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1 Av 5759 - July 14, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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European Governments and Public Opinion Indifferent to the Plight of the 13 Imprisoned Iranian Jews

by Arnon Yaffeh, Paris

At a recent meeting held in Paris, heads of the anti-racist French organization complained that the various European governments are making no effort to save the thirteen Jewish prisoners in Iran, and that European public opinion is apathetic. According to Fuhad Selah, the chairman of S.O.S. Racism, an organization of Mugrabians, the newspapers have made no mention of the efforts being made by Jewish and anti- racist organizations on behalf of the Jewish prisoners. "Everyone will cry out when it's too late. Now is the time to save them," he said.

The silence about the protest rallies and formal statements of Parliament representatives against the arrests serve the purposes of the Islamic regime. Instead of reporting on the danger to Jewish lives, lengthy reports are published about discrimination against Israeli Arabs. One such article, complaining that El Al refused to hire a certain person as steward because he's an Arab, received front page coverage in the Herald Tribune. Another article complains that the new government includes no Arab minister. No mention was made about the meeting of the anti-racist organizations held about the plight of the Iranian Jews.

It is believed that only internal elements can help the Iranian Jewish prisoners. Iran's president, Mohammed Khatami, is trying to force the appointment of one of his followers to the position of head of the Islamic judicial system, instead of the reactionary Imam, Mohammed Yazdi. It is presumed that the prospect of saving the thirteen Jewish prisoners depends on his success in effecting a judicial system reform. However, the head of the judicial authority -- whose position is like a Justice Minister with the broad authority of a High Court justice -- has been appointed by the leader of the revolution, Khamani, head of the extreme wing which instigated the accusations against the Jews. This position is considered the central point of the extremists' power. Khatami is striving to break the hold the reactionary Moslems have in order to thwart his reforms in the internal government.

Yazdi's tenure is due to end in a number of weeks, but the battle over appointment of his replacement and control of the judicial system has already begun. The French explain that the pressure against Iran will serve his enemies and weaken him.

The New York Times relates that Khatami has tried to calm the Jewish communities, but he condemns the imprisonment and the accusations as distortions of the legal system. Until now, extremists in control of the judicial system have prevented all reform and conducted a suppressive Islamic system. Khatami himself criticized this system last week, in a speech made in the presence of all the general prosecutors and judges, as well as Yazdi. "We must put an end to forced confessions of guilt, closed trials and charges of political crimes," Khatami said.

The true method of the prisons was disclosed at the trial of one of heads of the Police Department, General Mohammed Razi Nagadi, who was accused of torturing Teheran municipality clerks in order to pressure them to divulging incriminating information about the mayor, a close confidant of the president. In his speech, he did not mention the accusations against the Jews charged with espionage. According to diplomats, the affair of their arrest and imprisonment is linked to the battle over the control of the judicial system.

According to Eric Rolo, an expert on Iran, Iranian public opinion supports Khatami and is drawing away from Islam and closer to Iranian doctrines. This seems to be confirmed by the recent student riots.


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