Tag: Iran/Israel

Exiled prince:’Jews are part and parcel of Iran’s future’

Iranian Jews may still contribute to a post-Islamic revolutionary Iran, even if they don’t live there, says  the exiled prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed Shah. Wide-ranging interview by Karmel Melamed in JNS News:

Journalist Karmel Melamed interviewing Prince Reza Pahlavi

Q: When you visited Israel last year, you interacted with many Iranians in the country who welcomed you warmly. What surprised you the most about the Iranian community in Israel, and how did their interactions with you, which Persian-language news media broadcast, impact perceptions of Iranians worldwide about Israel?

A: First of all, I wasn’t surprised, because I knew of that sentiment from the very beginning. The Iranian Jewish community in Israel, compared to peers elsewhere, has from the very beginning been the most vocal that we had to flee the country but has remained Iranian, attached to the motherland.

This was not a surprise to me. I knew it from the very beginning. This sentiment is present today more than ever.

I’ll tell you what was more of a surprise to me. On the last day before I returned to Europe, I was strolling on the beach in Tel Aviv in front of the shoreline, and average Israeli citizens would walk up to me excited, knowing full well why I was there. They said how hopeful they were that we can have this relationship again between our two countries. That was an element that I didn’t expect—that level of enthusiasm and interest.

Q: For more than four decades, Iran’s once-sizable Jewish community has nearly completely fled Iran for its safety and due to the persecution it experienced at the hands of the Islamic Republic ruling Iran. What sort of future do you foresee for these Iranian Jews—who live primarily stateside and in Israel and who have achieved significant success there—after the regime is no longer in power? What roles might they have in helping to rebuild Iran?

A: It’s no secret that many of the people in Iran who brought in factories, industry and investments to help the country modernize were Iranian Jews.

Of course, they are part and parcel of Iran’s future. I’d like to stress one point. When Hitler was mounting his war and carrying out the events of the Holocaust, I wonder how history took a change.

The attack on Pearl Harbor propelled America to engage in the Second World War. Until then, it didn’t want to have anything to do with it, knowing what Hitler was doing to the Jews. Even before the war, in Iran, we were harboring Jews and protecting them and we did so especially when the war started.

We had Iranian diplomats in Europe like Abdol Hossein Sardari, who helped get visas to Jews in France. Iran was a country—dare I say the only country in the Middle East—that actually gave refuge and asylum to fleeing Jews.

I think Iranians do embrace that. Iran was a country that was once respected in the world. Iranians were one of the few peoples who would travel to many countries without visas. The Iranian passport had value. They were respected.

Today, they’ve been humiliated and painted as terrorists.

All that context of course includes Iranian Jews rebuilding the nation. It goes without saying. It’s obvious.

There were those that had to but didn’t want to leave Iran who were murdered by the regime. It forced an exodus and exile. Many would have preferred to stay, but how could they do so under such a level of immediate discrimination?

They don’t necessarily have to return physically, but they can contribute to Iran in a hell of a lot of ways. They still have that attachment and can still find that role.

At the end of the day, history will not repeat itself if we do not forget what happened before. Today’s new generation of young Iranians needs to understand a little bit of what contributed to that development in the past. It was not imposed on them, but Iranians participated in it voluntarily.

Imagine how much more can be done in Iran once the atmosphere is opened, outside of all of these discriminations, and everybody has equal opportunities to contribute and what a bright future we could have. That’s the message we should spread around the world far beyond whether we are Jewish, Bahá’í or Muslim, or whatever ethnicity or whatever political thinking. The country can in fact help itself.

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First joint Israeli-Iranian film is acclaimed at film festival

Tatami is the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker, JTA asserts:

The cast and crew of Tatami at the Venice Biennale film festival

(JTA) — A film being billed as the first co-production by Israeli and Iranian filmmakers debuted at the Venice International Film Festival after a secretive production process that included a trip to Israel by the Iranian co-director.

“Tatami,” which received a standing ovation Saturday at the prestigious film competition, tells the story of a female Iranian judoka champion who is ordered to fake an injury to avoid facing an Israeli opponent at a judo championship.

The story is loosely based on the 2019 incident in which Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei was ordered to throw matches at the World Judo Championships to avoid facing Israeli Sagi Muki, who would ultimately win the tournament. The International Judo Federation banned Iran from all international competitions over the incident. (The ban was later reduced to four years.)

