Exclusive: The U.S. Calls Iran's Action to Force Jews to Protest Against Israel 'Despicable'

The U.S. State Department described the Iranian government's action in openly forcing the Jewish minority in Iran to hold a series of unprecedented anti-Israel protests on November 8 in five cities as 'despicable.' A State Department spokesperson stated in an email to the English section of Voice of America on Friday that the Biden administration is aware of reports indicating that Iranian officials 'forced Iranian Jewish leaders and their communities to participate in the protests.' Videos and photos released by five Iranian state news agencies and analyzed by Voice of America show hundreds of Iranian Jews participating in anti-Israel protests in Tehran, home to the largest Jewish community in Iran, as well as in Shiraz, Isfahan, Yazd, and Kermanshah. These protests included gatherings and speeches inside and outside synagogues and street marches where participants held placards and chanted slogans condemning Israel. Israel is considered the only Jewish state in the world. In a report by Michael Lipin, a Voice of America journalist, it is noted that the State Department spokesperson mentioned in an email that Iranian Jews, like other religious minorities, have endured discrimination and persecution since 1979 (1357), when Shia clerics opposed to the existence of Israel came to power. The email also stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the worst violators of religious freedom worldwide, with Iranian officials regularly disseminating anti-Semitic views. The spokesperson said, 'It is abhorrent that the Iranian regime continues to pressure religious groups to advance its propaganda.' The spokesperson referred to the war between Israel and Hamas, adding that the Islamic Republic's 'blatant exploitation' of this conflict to promote 'suppression and propaganda against the Jewish community' in Iran is 'despicable.' In response to the U.S. State Department's condemnation of Iran's actions, the Iranian representation at the United Nations compared the anti-Israel protests by Iranian Jews to anti-Israel protests by radical leftist Jews in Washington. The Iranian UN representation began its statement with a question that included another derogatory term for Israel: 'Have the Jews who protested in the U.S. Congress to support Palestinians and condemn the crimes of the apartheid regime been pressured?' The Iranian UN representation also stated, 'Iranian Jews, like other Jews worldwide, are truly fed up with the egregious crimes of the occupying regime against innocent Palestinian women and children.' Iranian state news agencies, including IRIB, IRNA, ISNA, Fars News, and Mehr, sent their reporters to the anti-Israel marches to film, photograph, and interview participants. At a gathering inside the main synagogue of Yousef Abad in Tehran, Rabbi Yehuda Grami told over 100 attendees that they must refrain from contacting Israelis who, according to him, 'consider themselves Jewish and commit crimes in Palestine.' Another prominent Iranian rabbi, Younes Hamami Lalezar, also spoke at this synagogue, condemning the 'Zionist regime's' crimes, a derogatory term for Israel, for 'killing innocent people in Gaza.' Israel has stated that it only targets what it calls terrorist sites in Gaza while acknowledging that its attacks have resulted in the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Israel claims that Hamas, which controls Gaza, uses Palestinians as human shields. Researchers and Iranian Jewish journalists outside Iran told Voice of America that the November protests were the first time Iranian Jews were involved in anti-Israel demonstrations on such a scale. Carmel Malamad, an Iranian Jewish-American journalist and researcher based in Los Angeles, stated that she has never seen what she describes as 'the Iranian regime using a Jewish march on such a scale to make statements under pressure for propaganda purposes.' Malamad mentioned that her assessment is partly based on recent contacts with Jews residing in Iran, whom she has not identified for their safety. Ben Sabti, an Israeli-Iranian researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, noted that Iranian Jews and their businesses have faced threats from the Iranian government and its supporters during previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas over the past two decades. Sabti stated, 'But this time, the conflict is larger, so the pressure on Iranian Jews has increased, and they took this very unusual step of protesting against Israel, which symbolizes their Judaism, in synagogues.' He explained that this action by Iranian Jews to hold protests was 'a matter of survival for them (the Jews inside Iran).' Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the executive director of the U.S. nonprofit Coalition for Jewish Values, told Voice of America that Jews living in America and Iran have different experiences of anti-Semitism. Menken stated that American Jews, like all Americans, enjoy basic freedoms and do not live under the repressive and totalitarian regime of Iran. He added that these freedoms allow American Jews to be Jewish freely and defend their rights. Rabbi Menken also responded to the Iranian UN representation's claims, stating that what Jews around the world are fed up with is that Israel is being attacked by enemies committing genocide. The Anti-Defamation League also stated that the two groups that participated in the anti-Israel protests in the U.S. Congress are 'radical' anti-Zionist organizations that 'do not represent the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community.' Rabbi Menken also noted that Iranian Jews have a much deeper experience of anti-Semitism than their counterparts in America. He stated that Iranian Jews have faced pressure in Iran and are often forced to leave their country. The U.S. State Department also stated in a statement that it supports Iranian Jews and will defend them against anti-Semitism. Images from the November protests published by Iranian state news agencies show Iranian Jews holding anti-Israel banners and placards in both Persian and English in Isfahan and Tehran. Similar placards in Persian and English were also displayed in synagogues in Shiraz and Yazd. What is the purpose of the propaganda? Malamad stated that the Iranian state media dedicated extensive coverage to the protests of Jews to convince Iranians, many of whom have protested in recent years to end the Islamist regime in Iran, that even the small Jewish minority in Iran adopts the Islamic Republic's stance regarding the war between Israel and Hamas. However, she noted that the release of images of Iranian Jews with signs in Persian and English seems to have another audience, namely the 'West.' Malamad stated, 'The regime wants to send the message that 'we have these Jews in Iran, and we want to inform you that they are potential hostages that we can treat however we want.' Experts say their investigations show that the number of Jews in Iran who defend the policies of the Islamic Republic is very small. The Iranian representation at the United Nations in New York did not respond to Voice of America's email request for comment on the open coercion of Jews by the Islamic Republic to hold anti-Israel protests. The annual State Department report on international religious freedom, published in May, cites the Tehran Jewish Committee as stating that Iran is home to about 9,000 Jews. The report also quotes a member of the Jewish community, whose name was not disclosed, as estimating a higher population of 20,000 Jews in Iran during a trip to the United States in 2021. Netanyahu to 'friends and enemies': Remove ceasefire from the lexicon. Florida lawmakers participate in a 'four-day special session' aimed at tightening sanctions against the Islamic Republic.