Thirteen Jews being held in Iranian jails on suspicion of
treason will be executed if convicted, according to the head
of the Iranian judiciary system. His statement was made
during a recent sermon at Teheran University. The Reverend
Jesse Jackson, a prominent U.S. black leader, offered to go
to Iran to try to secure their release.
Yated Ne'eman reported that a delegation of Agudas
Yisroel of Great Britain consisting of the joint Vice
Chairmen Mr. Yitzchok Meir Cymerman, Councilor H.J.
Loebenstein MBE and Executive Director Rabbi C.Y. Davis,
called at the British Foreign Office to express concern about
the 13 Iranian Jews.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Edward Chaplin, Head of
Middle East Department, and Mr. Michael Axworthy, Head of the
Foreign Office Iran Section.
The delegation gave a full briefing -- followed with a
detailed memorandum based on discreet negotiations which were
conducted by Professor M. Z. Reicher, representative of the
World Agudas Yisroel at the United Nations, with various
diplomatic missions.
The Jewish community of France has also been active, and they
have arranged for the French ambassador to Iran to officially
ask the regime about the fate of the Jews.
U.S. relatives of the accused spies have publicly expressed
fears for the lives of their loved ones. Nasrin Javaherian of
San Jose, California, is the sister of Nasser Levi Haim, 49,
the oldest among the prisoners.
Javaherian was one of the relatives who met with the Reverend
Jesse Jackson, who declared his readiness to fly to Teheran
together with the same ecumenical team that previously
obtained the freedom of three American soldiers held in
Yugoslavia.
In a news conference in Los Angeles, Jackson described the
meeting with the relatives as ``a deeply moving
experience.''
Jackson said his first move would be to appeal to the
religious authorities in Iran ``to allow us to visit and gain
the release of the 13 prisoners, and to appeal fervently that
their lives be spared.
``I have seen some evidence that Iran is trying to rejoin the
world. One expression would be to set the 13 Jews free,"
Jackson said.
While world outcry continues, many observers are puzzled why
Iran would arrest the Jews during a time when the government
of President Mohammed Khatami has signaled a desire to
improve relations with the West.
Some observers say that the incident is precisely the result
of an internal power struggle between Iranian moderates, led
by President Khatami, and fundamentalist hard-liners. The
arrest of the Jews is a deep embarrassment for the moderate
government as it tries to improve ties with the West. The
hard-liners, who still control the security apparatus as well
as the judiciary, arrested the Jews. The president is trying
to curb the supervision of the revolution's patrol of the
private lives of the Iranians, and to permit a more Western
type of lifestyle. After his rise to power, many Iranians
stopped observing the Islamic restrictions in their private
homes.
Jewish sources in France say that the 13 Jews were originally
arrested for light misdemeanors, including the sale of wine
to Moslems and the refusal to close their stores on Fridays
(because they close them on Shabbos due to religious
conviction). The Shiraz area is known for its excellent
vineyards. The Islamic regime uprooted most of the Shiraz
vineyards after the revolution, however the Jews received
permits to manufacture wine for their own needs, and two were
arrested for selling some of the wine to Moslems. Suddenly,
the charges became more serious, and took the form of
"espionage on Israel's behalf and international sources."
New York Jews who maintain close contact with Jewish
activists in Iran told Ha'aretz that the arrests in
Shiraz, which by Iranian standards is an assertive Jewish
community, might be an attempt to prevent this assertiveness
from spreading to other localities in Iran.
As an example of Shiraz's assertiveness, one source noted
that the community had refused to comply with a government
demand that it open Jewish-owned businesses on Shabbos and
close them on Friday instead. This was apparently the motive
for the arrests.
However, other Jewish officials in New York said they share
the diplomatic view that the arrests are the result of a
power struggle between the pro- and anti-reform forces in the
Iranian government.
Another account of the affair says that the Iranians at first
arrested two Jews in Shiraz, and tortured them until they
cited the names of 11 activists from the Jewish communities
of Shiraz and Isfahan. Most of the Jews were arrested three
months ago, though the Iranian government did not issue a
formal report of the arrests.
The 13 Jews range in age from 16 to 49 and were mainly
residents of the southern city of Shiraz, while others were
arrested in Teheran and Isfahan.
The 13 prisoners, including a 16-year old boy arrested in his
classroom, are mainly religious Jews. According to a
spokesman for the Iranian community in California, those
arrested incurred the government's displeasure for such
"crimes" as teaching Hebrew and holding religious classes.
At least 17 Iranian Jews, including community leaders, have
been executed in Iran in the twenty years since 1979.
The high-profile public actions taken recently follow months
of behind-the-scenes maneuvering during which Jewish
organizations all over the world sought to influence Teheran
through quiet diplomacy.
Following the March arrests, an informal consortium of
American Jewish organizations began quiet efforts to mobilize
their most influential contacts. Members included the
American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-
Defamation League, Bnai Brith International and the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. Last week, after Iran announced the spy
charges, the group decided to go public.
The espionage charges are ridiculous, said an American Jewish
spokesman. ``No one would recruit spies among a group (of
Jews) who have high visibility and are constantly watched by
the authorities," he said.
Taking the lead in urging U.S. congressional action has been
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), whose House resolution has now
also been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-
N.Y.).
The White House has called the charges of espionage leveled
against 13 members of Iran's Jewish community "entirely
without foundation."
Press secretary Joe Lockhart issued a statement confirming
that "several religious leaders" are among the group. He said
the U.S. is "deeply troubled" by the arrests.
"We call on the government of Iran to uphold its stated
commitment to protect the rights of all religious and ethnic
minorities by releasing these individuals and ensuring that
no harm comes to them," Lockhart said.
