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.
