Iran’s Jews reject cash offer to move to Israel

Robert Tait

Iran’s Jews have given the country a loyalty pledge in the face of cash offers aimed at encouraging them to move to Israel. The incentives — ranging from £5,000 a person to £30,000 for families — were offered from a fund established by expatriate Jews in a bid to prompt a mass migration to Israel from among Iran’s 25,000-strong Jewish community. The offers were made with Israel’s official blessing and were additional to the usual sta te packages for Jews emigrating from the diaspora.

However, the Society of Iranian Jews dismissed them as “immature political enticements” and said their national identity was not for sale.

“The identity of Iranian Jews is not tradeable for any amount of money,” the society said in a statement. “Iranian Jews are among the most ancient Iranians. Iran’s Jews love their Iranian identity and their culture, so threats and this immature political enticement will not achieve their aim of wiping out the identity of Iranian Jews.”

Iran’s sole Jewish MP, Morris Motamed, said the offers put the country’s Jews under pressure to prove their loyalty. “It suggests the Iranian Jew can be encouraged to emigrate by money,” he said. “Iran’s Jews have always been free to emigrate and three-quarters of them did so after the revolution but 70 per cent of those went to America, not Israel.” —

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007