Co-directed by Israeli Guy Nattiv, the Oscar-winner who also helmed “Golda,” and Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, “Tatami” was shot in Tbilisi, Georgia — a country that Iranians can easily visit — beginning in the spring of 2022. The project was kept in strict secrecy because of Iran’s potential reaction to the production. Iran does not recognize Israel’s existence and, as the film’s plot underscores, forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis.

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Shah’s son makes momentous visit to Israel

Excited Jews from Iran  greeted the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah,  visiting Israel on Holocaust Memorial Day, with a rendition of the pre-1979 national anthem. Although he holds no official position, the prince is a symbol of the opposition to the Islamic Republic and incarnates the good relations which prevailed between Iran and Israel 40 years ago. Report in JNS News:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), his wife Sarah (C-L), the eldest son of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi (C-R), and Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), his wife Sarah (C-L), the eldest son of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi (C-R), and Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel.

Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi on Monday became the most senior Iranian figure to ever make a public visit to Israel. Pahlavi is the oldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

“I am traveling to Israel to deliver a message of friendship from the Iranian people, engage Israeli water experts on ways to address the regime’s abuse of Iran’s natural resources and pay respects to the victims of the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah,” said Pahlavi ahead of the trip.

“I want the people of Israel to know that the Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people. The ancient bond between our people can be rekindled for the benefit of both nations. I’m going to Israel to play my role in building toward that brighter future,” he added.

“Millions of my compatriots still remember living alongside their Jewish-Iranian friends and neighbors, before the Islamic Revolution tore the fabric of our society apart. They reject the regime’s murderous anti-Israel and antisemitic policies and long for cultural, scientific and economic exchanges with Israel. A democratic Iran will seek to renew its ties with Israel and our Arab neighbors. In my opinion, that day is closer than ever,” said Pahlavi.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel will formally host Pahlavi, with the aim of creating a bridge between Israel and the Iranian people, and expressing joint opposition to the ayatollahs’ regime, according to an official Israeli government statement.

“I am honored to host Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and appreciate his brave decision to visit Israel for the first time. The Crown Prince symbolizes a leadership different from that of the [ayatollahs’] regime, and champions values of peace and tolerance, in contrast to the extremists who rule Iran,” said Gamliel.

“Our nations have enjoyed good relations for thousands of years, since the time of Queen Esther who thwarted the evil Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews in Persia. Today, we are taking the first step in rebuilding the relationship between our nations,” she added.

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How a Jewish woman managed to infiltrate Iranian regime

How did a Jewish woman manage to get an audience with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameinei and an interview with President Ibrahim Raisi? The Jewish Chronicle’s David Rose tells the extraordinary story of Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a Jewish woman estranged from her Yemeni Muslim husband, who infiltrated the Iranian regime in 2017.  Among other things, she learned of  a chilling  Iranian plan to take revenge on diaspora Jewish leaders and organisations  in case of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

Catherine with the late Nader Talebzadeh, the regime’s master propagandist

Despite the huge risks, not to mention the potential threat to the wellbeing of her then school-age children, she felt compelled to take the chance to rub shoulders with some of the West’s worst enemies.

A failed marriage to a Yemeni Muslim in 2000 – during which she had experienced vicious antisemitism from her husband’s relatives – had left her with opportunities to forge pro-Iranian connections.

She had written blog posts and Middle East analysis that had caught the eye of the Ayatollahs and led to an invitation to Tehran.

That was how she found herself about to meet Ayatollah Khamenei. “We pulled into a courtyard with trees,” she recalls. “I was ushered into a sitting room. There was a carpet, and rugs on the carpet, with photos of Khomeini and Khamenei.

“I’d expected something presidential, but this was humble. There were Arab-style sofas and cushions on the floor. I was given sweet tea in a glass with a stirring stick covered in saffron sugar crystals and walnuts to nibble.

“There was a commotion around the doorway and Khamenei came in. He told me through an interpreter to sit on the floor. He sat in a chair. I’d been warned not to make eye contact, and not to speak unless he asked me a question.

“Khamenei spent a few minutes on chit-chat,” she said. “Then he began talking about the End of Days, how he would be the one who would usher in the return of the Mahdi [the mythical leader who will herald the apocalypse].

