Posted on 04/13/2005 4:52:11 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
TEHRAN - Iran's only Jewish lawmaker yesterday criticized state television programs for ridiculing Judaism and warned that policies pursued by the hard-line faction that controls state media were forcing more Jews to emigrate.
Maurice Motamed told an open session of Iran's parliament that anti-Jewish policies pursued by the powerful hard-line faction have depressed Iran's Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
"Insulting Jews and attributing false material to them in television series during the past 12 years has not only caused irritation among the Jewish community, it has also caused many Jews to leave," Motamed said, in an address broadcast live on state-run radio.
In a responding speech, parliamentary Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, considered a hard-liner, called on state-run media to respect the rights of minorities.
"I remind the radio and television organization to respect the rights of religious minorities in its programs," he said.
Iran's population of about 70 million includes a small non-Muslim population: 150,000 Christians, 100,000 Zoroastrians and some 25,000 Jews.
The Jewish population numbered about 100,000 in the 1970s but many emigrated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the pro-Western shah. Some of the Iranian Jews finally landed in Israel. President Moshe Katsav left Iran for Israel in 1951.
Motamed condemned one TV series, "Conspiracy," for depicting a Jewish child drinking the blood of a slain child and using the blood to cook matzah.
"The series has inflicted psychological blows to Jewish children and has made them determined to leave the country," he said.
While denouncing hard-liners, Motamed thanked Khatami's administration for allocating specific budget to religious minorities for the first time.
Jewish housewife Flora Elyasi protested against the TV program in stronger terms.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
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There are Jews in Iran?
More than 30000 Jews live in Iran.
President of Israel, and the defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, were Iranian born Israelis.
Actually, He is brave enough to talk like that but Jews have no problem at all among their Iranian countrymen and every body likes them a lot. It is the Islamic government which causes them lots of problems.
And most successful businessmen in Iran are Jews.
For three thousand years, give or take!
Every Iranian I ever met in New York was Jewish. Many of them in Forest Hills/Kew Gardens (Queens) and even more so in Great Neck (Nassau County).
Since the days of Cyrus the Great, yeah. Read the Book of Esther for the full story.
Major public health problem.
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