THE JEWS OF IRAN AND WORLD JEWRY
In its twenty years in power, the Islamic regime has left its mark on all
aspects of Iranian life. As part of Iranian society, the Jews were influenced
by the revolutionary change; as members of a religious minority, the
revolution had distinctive ramifications for them (see ASW 1994).
The history of the Jews of Iran up to the twentieth century was rife with
discrimination and harassment, including occasional blood libels and forced
conversions. When it took over in 1979, however, the Islamic regime could
not ignore the loyalty of the Jewish minority, nor the traditional responsibility
toward the dhimmis (protected non-Muslim minorities) that devolves
upon Muslim rulers. While Khomeini's writings and statements prior to the
revolution included harsh statements against the Jews, and his doctrine
combined Islamic anti-Jewish elements with some tenets of European anti-Semitism,
the government has often stressed the rights of the religious
minorities and refrained from inciting against them. Leaders of the Jewish
community, on their part, have supported the government, distanced
themselves from controversial issues and come out with occasional
statements of support for the revolution. Having formulated the credo that
Judaism is distinct from Zionism and Israel at the outset of the revolution,
representatives of the community as well as government officials have
emphasized this point repeatedly. Thus, for example, Manuchehr Elyasi, the
Majlis deputy representing the Jewish community, stated in January 1998 that
the Jews would participate in the rallies marking International Jerusalem Day
(initiated by Khomeini to express Muslim solidarity with Palestine), and
stressed that the Jewish community considered the "inhuman" acts of the
Zionist regime as a violation of Jewish religious principles.
Still, made aware of their inferior status as a minority group, Iranian Jews
feel insecure. The fact that Iran has made itself the bearer of the anti-Zionist
and anti-Israeli flag was bound to arouse anti-Jewish sentiment. Many
Iranians continue to view the Jews as the arch-foes of Islam, and their
"successors" (Israel and Zionism) as enemies of the Muslim world. In fact,
the distinction between Jews and Zionists is often blurred to the point that
criticism of Zionism may be perceived as anti-Jewish, while charges against
Jews increase animosity toward Israel and Zionism. Thus, for example,
American Jews are often referred to as Zionists, and Iranians occasionally
insinuate that Jews control the governments of the countries in which they
reside and even betray these governments by preferring the interests of Israel
and world Zionism (see ASW 1997/ 8). Often this is accompanied by more
general accusations of the Jews' control of the world economy or media,
their excessive influence in foreign governments, and the use of such power
to advance the aims of Israel and the Zionist movement.

THE KHATAMI ERA
The circumstances that led to the election of Mohammad Khatami, his
relatively pragmatic policy and more moderate declarations following his
election (mainly with regard to the West and the need for dialogue between
cultures), led to some moderation in statements regarding Jews. By Iranian
standards Khatami is a liberal, whose writings and statements reveal
devotion to Iranian national interests rather than doctrinaire convictions. His
emphasis on civil society and inter-faith dialogue has, in fact, relaxed the
pressure on the religious minorities.
Khatami rejects anti-Semitism as a Western phenomenon which has no
place in Islam or in Iranian tradition. In an interview with CNN (January
1998), he said that unlike in Christendom, in the world of Islam "Jews and
Muslims have lived harmoniously together for centuries." In the East, he said,
"we have had despotism and dictatorship, but never fascism or Nazism,"
which were "Western phenomena." Meeting Shaykh Ahmad Yasin, the leader
of the Palestinian Hamas (2 May 1998), Khatami asserted: "We have no differences
with the Jews, but we are against Zionism as an extension of fascism."
Yet, even such relatively moderate expressions did not go uncontested
within Iran. Jomhuri-ye Islami (10 January), representing the conservative
establishment, rejected as "incorrect" Khatami's suggestion, that "anti-Judaism
is a Western phenomenon with no precedent in Islam." In fact, it
said, "the history of the inception of Islam is full of Jewish plots against the
Noble Prophet," and the Holy Book clearly warns against "the Jewish
people's enmity [' adavat] and rancor [kine] toward Muslims."
Moreover, the supreme leader of Iran is Ayatollah 'Ali Khamene'i, not
Khatami. Khamene'i, representing the conservative stance, received Roger
Garaudy during his visit to Iran (see below). Pointing to similarities between
Zionists and Nazis, he then castigated the West: "On the one hand, they
deplore the racial behavior of the Nazis toward the Jews and, on the other,
they support the Zionists who exhibit the same behavior as that of the
Nazis." Supporting the Zionists is as bad as supporting Nazi Germany and
Hitler, he stated.