“His voice was quiet, high-pitched. He talked about this great war that would take place, and how al-Aqsa had to be liberated for the Mahdi to return to save humanity. He talked about the wars Iran was fighting in Yemen and Syria and how he had a divine mission.

“He was basically trying to justify crimes against humanity, saying you had to harm the enemies of God, who shouldn’t be seen as human beings.

“He said killing the innocent was OK, because they weren’t really innocents.

“A mistake we make is to assume he cares about his country. He doesn’t. He will literally see it burn if it means Islam will triumph.”

She said Khamenei seemed scared of only one thing — an Israeli attack. “He believes Netanyahu’s threats and he knows that, for now, Israel is militarily superior. And he feels that the Iranian regime can’t sustain a defeat.”

After half-an-hour, she said, the Iranian leader abruptly got up and left. “Afterwards, I felt as if I’d had an out-of-body experience. I was back in the car and thinking to myself: What the f*** just happened?”

The encounter left her with an abiding sense of the Iranian threat. The ideology expressed by Khamenei, Soleimani and Raisi was, she said, just as terrifying as Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

“If we are serious about combating terrorism and Islamic radicalism, and stand by the rule of law, we have to proscribe the IRGC,” she said. “We know now that Churchill was right and taking on the Nazis much earlier would have saved many lives.”

Returning from one of her trips she said she was taken aside at the airport and questioned by a Home Office official and later contacted them again.

“I wanted the insight I’d gained to be used,” she said. “It wasn’t that I had any specific intelligence that would change the game. But I understood the ideology and how they groomed people they thought they could use.”

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Harif interview with Catherine Perez-Shakdam

How a Sephardi Jew got an audience with Ayatollah Khamenei (Jonny Gould)

 

Iranian protesters renew friendship with Jewish supporters

The Iranian people are listening to Jewish artists  and activists who have offered their support to the protests rocking the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. C. Perez-Shakdam and F. Quintero report for Israel National News:

Liraz Charli, Israeli actress and singer with Iranian roots

Today, Iranians are reclaiming lost ground. From behind the thick walls of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s theocratic regime, Iran has broken out in song, dancing, and art, using creativity as a weapon against the regime, so that the world would learn of a people’s struggle.

“Baraye”, meaning “Because of” in English, has become the anthem of Iran’s anti-regime revolution. The song, which encapsulates the ills of the Iranian Islamic regime’s brand of tyranny, and the plight of a people who hunger for freedom, has become an eloquent rallying cry against the Islamic Republic. Shervin Haji Aghapour composed the lyrics of “Baraye”, from a collection of social media posts from Iranian citizens. Some of the sentiments set to music include a cry for “imprisoned intellectual elites”, and “all these empty propaganda chants [of hate they are forced to chant]”.

Breaking away from Tehran’s narrative of hate, exclusion, antisemitism, and sectarianism, Iranians have been reaching out, optimizing their creativity so that new and accurate narratives could be built, and old friendships renewed.

The Iranian regime arrested Aghapour after his song was listened to over tens of millions of times.

Yet, the Iranian people, in their struggle against oppression, are now seeing they’ve always had friends in places unreachable under the regime. Israeli and other Jewish artists, intellectuals, and activists have offered their support and their platform to Iranians—testimony of the enduring ties of friendships that exist between the two people.

California- based Israeli singer and influencer, Itay Benda’s cover of “Baraye”, is full of emotion. Though his inbox was flooded with messages the day after the Islamic regime arrested Aghapour, Benda said he was especially motivated to record the song because the original artist has “no freedom of expression, no freedom of delivering art.” Benda’s cover, supporting the Iranian Revolution of 2022, got over 17 million views. And, Emily Schrader, Israeli Twitter influencer and co-founder of Social Lite Creative, also sang a rendition which got well over 100,000 views.

Liraz Charhi, known professionally by her first name, is an Israeli-Iranian actress and singer who coordinated an album with Iranians and Israelis last winter, skirting not only Iran’s prohibition against such musical expression but also against the regime’s ban on Israelis and Iranians cooperating with each other. According to France24, her song, “Zan Bezan” from her previous album has also become one of the demonstrators’ anthems, and accompanies many protest videos on social networks.

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Iranian protesters use Israeli singer’s lyrics

Iranian protesters are using the songs of Israeli actress, singer-songwriter Liraz Charhi in their rallies and videos against the Islamic Republic. All Israel News reports:

Liraz Charhi: has worked with Iranian artists

“Until when will we be silent, until when will we keep our head down?”

