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An urgent call to action for the release of the convicted Iranian Jews |
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An urgent call to action for the release of the convicted Iranian Jews |
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| 07/07/2000 |
URGENT CALL TO ACTION
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
These words are being written at a time of great agony and sorrow for our people.
13 of our fellow Jews were recently prosecuted in an Iranian court.
After being held for over a year pending trial, they were judged behind closed doors - and ten of them were convicted on the basis of nothing more than "confessions" illegally coerced during the course of their incommunicado detention.
The "guilty" can now look forward to protracted incarceration and stiff penalties.
This was a show trial.
This was a travesty of justice.
This was the prosecution and persecution of innocents.
As a people who have often been the victims of such conspiracies, we recognize the signs.
Not a shred of proof was introduced as evidence in Shiraz.
In fact, the proceedings - entirely hidden from public scrutiny - were a farcical escapade of non-compliance with international treaties to which Iran is a signatory.
Even Iranian law was compromised here.
"Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh La'Zeh" - All Jews are responsible for each other.
But time is short.
According to Iranian law, any right of appeal will expire in two weeks.
So we must act now, using all the means at our disposal - diplomatic, spiritual, legal, economic.
The Jewish people has successfully mobilized to meet challenges in the past.
All Jewish communities around the world must now make it unequivocally clear to their respective governments that this verdict cannot stand.
At the same time, the World Jewish Congress will request visas for a top-level Jewish delegation to travel to Tehran and make our representations known to the Iranian authorities.
All our strengths must be enlisted in this most urgent battle.
These young Jews did not act in the service of any foreign power - a truth that has been confirmed by all major world leaders and even by their court-appointed lawyers.
They must not be punished for the sake of internal Iranian considerations.
And we must all act quickly to ensure that this does not happen.
The efforts of the Jewish world were instrumental in obtaining freedom for Soviet Jewry.
Voices of concern have already caused a certain death sentence to be rescinded in Shiraz.
We must not - and will not - rest until all our innocent brothers are free.
If Iran does not reverse the convictions and release the imprisoned Jews, it will enter the new millennium as a pariah of the international community - and will have only itself to blame.
RABI MICHAEL MALCHIOR, The Minister of Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community
ELI VIZELL, Winner of Nobel Price
ISRAEL ZINGER, Secretary General of the Jewish Congress
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