More conciliatory statements were used to provoke strong sentiments
against the Zionists, who were often interchangeable with Jews. Thus,
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in an interview (January 1998, in
Tehran), that historically they had "no problems with Judaism" and Iranian
Jews "have never had any problems with their Muslim brothers." Yet, he said,
the creation of Israel was not a religious issue, but "a politically motivated
act, a racist act." It was based on the Zionist philosophy "which believes that
the Jewish people of the world should be forced, tempted, and taken to this
part of the world in order to create a Zionist base in the heart of Islamic
countries." In his view only "purely racist and political motives constitute the
rationale for the treatment of the Muslim people of Palestine." It was "the
political aim of the Great Powers" to create Israel. Seeming to make no
distinction between Jews and Zionists, he said they had "succeeded in
placing [in Israel] a number of Jews, a number of Zionists, and in laying the
basis for this usurper regime."
Milder statements were made occasionally during discussions of
theological issues or in reference to the Jews of Iran, for example, by Hojjat
ul-Islam (and Professor) Mohsen Kadivar, now a standard-bearer of Iranian
liberalism. Kadivar reminded his co-religionists, that even the Prophet and
Imam 'Ali "conducted talks with Jews" and signed treaties with them
(Hamshahri, 15 November 1998). In his view, the "truth of Islam does not
mean the absolute falsehood of Judaism and Christianity." Even today, "if
someone is a Jew or a Christian, we do not say that he is absolutely wrong,
for, after all, he is a monotheist and believes in the Day of Judgment. He
performs good deeds in accordance with his [own] religious laws."
Undeniably, Kadivar concluded, the "complete salvation and reward"
belongs to Muslims, yet "we can both believe in one supreme truth and also
not consider other religions and followers of other religions as completely
false." (Kadivar was detained in early 1999.)
Iran's rejection of Israel and of the peace process, however, and its
criticism of American policy in the Middle East generally led to a severe tone
in references to Jews. Under the title "Zionist Chicanery Undone," for
example, Tehran Times (28 December 1997) described what it called the
"Kosher Brotherhood" as a group "too long intent on Goebels' style
propaganda, acting helpless and crying wolf as the occasion requires,
picking random targets for destruction and annihilation throughout the
Middle East." It continues "to reveal" its true nature: "parading as American
envoy at one time, acting as plenipotentiaries of some European states at
others ... sometimes as trained henchmen and paid killers, becoming pimps
and tarts as the occasion requires." Iran's "rapprochement with the world,"
the paper alleged, "has startled the Kosher lobby." The paper wrote that a
certain (unidentified) "prominent European delegation" visiting Tehran said
"that Europe was sick and tired of being manipulated by Jewish money and
by Jewish politicians posing as the paternoster of the twentieth century."
Governments throughout the world, it concluded, are tired and irked by
Jewish duplicity and by their money-grabbing techniques.
Resalat (7 February) wrote of "the Zionists" who arrived in America from
Europe "empty-handed," "amassed a huge fortune and became influential in
the American economy." In fact, it would be hard to term Jews who left
Europe for America as Zionists. Yet, the paper continues, clearly having Jews
and not Zionists in mind, that these "Zionists" have "plundered the assets of
the poor strata of America and set up cartels, trusts, great factories and banks
with huge financial resources." It continues explaining -- if not justifying --
the harassment of Jews: "They took control of the economic jugular of
America" and in fact "played an important role in determining the fate of
the American nation and took over the reins of government." Clearly, the
paper concludes, "America has a snake up its sleeve." The Zionists' control
has penetrated so deeply, that they "can paralyze and make the American
economy disintegrate if they want to." It is therefore "probable that one day
they [the Americans], like Hitler, will order the annihilation and uprooting of
Zionists in America so that they can protect themselves from the influence
of these saboteurs."

GARAUDY: CONVICTED IN FRANCE AND WELCOMED IN IRAN
The trial of Roger Garaudy, which took place in France in February 1998 (see
France), provided the opportunity for strong accusations against Jews and
Zionism alike, and his visit to Iran in April was used to spread his views.