While Charhi stars as a Mossad spy in the Israeli TV series “Tehran,” she continues to build up her musical repertoire among Iranians. Though artistic cooperation with Israel or Israeli citizens is a punishable offense in Iran, Charhi has collaborated with Iranian artists on three albums since 2018.

Charhi’s first two albums feature the contributions of anonymous Iranian musicians, who recorded their parts remotely. The first, “Naz,” would become popular among the Iranian people after its release in 2018.

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Jew ‘temporarily’ released from jail after visiting Israel

In the islamic republic of Iran, just visiting Israel is a crime. Nourollah Shemian may have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, and he may be sent back there again after his ‘temporary’ release. Sickening report in The Jerusalem Post:

The notorious Evin prison

The Islamic Republic of Iran has temporarily released the 65-year-old Iranian Jew Nourollah Shemian who was imprisoned for allegedly visiting Israel, according to a Tuesday report on the Persian-language website of the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). 

“The temporary release of Nourollah Shemian as the third recently identified Jewish individual put behind bars, is not a cause for celebration. It’s an alarm and likely indication of other Jews behind bars for similar reasons. 

Pilgrimage and visiting holy sites is a part of religious practice for many religious groups around the world, but for Iranian Jews it is evidently a cause for punishment and suffering,” Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, an Iranian in exile in the US who is the founder and director of the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities, told The Jerusalem Post.

 

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‘Tehran’ is latest Mossad drama to wow the Middle East

Tehran, launched on Apple TV in the US this week, is the latest of Israel’s popular spy dramas to hit TV screens  across the world. It has already been bootlegged and illegally streamed across the Middle East – including Iran. The show features a Mossad hacker smuggled in to Iran to help blow up a nuclear site. Report in the Financial Times: 


Niv Sultan stars as a Mossad hacker smuggled into Iran in Tehran

Embarrassing failures are far outweighed by the successes, including, most recently, the spiriting out of an abandoned Tehran warehouse of the entire nuclear archives of the Islamic Republic, proudly displayed on TV by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April 2018.

The realism helps too, said Sima Shine, who kept an eye on Iran for most of her career at Mossad and the National Security Council, and watched Tehran closely when it aired in Israel. 

 “It’s good that they give a lot of credit to the security apparatus [in Iran], and they don’t show them as stupid — instead they show them as operating quite well,” she said. “We see the demonstrations by students, and the counter demonstrations, and the hidden parties of young people — we know that all these things are happening in Iran.” 

 The Iranians were equally fascinated by the drama and perturbed by inaccuracies, said Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, the Washington-based think-tank.

“This is the first time a wide Israeli audience got a glimpse of their enemy, Iran, beyond the news cycle. 

This is also the first time Iranians got to see what Israelis, to an extent, think of them,” she said.

The timing helped too. “The unusual explosions must’ve added more interest in the series for both audiences as it unintentionally served as publicity for Tehran because the plot is about Israel taking out nuclear facilities.”  

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Iran sends Rosh Hashana greetings to Jews

Along with Presidents Putin and Erdogan, Iran’s Foreign Minister has sent greetings to Jews on the occasion of Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year. Yet Israel and Iran have clashed in Syria. A tweet from Mohammad Javad Zarif was accompanied by photos of Iranian Jews worshipping in a synagogue, underlying the assumption that Judaism is merely a religion.  The Times of Israel reports:

With one designated member of parliament, Iran’s Jewish community is
one of three officially recognized religious minorities. Armenian
Christians have two designated MPs, while Assyrian-Chaldeans and
Zoroastrians have one each.

Still, many Iranian Jews complain they are not treated equally under
the law. In July an Iranian court overturned a ban on religious
minorities standing in municipal polls.

 Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Zarif’s wishes come after a year of heightened tensions between
Jerusalem and Tehran that saw the largest ever direct clash between
Israeli and Iranian forces and Israeli agents brazenly steal Iran’s nuclear archive —
material that proves, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, that the regime has lied when claiming it has not sought to
build a nuclear weapons arsenal and that it intends to resume its
pursuit of nuclear weapons when it can.

In May, some20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces from southern Syria with Israeli jets then targeting numerous Iranian-controlled sites across Syria.

