We are Jewish writers: Roya, an Iranian American living in the United States, Yossi, an Israeli living in Israel. We have come together to appeal to Jewish communities throughout the world to take up the cause of the Iranian people.
In the terrible days after October 7, Jews felt alone and abandoned by much of the world. Yet Iranian expatriates throughout the West openly joined us in grief and outrage. The ancient Iranian flag flew at our solidarity demonstrations; often the only non-Jews who stood with us in the streets were Iranians.
Even inside Iran, many have courageously refused to participate in the regime’s anti-Israel spectacles. Over the years, numerous video clips have shown Iranians refusing to step on the Israeli flags laid out by the regime at the entrance to mosques and on university campuses; one of the most popular chants in the current protests is against the regime’s support for radical Islamist terror groups.
Today, Iranians face their own October 7th — except that they are unarmed and their military, useless against external enemies, is deployed to suppress them. Like Israelis since 2023, Iranians feel abandoned by the international community, which has been largely silent in the face of the regime’s systematic atrocities. Like us, Iranians are experiencing the hypocrisy of those who presume to speak in the name of the conscience of humanity.
Like Israel after October 7, the Iranian people are experiencing their version of “massacre denial.” Despite numerous eyewitnesses telling the world that modern Iran has never experienced anything like this massacre, both in extent and in the depth of its cruelty, many around the world have downplayed the catastrophe.
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The connection between Jews and Iranians extends back to ancient times. Jews have lived in Iran for 2,500 years, and it was only with the rise of the fundamentalist regime in 1979 that most of the Jewish community fled. In the long memory of the Jewish people, we recall that it was King Cyrus of Persia who enabled us to return home and rebuild the Temple after the Babylonian exile. That generosity was repeated when the Sassanid Persians conquered Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 614 CE and allowed Jews to return to the city.
How, then, can we Jews help the Iranians now in need?
First, by being informed. We cannot rely exclusively on the mainstream media, much of which scandalously failed to cover the revolution for nearly two weeks. Media that uncritically promoted Hamas’s version of the Gaza war remains agonizingly slow in exposing the extent of the massacre. (Below, please find a list of some organizations that work exclusively to authenticate the news coming out of Iran. They deserve your time and support).
Here are five further suggestions about what each of us can do:
Contact local Iranian expat groups and join their protests at Iranian embassies and consulates.
Ask your synagogue or Jewish organization to become involved in solidarity efforts with the Iranian people.
Write to government officials in your countries and demand that they immediately expel the Iranian ambassador and recall their ambassador from Tehran. This is an important signal to the people of Iran. A regime that has time and again proven capable of mass slaughter of its own population must no longer be treated as a normal diplomatic partner.
Demand, too, the immediate ban of the activities of the Revolutionary Guards – even before they are listed as a terrorist organization by the EU. The Revolutionary Guards are the regime’s central instrument of repression.
Finally, we ask that you circulate this clip on your social media and within your Jewish community:
The two nations that have suffered most from radical Islamism are now, each in its way, on the front lines against the great evil of our time. But we not only face a common enemy; we share the same aspirations. Both peoples long for a region freed from state-sponsored terrorism and hatred; both long for a shared future.
Neither people is alone.
—
Organizations that work to authenticate the news coming out of Iran:
Vahid online: @Vahid
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center: @IHRDC
The Abdulrahman Boroumand Foundation: @IranRights_org
Tavaana: @tavaana
Center for Human Rights in Iran: @ICHRI
—
Roya Hakakian is the author of several books including, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. Follow her on @RoyaTheWriter
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is working on a book about the meaning of Jewish survival.
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