US Calls Iran’s Apparent Coercion of Minority Jews into Staging Anti-Israel Rallies ‘Abhorrent’

The US State Department has denounced as "abhorrent" Iran’s apparent coercion of its Jewish minority into staging an unprecedented series of anti-Israel rallies in five Iranian cities on October 30, VOA reported. 

In a Friday email to VOA, a State Department spokesperson said the Biden administration is aware of reports Iranian authorities "coerced Iranian Jewish leaders and their communities" to engage in the protests.

Videos and photos published by five Iranian state news agencies and reviewed by VOA showed hundreds of Iranian Jews participating in the anti-Israel rallies in Tehran, home to the largest Jewish community in Iran, as well as the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Yazd and Kermanshah. The rallies involved gatherings and speeches inside and outside synagogues and street processions in which participants held signs and chanted slogans condemning Israel.

The State Department’s latest annual report on international religious freedom, published in May, cited the Tehran Jewish Committee as saying Iran is home to approximately 9,000 Jews. It also cited an unnamed member of the community as giving a higher population estimate of 20,000 during a 2021 visit to the United States.

In the email to VOA, the State Department spokesperson noted that Iran’s Jews, like other religious minorities, have endured discrimination and persecution since 1979, when Shiite clerics opposed to Israel’s existence seized power. The email also noted that Iran is among the worst violators of religious freedom worldwide and its officials regularly spread antisemitic views.

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