Garaudy, a convert to Islam, is a widely acclaimed figure in Arab and Muslim
intellectual circles. Iranian officials and newspaper articles took pains to
establish links between the conviction of Garaudy and their basic claims
against Israel, Zionism and world Jewry. They justified his assertions, either
on "scientific grounds," or out of concern for "freedom of speech." They also
contrasted the West's attitude toward Garaudy with its defense of Salman
Rushdie and compared the Palestinians' suffering with that of the Jews, thus
revealing their deeper anti-Jewish sentiments.
Jomhuri-ye Islami, an organ of the conservative establishment,
maintained (14 January 1998), that "the false slogan of the murder of millions
of Jews" by the Nazis was a "ridiculous pretext" through which the Zionists,
"by fabricating and propagating it," managed to convince public opinion of
the need to establish a Jewish state. Every writer, researcher and historian,
"who sought to prove the falsehood of this historical allegation on the basis
of reliable evidence," as did Garaudy, was either eliminated or silenced, it
added. Kayhan International (19 January) typically noted that Garaudy was
put on trial merely for expressing "his expert judgment," and that the Nazi
gas chambers were among "the founding myths of the usurper state known
as Israel." Trying Garaudy, "one of the giants of French culture," is
"tantamount to the dawn of a dark era of witch-hunting," it wrote. On 17
February it maintained that Garaudy had committed neither a crime nor a
sacrilegious act. He had just made available to the public the results of "his
long and profound" research. What he wrote was "just historical facts,"
unlike Salman Rushdie's crime. Even President Khatami seemed to grieve
that "a thinker" and "a believer" like Garaudy was brought to trial merely
because he had published research "about the Jews and the Zionists" which
was "displeasing to the West."
Immediately after his conviction, Garaudy was invited to Iran where he
was received, among others, by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene'i (20
April 1998). This provided an opportunity to voice support -- either implicit
or explicit -- for his "scientific studies," and to denounce the West for
establishing the Jewish state, bringing Garaudy to trial and defending
Rushdie, and Israel for bringing about a "Palestinian holocaust."
Thus, referring to Garaudy's views on the Holocaust, the conservative
Resalat wrote (13 January), that "a free-thinking writer" [Garaudy] was tried
even though his claim "is not far from the truth" and although many scholars
in the world consider the events of Auschwitz as a "big lie." It is quite
possible, the paper suggested, that instead of "writing the history" of
Auschwitz and the Nazi gas chambers, Western thinkers have only "invented
history." Let us not allow the twenty-first century to be overshadowed by the
big lies of Zionists which serve as pretexts for their own crimes, it wrote. The
generally more progressive Tehran Times (4 April) agreed that scholars had
good reason to doubt the "very details of the so-called Holocaust," which is
no more than "a brainchild of the Zionists themselves in order to gain
sympathy from the West." The Zionists "have been grabbing billions of
dollars annually from the West" because of such claims, it stated. "In order
to preserve their weapon of blackmail" they "irrationally target" innocent and
elderly people such as Garaudy. Now, it noted, another French court (on 2
April) has sentenced "another innocent victim," Maurice Papon, a former
French minister, to ten years in prison for "complicity in crimes against
humanity." Yet, the paper continues, while scholars cast doubt on the
occurrence of the Holocaust, none can deny "the 1996 Holocaust" committed
by Israel in Lebanon (reference to the mistaken Israeli attack on the
Lebanese village of Qana).
In fact, Kayhan International (20 April) claimed further, the West has
turned into "an obvious hostage to the theory of 'original sin'," to the extent
that countries -- such as France -- do not mind violating their own founding
principles in order to appease the Zionists. Garaudy's trial in France, it
suggests, was a "judicial holocaust" for this "octogenarian French thinker"
and the "trial of freedom of speech." He was guilty "of not blindly towing
the Zionist line" of "six million Jews killed." Offering another explanation, it
stated that by such actions, "Europe wants to atone for its [own] periodic
persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages, a time when those professing
Judaism," such as Maimonides, "enjoyed every basic right and rose to
prominent positions in the Muslim world." Oddly, the paper continues, in
France, "one can say anything against [French] national interests and get
away with it," but expressing even "one word against the preposterous fables
of Israel and its vocal lobbies" is considered a crime. This is, the paper says,
"the result of the Semitic myth that has been blown out of proportion by the
Zionist entity and the Israelites controlling the American state apparatus and
economy." It concludes, that "the anti-Semitic bug has so horrifyingly bitten
the West" that many seem to consider the Jews as the only Semites on earth,
and unconsciously infringe upon the rights of the majority of the Semitic
race, including the Palestinians, who are being oppressed and enslaved in
their own home.