina Settlement  said he was so afraid for his family that he wondered whether he should move his family to one of his cousins’ homes.  He said he does not sleep until 1:30 am or 2:30 am each night.

Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem’s visa revoked



Anglican Bishop
Suheil Dawani

 by Arieh Cohen
Israel considers Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani a foreigner in Israel, because he was born in Nablus. The Anglican cathedral and offices are in East Jerusalem. Without a visa, in theory he can be arrested and deported at any time.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Israel’s Interior Ministry has revoked the permit for the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, The Rt Revd Suheil Dawani, to live in Jerusalem, and has refused requests to reinstate it, in spite of protests by Anglican authorities in the West specifically the United States.

The Bishop is a native of the Holy Land and has spent most of his life and ministry here, but cannot obtain either citizenship or legal residence in Israel, since he was born in Nablus, i.e. in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, but has not been annexed to Israel.

East Jerusalem, where the Anglican Cathedral and Diocesan offices are situated, was also occupied at the same time, but Israel annexed it and considers it part of its national territory (although no other country in the world recognizes this annexation). Therefore, Bishop Dawani is considered by Israel to be a foreigner who can only visit East Jerusalem with a special permit, which the Israeli authorities can either grant or deny at their sole discretion.

In fact, all the original Palestinian inhabitants of East Jerusalem, and their descendants, are considered by Israel to be foreigners who are no more than possessors of a residence permit, which Israel can revoke. Since the Bishop has of course remained at his post, in Jerusalem, without the permit, he could be arrested at any moment, be put on trial for being in Israel illegally, be sentenced to a prison term – or simply be forcibly removed from Jerusalem.

For more information check out:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/digest/index.cfm/2011/2/26/Anglican-Bishop-of-Jerusalems-visa-revoked

Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports German Chancellor getting impatient with Israel

Merkel chides Netanyahu for failing to make 'a single step to advance peace'

In a tense telephone call, PM tells German chancellor that he was disappointed by Germany's vote at UN, but assures her he intends to launch new peace plan soon; Merkel reportedly did not believe Netanyahu, saying he disappointed her.

Merkel and Netanyahu meet in Israel 3 weeks ago.
We now know there was tension in the air

A crisis erupted between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During a telephone call this week, Merkel told Netanyahu that he had disappointed her and had done nothing to advance peace, sources told Haaretz.

The prime minister tried to persuade Merkel that he was about to launch a diplomatic initiative, explaining he is making a speech in two weeks in which he will outline a new peace plan.

A senior German source said Netanyahu had called Merkel on Monday, following the American veto in the UN Security Council last Friday and Germany's vote in favor of the Palestinian proposal to condemn construction in West Bank settlements.

The conversation between the two leaders was extremely tense and included mutual accusations and harsh statements, the official said.

Netanyahu told Merkel he was disappointed by Germany's vote and by Merkel's refusal to accept Israel's requests before the vote, the source added. Merkel was furious.

"How dare you," she said, according to the official. "You are the one who disappointed us. You haven't made a single step to advance peace."

The prime minister assured Merkel that he intended to launch a new peace plan that would be a continuation of his Bar-Ilan University speech, given in June 2009, in which he agreed to establishing a Palestinian state, the official revealed. "I intend to make a new speech about the peace process in two to three weeks," Netanyahu told Merkel.

The German chancellor and her advisers, who have been repeatedly disappointed by Netanyahu's inaccurate statements and failure to keep promises, did not believe a word of what the prime minister told her, the source said.

Merkel ended her visit in Israel three weeks ago deeply disappointed, a German official said. While here, she told Netanyahu the situation in the Middle East, in view of the revolution in Egypt, made it necessary for Israel to create a peace initiative.

US uses veto at UN to protect illegal Israeli settlements

Washington blocks resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories as an obstacle to peace.

The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlements as "illegal" and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building.

All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was backed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Friday.

Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador to the UN, speaking on behalf of the UK, France and Germany, condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "They are illegal under international law," he said.
He added that the European Union's three biggest nations hope that an independent state of Palestine will join the UN as a new member state by September 2011.

The veto by the  administration of Barack Obama, is certain to anger Arab countries and Palestinian supporters around the world. An abstention would have angered the Israelis, the closest ally of Washington in the region, as well as Democratic and Republican supporters of Israel in the US Congress.

The US says it opposes settlements in principal, but says that the UN Security Council is not the appropriate venue for resolving the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, told council members that the veto "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity".
"While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said.

PA pressured
Earlier, the Obama administration had tried to exert pressure on the Palestinian Authority to drop the UN resolution in exchange for other measures, but this was rejected by the authority. The decision to back the resolution was made unanimously by the PLO's executive and the central committee of Abbas's Fatah movement on Friday, at a meeting to discuss Obama's appeal to Abbas by telephone a day earlier.

"The Palestinian leadership has decided to proceed to the UN Security Council, to pressure Israel to halt settlement activities. The decision was taken despite American pressure," said Wasel Abu Yousef, a PLO executive member. Obama, who had said Israeli settlements in territories it captured in a 1967 war are illegal and unhelpful to the peace process, has argued that the resolution could shatter hopes of reviving the stalled talks. In a 50-minute phone call on Thursday, he asked Abbas to drop the resolution and settle for a non-binding statement condemning settlement expansion, Palestinian officials said.


'Goldstone 2'
"Caving in to American pressure and withdrawing the resolution will constitute Goldstone 2," said a Palestinian official, speaking on terms of anonymity before the meeting. He was referring to the wave of protest in October 2009 accusing Abbas of caving in to US pressure by agreeing not to submit for adoption a UN report that accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the invasion of Gaza two years ago.
Abbas maintains he insisted on submitting the report.


'Nothing to lose'
Obama initially pressured Israel to maintain the moratorium only to relent in the run-up to the 2010 US mid-term elections to avoid, some analysts said, alienating key voters. One PLO official said the leadership was determined not to cave in "even if our decision leads to a diplomatic crisis with the Americans", adding: "Now we have nothing to lose."

Since 2000, 14 Security Council resolutions have been vetoed by one or more of the five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. Of those, 10 were US vetoes, nine of them related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.