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Business English: Iranian-Israelis try to heal growing rift
A small community is trying to heal a growing rift and change perceptions in Israel of IranKamal Penhasi keeps some of his most treasured possessions on a shelf in his printing shop, right above the flag of pre-revolutionary Iran and across the room from a portrait of the last Shah. Among them is a tiny plastic urn, filled with precious content: a handful of sand from Tehran, the city that Mr Penhasi left with his family in 1980 to settle in the town of Holon south of Tel Aviv.
"I think of Iran almost every hour," he says wistfully. "It was a paradise."
Most Israelis look to Tehran not with dreamy affection but with deep fear. They regard Iran's nuclear programme as an existential threat to the Jewish state, and the current Iranian leadership as Israel's most implacable enemy. The past year has seen a sharp spike in speculation about an Israeli air strike against Iran, raising concern over the prospect of all-out military conflict between the two sides.
To Mr Penhasi, who chairs the Iranian-Israeli Friendship Association - which boasts 121 members - and edits the country's only Farsi-language magazine, the talk of war between his country of birth and country of residence is deeply saddening.
"I feel very bad. I love Israel and I love Iran - and I know that in a conflict the two nations will be hurt and many people will be killed. The military solution is not a good solution," he says.
Like other Iranian-Israelis, Mr Penhasi is pained not just by the thought of war, but also by the rift that he says is opening up between his community and the rest of the country. "Many Israelis don't know about Iranian culture. They just see Iran as something bad," he says.
A similar frustration is expressed by Menashe Amir, who directs the Voice of Israel's Farsi service and hosts a weekly radio show aimed at Iranian listeners: "It really bothers me when [Israelis] speak about Iran, Iran, Iran - when they really mean the regime of Iran. They think that Iran is [President Mahmoud] Ahmadi-Nejad."
There are an estimated 250,000 Israelis who were either born in Iran or whose families originate from there. Some left their old home after the Islamic revolution in 1979, fearing that the new regime would usher in a harsh new era for Iran's ancient Jewish community. Others have lived in the Jewish state for generations.
What makes the community unique is that Iran is the only Middle Eastern country outside Israel that retains a sizeable Jewish community, estimated at around 20,000. This means that Iranian-Israelis - unlike their counterparts from Iraq or Syria - are still able to maintain ties with relatives and friends in their birthplace. Most can remember the days, under the Shah, when Iran and Israel were allies, and when communications and travel between the two countries were easy.
"The Iranian community in Israel is unusual in the sense that they are very much attached to their past and their culture. Even the third generation, people who were born here in Israel, say they are still very much attached to their family inheritance," says Mr Amir.
In recent years, however, the community has found itself caught in the middle of an escalating crisis between Israel and Iran.
Iranian-Israelis say they have cause to loathe the current regime in Tehran more than most, but they also feel troubled by the harsh Israeli rhetoric - and even more so by the threat of air strikes against Iran.
"There is a kinship between Iranian-Israelis and the people of Iran," says Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Israeli analyst who teaches Iranian contemporary politics at the Herzliyah Interdisciplinary Centre. "No Iranian-Israeli likes this regime [in Tehran]. But my feeling is that there is very little support for the unilateral military option by Israel."
The close relationship between Iranian-Israelis and Iran is on full display every Sunday night, when Mr Amir hosts a popular phone-in show on the Voice of Israel's Farsi radio service. By routing calls through Germany, the station allows listeners from Iran to talk directly to Israel - a rare forum for dialogue between the two countries.
A recent show was dedicated to the issue of price inflation in Iran, and elicited a string of complaints about the soaring cost of chicken and meat - as well as an off-beat intervention highlighting the suspiciously low price of contraband Scotch whisky.
After hanging up his headphones, Mr Amir says he still has hope that war between the two countries can be avoided. "I am Iranian, and I know the culture. I believe that the Iranians are calm and peaceful people. The problem is the leadership."
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The Financial Times, 05.09.2012
© 2012 The Financial Times,
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