The United States Department on Wednesday ripped Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani for stoking an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory that suggested Jews control the West.
“In May, President Rouhani implied Jewish control over various Western interests, saying that speeches by foreign officials criticizing Iran were ‘written by Zionists word for word.’ Cartoons in state-run media outlets repeatedly depicted foreign officials as puppets of Jewish control,” wrote the State Department in its newly released report under its section titled “Antisemitism” covering Iran.
The report also noted that “Members of the Iranian Jewish community are reportedly subject to government restrictions and discrimination. Government officials continued to question the history of the Holocaust, and antisemitism remained a pervasive problem.”
Iran’s legal system recognizes Jews as a religious minority and allows for parliamentary representation. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the overwhelming majority of Iranian Jews fled the country due to repression. There were an estimated 80,000 Persian Jews who lived in Iran prior the revolution. Tehran’s Jewish Committee claims the Jewish population numbers approximately 9,000 Jews
The Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced the Iranian Jewish businessman and philanthropist Habib Elghanian (1912 – 1979) to death in 1979. He served as the president of the Tehran Jewish Society .
Iranian Jews are effectively second class citizens in the country.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday in connection with the release of the report titled “2019 Country Reports on Human Rights” that”Experience teaches that government officials who oppress, abuse, and tolerate the denial of the human rights of their own people are also responsible for creating social environments that are ripe for both economic and humanitarian crises, and that encourage corruption, violent conflict, and terrorism.”
US goverments has repeatedly classified Iran’s regime as the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
Jonathan Greenblatt ,the National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said during a congressional hearing in January that the Islamic regime in Tehran is the top state-sponsor of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
The State Department report noted that “The Islamic Republic of Iran is an authoritarian theocratic republic with a Shia Islamic political system based on velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist).”
The detailed report documents the clerical regime’s use of “torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment faced by Iranians.’
According to the report, “Numerous human rights organizations, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), reported on allegations that in late 2018 Intelligence Ministry agents tortured Esmail Bakhshi, a labor activist and leading representative of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company workers in Khuzestan Province, and Sepideh Gholian, a journalist and human rights activist. Both Bakhshi and Gholian were forced to make confessions that the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) broadcast. Authorities released both individuals in December 2018.”
The report said “Bakhshi posted a letter on Instagram stating he was severely beaten during his 25 days of detention following his arrest in November 2018. Bakhshi, referring to the Intelligence Ministry agents, said, ‘[T]hey tortured me and beat me with their fists and kicked me until I was going to die. They beat me so much I couldn’t move in my cell for 72 hours… I turned into a washed-up rat. My hands are still trembling. I still get severe panic attacks.”’
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