Members of the Federation of Former Iranians in Israel said
that it is rumored that an additional wave of arrests of Jews
in Iran has occurred. This statement was made at a meeting
between the organization's head and Chief Rabbi of Israel
Yisroel Meir Lau. Family members of the arrested Jews were
also invited to attend that meeting, but they did not
come.
One of the activists, Yossi Siwan, said that he had spoken
with an immigrant who recently arrived form Shiraz, who knows
the arrested Jews. Siwan said, "There is no doubt that this
is a blood libel, whose apparent purpose is to annihilate the
Jewish community of Iran."
All five United Torah Judaism (UTJ) MKs met last week with
the U.S. and French ambassadors to Israel, urging them to
take action to secure the immediate release of the arrested
Jews. The UTJ representatives also met with the German and
British ambassadors. The U.S. ambassador said that he would
convey the request to President Clinton and to Secretary of
State Allbright.
U.S. President Bill Clinton said he will seek international
assistance in gaining the release of the 13 Jews imprisoned
in Iran on trumped up charges of espionage. Both the U.S. and
Israel have categorically denied that the Iranian Jews were
spying on their behalf.
In 1998 Iran executed a 60-year-old Iranian businessman for
allegedly spying for Israel, according to Human Rights Watch.
In 1997 two people were hanged after they were convicted of
espionage charges, according to the human rights organization
Amnesty International.
In 1996, an anonymous Iranian Jew testified in the U.S.
before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on
International Operations and Human Rights that he was
imprisoned for more than two years because he was suspected
of spying for Israel.
Seventeen Jews are said to have been executed in Iran since
the revolution in 1979.
Iran's 2,500-year-old Jewish population is the largest
Diaspora community left in the Middle East, with an estimated
25,000 to 35,000 Jews.
Iran's pre-Revolution Jewish population is estimated to have
been 100,000, but most left for the United States and Israel
as anti-Zionism and anti-capitalism heated up under the
Islamic regime. Jews are today considered a "tolerated
minority" in Iran, a state that is ruled by Islamic law, or
Shariah. This protection came in the form of a
fatwa, or religious decree, issued by the Ayatollah
Khomeini when he returned from exile in Paris in 1979 to
announce the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
As do the other recognized religious minorities living in
Iran -- Christians and Zoroastrians -- the Jewish community
has its own representative in the Iranian Parliament.
In 1997, according to one news report, there were 11
functioning synagogues, two kosher restaurants, a Jewish
hospital, an old age home and a cemetery in Teheran alone.
Jews are allowed to congregate and pray in synagogues, which
have become for many Jews since the Revolution a social
center as well.
Jews are permitted to drink alcohol in private -- unlike
Muslims, for whom liquor is prohibited -- but Jewish women
must cover their heads in accordance with the Islamic dress
code.
Jewish merchants are permitted to close their businesses on
Shabbos, but one of the explanations for the recent arrests
is that some of the religious Jews refused to open their
stores on Shabbos.
Jewish religious education is encouraged and taught by Jewish
teachers, although the schools are run by the Muslim state.
However, learning Hebrew is more suspect and is taught only
in private. It is popularly associated with Israel, and thus
Zionism.
Nasrin Jahaverian, whose brother, Nasser Levihaim, is one of
the men in custody, said that Iranian authorities might have
targeted him because he frequently volunteered as a Hebrew
teacher.
Most Iranian Jews live in the capital, Teheran; only a few
thousand live in the regional centers of and Isfahan and
Shiraz, where the Jews in custody were arrested. Shiraz is
known as a more traditional city than Teheran, and Jewish and
Muslim residents tend toward religious conservatism.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian cleric has rebuffed protests from
world Jewry and insisted that 13 Iranian Jews should hang if
they are convicted of espionage, Iranian newspapers
reported.
"No country can be lenient with spies," several newspapers
quoted Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati as saying in a Friday prayer
sermon at Teheran University.
Jannati alleged that those arrested had been "engaged in
collecting intelligence data and sending them to Israel via
Turkey or other places."
Hard-liners in Iran were rebuffed, however, by more moderate
President Mohammed Khatami, who has gone out of his way to
issue statements "defending the rights" of religious
minorities. In recent months, Khatami has been trying to
create better ties with the West.
An official with a Jewish organization took up the issue on
June 17 with six Iranian journalists visiting the United
States at a closed-door meeting. The Jewish group sought to
convey the seriousness with which officials in the United
States take the fate of the 13 Jews.
The journalists, all loyal to Iranian President Mohammed
Khatami, said they believe the arrests are an effort to
thwart the president's policies. However, no world pressure
will lead to their release, the reporters said.
"Once they've been charged, they have to be tried," the
journalists told a source at the Jewish organization. "Their
only hope is to have an open trial, open to public
scrutiny."
Efforts to enlist Jordan's assistance in the matter, however,
have been ignored. Quoting official Jordanian sources, the
London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat reported that
Jordan fears raising the issue will cast a shadow on Iranian
Foreign Minister Kamal Harazi's visit to Jordan, the first of
its kind since the Iranian 1979 revolution.
Jewish organizations in France are trying to coordinate a
large demonstration this week in front of the Iranian embassy
in Paris.
A special prayer for the safety of those arrested was recited
in all Orthodox synagogues throughout Britain and the
Commonwealth on Shabbos.
The U.S. State Department, key European nations and the
Vatican have tried to intercede on behalf of the prisoners.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said that Israel is
acting in "full swing" to secure the prisoners' release.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the U.S. civil rights leader, failed
in a bid to meet with Iran's UN representative to appeal for
the suspects' release, but vowed to press ahead for their
freedom. Jackson, who is currently in Paris, discussed the
affair with France's Jewish community leaders. He reiterated
his offer to fly to Iran in order to bring about the release
of the arrested Jews. Jackson was quoted as saying that the
execution of the arrested Jews would be a very negative
measure, which would harm Iran's efforts to once more
integrate with the international community.
Chief Rabbi Yisroel Lau made an appeal to many diplomatic and
political leaders to save the threatened Jews. He wrote or
spoke to King Abdullah of Jordan, as well as the former
president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. This past Monday
Chief Rabbi Lau wrote to the President of Kazkhastan,
Nursultan Nazarbayev, saying: "We know that you have
influence on the leaders of Iran, and we are aware of your
personal friendship with President Khatami and with the heads
of the Iranian religious establishment. Therefore please help
us in our important endeavor to save the imprisoned Jews from
the death sentence, and to return them to their families as
soon as possible." Chief Rabbi Lau also asked the Dalai Lama,
who was visiting Israel, to use his influence to secure the
release of the 13 Jews held in Iran.
Canadian diplomats in Teheran asked the Iranian Foreign
Ministry for clarification of the charges.
Iran has given assurances to the Canadian Embassy that the 13
Jews would "receive fair treatment and due process in
accordance with Iranian law."
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the
International Committee of the Red Cross have also been asked
to make personal pleas to Iran for the release of 13 Jews
accused of espionage.