The Israeli army said the initial missile barrage was carried out by
members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Forces. This
appeared to be the first time that Israel attributed an attack directly
to Iran, which generally operates through proxies.

In response, Israel launched an extensive retaliatory campaign,
striking suspected Iranian bases throughout Syria for hours following
the initial Iranian bombardment.

Senior Iranian officials have relentlessly encouraged the destruction
of Israel, and Iran finances, arms and trains terror groups on Israel’s
borders.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah also sent Rosh
Hahsanah greetings to the Jewish people and agreed to meet with Finance
Minister Moshe Kahlon after the holidays.

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 Karmel Melamed slams western media who are eager to do Iran’s bidding by portraying Iran’s Jews as happy and peaceful:

 USA Today‘s report on Iran’s Jews is both inaccurate and irresponsible (Jewish Journal)

Every so often the when the Iranian regime’s public image in the West
has taken a hit, the regime’s leadership loves to invite various Western
media outlets to Iran in order to parade members of the Jewish
community in front of them in an effort to bolster their true negative
image as an anti-Semitic repressive regime.  The regime’s Intelligence
Ministry has hand-picked leaders of the Jewish community in Iran telling
the Western reporters that Iran is a supposed a “safe and peaceful
place” for Jews to live in. Unfortunately in the past Western media
outlets such as the Guardian in England, the Forward in New York, the New York Times, CNN or NBC News
have either been naïve enough to believe and report these lies, or just
complicit in spreading them. Again such has been the case with USA
Today recently publishing an article claiming the Jews of Iran feel “safe and respected”.
As an Iranian Jewish journalist who has been covering Iranian Jewry
worldwide for nearly two decades, I feel compelled to expose USA Today’s
inaccurate and irresponsible reporting on Iran’s Jews.

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What is interesting here is that Al-Bawaba – an Arab-owned medium based in Jordan – is using the status of the Iranian-Jewish community as a tool to lambast the Iranian regime. 

Are Iranian Jews proud or frightened? (Al Bawaba)

 Given that he has been repeatedly re-elected by Iran’s Jewish community,
one should not dismiss Morsadegh’s words outright. But nor can his rosy
declarations of Iranian Jewish life be taken for granted. Iranian Jews
are largely left in peace by the regime because the government trusts
them not to protest. But there is justifiable suspicion that Jews keep quiet not because they don’t have grievances with the regime, but because they know that the consequences of expressing them would
be dire. At a time when Israeli-Iranian relations are best described as
hateful, it would be all too easy for ruthless parliamentarians to make
Persian Jews a target. 

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Israelis cheer football teams of Muslim countries

Israelis have been cheering the teams of their ancestral countries  in the World Cup, Al-Monitor reports:

Fans of the Iranian soccer team leaped out of their
seats cheering wildly and waving Iranian flags when Saeid Ezatolahi
thumped the ball into the back of the net in Wednesday’s World Cup game
against Spain, tying the game 1-1 and leaving Iran a chance to advance. A
moment later, groans of disappointment spread as the goal was
disqualified.

The scene during a televised match in a cafe in Jerusalem (photo: Ilan Ben Zion)

This scene did not take place in Tehran or at the
stadium in Kazan, Russia. It was in a bar in Jerusalem, where the fans
were mostly Israelis expressing their shock and disappointment at Iran’s
defeat.

Geopolitics set aside, many Israeli Jews are rooting for Muslim
countries in this year’s World Cup, including Israel’s archrival Iran.
The Israeli national team has only competed in one World Cup, in 1970,
leaving local soccer fans to root for other teams when the quadrennial
event rolls around.

This year, Iran and four Arab states — Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco
and Egypt — are competing in the World Cup in Russia. This rare showing
of countries from the Muslim world, from which a large percentage of
Israelis immigrated in the 20th century, has prompted many in Israel to
cheer on the teams of their ancestral countries. As of 2011, Israel was
home to 141,000 Jews of Iranian descent, 492,000 Jews of Moroccan
descent, 134,000 of Tunisian and Algerian descent, and 57,000 of
Egyptian origin, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.

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By contrast a man draped in an Israeli flag was pursued by Tunisian fans in Moscow shouting ‘Palestine’. The story that Moroccan fans tried to snatch an Israeli flag has proved false. JTA story here.

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This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, of the Middle East and North Africa, documenting the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution.

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