There is increasing suspicion that the arrest of 13 Iranian
Jews on charges of spying for Israel and the U.S. was
orchestrated by domestic opponents of President Mohammed
Khatami in an effort to embarrass the president and sabotage
developing Iranian-U.S. relations, according to a senior
Iranian source.
Following international condemnation of the incident, Teheran
radio reported on Monday that the president had spoken of his
responsibility for the welfare of all religious
minorities.
According to the source, pro-Khatami officials had been
seeking to resolve the issue quietly after the original
arrests at the end of March.
Ayatollah Mohammed Yizdi, who heads the court system, said
that "the Jewish spies for Israel would be tried for treason
according to Islamic law and they may be sentenced to death --
not once but several times."
Yizdi also said that the trial would begin "soon" and that
"the law requires a death sentence in certain circumstances."
Yizdi is known for his close association with spiritual
leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni and is opposed to Khatami's
moderate approach toward the West. During his sermon, Yizdi
attacked the United States and Israel for campaigning for the
release of the Jewish prisoners.
The Teheran Times also attacked the U.S. and Israel
for interfering in the affair in an editorial.
The 13 Jews have been visited by the International Red Cross,
said the source, but he could not describe their
condition.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon has asked U. N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help effect the release of
the 13 Jews arrested in Iran for spying. Mr. Sharon
emphatically denied that any of those arrested spied on
behalf of Israel.
In addition, Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak spoke
with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and asked for his
assistance in securing the release of the Iranian Jews,
Barak's office said. Schroeder appointed a special envoy to
deal with the matter, at Barak's request.
Meanwhile, the umbrella organization for Iranian Jews in
Israel said that France offers the best hope for the
prisoners' release, because of its good relations with Iran.
U.S. Jews privately said they are pinning their hopes on
France as well for the same reason.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the New York-based
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, said that France, Germany, Italy and the
Netherlands have sought to intervene on behalf of the 13, but
so far, Iran has not kept any commitments to provide adequate
food and visitation rights.
Jewish circles close to Iranian Jewry have long known of the
worsening situation of this community, according to Israeli
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron.
"We knew of such arrests since erev Pesach, but the
Foreign Ministry asked us to keep quiet. It hoped to solve
the matter in a quiet way," said Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, who is
of Iranian origin.
Until now, he added, Iran had a fully developed community
with synagogues, schools, and rabbis. Now the entire
community is in danger.
The Jews in Iran are considered a "tolerated minority" under
the Islamic laws regarding non-Islamic minorities.
The result, as reported by Shimon Hatsav of the Iranians in
Israel Organization, is that on the one hand, Jewish schools
are forbidden, and Jewish children must study in the regular,
Islamic schools. However, these regular schools also provide
Jewish religious studies for the Jewish students, taught by
rabbis and older members of the Jewish community.
The guiding principle, says Mr. Hatsav, is that as a
religious regime it must enable people of other, legally
recognized faiths to exercise freedom of religion.
However, the teaching of Hebrew -- the language of the State
of Israel -- is prohibited.
Hatsav says that one of the charges laid against the most
recent arrested is that they held Hebrew lessons, which
raises the suspicion of spying for Israel.
Jewish students are required to attend school on Shabbos, but
Jewish merchants are not only allowed, but legally required,
to close on the Sabbath.
Iranians, including Jews, are not free to leave the country
at will. In the first two years of the Iranian revolution, it
was relatively easy to get out and many Jews left. It is
estimated that about half of the 100,000 Jews who lived in
Iran before the revolution escaped in that period.
In the years since, supervision over exits was tightened, but
according to Mr. Hatsav about 1,000 Jews still manage to
leave every year. Iranian immigrants in Israel maintain
contact with the remaining community, mainly through reports
brought back by Jews who managed to leave. Current estimates
are that there are about 27,000 Jews left in Iran. The
American Iranian Jewish community is said to number about
50,000. Los Angeles, with about 30,000, is the largest
concentration.
There are direct telephone communications between Israel and
Iran, but only in one direction: it is impossible to call
Israel from Iran. The connection is a problematic one,
however, as phone lines are sometimes tapped; people are
careful not to reveal any sensitive information in their
calls.
Mr. Hatsav claims that harassment of Iran's Jews has
increased recently. He says the tension between extremists
and moderates in Iranian politics is not necessarily to
blame, though it might be a factor.
Iran's difficult economic situation is an important cause of
the heightened friction, one that leads the authorities to
look for scapegoats who can divert the anger of the
population away from the government and which can be used to
"remind" Iranians of why the Islamic revolution, despite the
hardships it entails, is necessary.
The names of the arrested are 1, 2. David and Doni Tefillin
(brothers) -- arrested in Shiraz; 3. Javid Beth Jacob --
arrested in Shiraz; 4. Farhad Seleh -- community leader
arrested in Isfahan and transferred to Shiraz; 5. Nasser Levi
Haim -- community leader arrested in Isfahan and transferred
to Shiraz; 6. Asher Zadmehror -- community leader arrested in
Isfahan and transferred to Shiraz; 7. Navid Balazadeh --
arrested in Isfahan and transferred to Shiraz; 8. Nejat
Beroukkhim (uncle) -- religious leader arrested in Isfahan,
transferred to Shiraz; 9. Arash Beroukkhim (nephew) --
religious leader arrested in Isfahan and transferred to
Shiraz; 10, 11. Farzad and Faramaz Kashi (brothers) --
arrested in Shiraz; 12. Shahrokh Pak Nahad -- arrested in
Isfahan and transferred to Shiraz; 13. Ramin -- his last name
is unknown, as is his place of arrest.
