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Exclusive: Immigrant moves back 'home' to Teheran
THE JERUSALEM POST
Novemeber 3, 2005
Orly Halpern
Ishak can't wait to get "home" to Teheran.
After he immigrated to Israel two years ago,
said the short man with dark circles under his eyes, his life
became increasingly miserable.
Standing and fretting inside his empty shop on
Jerusalem's Rehov Ben-Yehuda, Ishak (not his real name), a
51-year-old Jewish-Iranian who is in Israel now only for a final
visit, said the jewelry shop he opened here never sold anything,
the renters to whom he leased a property did not pay and his
heart began to fail him from the stress of monthly mortgage
payments and no income.
So 10 months ago gray-haired Ishak gave up on
the Zionist dream and began to move his family and belongings
back to Iran. He filled some of his numerous suitcases and
trunks with the Persian carpets, silverware, and home
decorations he came here with, and flew to Turkey with his two
sons. There they sent their new Israeli passports by express
mail back to his daughter in Israel. Then they took out their
Islamic Republic of Iran passports and boarded a flight to
Teheran.
When he arrived, his Muslim friends were
incredulous.
"I have a lot of Muslim friends and they all
knew I'd moved to Israel," he said. "They asked me, 'Why did you
come back?'" His Jewish friends in Iran already knew the answer.
Despite the declaration last week by Iran's
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel must be wiped off the
map, the Shihab missiles displayed in Teheran with "Israel"
painted on them, the broadcasting of anti-Semitic films on
national television and the much-publicized trials of 13 Jewish
Iranians on spy charges, Ishak insists that life in Iran is far
better for Jews than life in Israel.
"If you have problems there, people help you -
and they know you are Jewish," said Ishak, who has now briefly
returned to Israel to sell his shop and leave for good. "But
here, everyone is looking out for himself. You can't trust
anybody."
Ishak is not the only recent immigrant who
prefers his Islamic birthplace to his Jewish homeland.
Jerusalem's Jaffa Road and Rehov Ben-Yehuda are lined with
shopkeepers originally from Iran who say they are desperate to
go back - some to visit, some to live.
And while most outsiders might believe that
routine contact between the citizens of the two sworn enemies is
impossible, in fact, not only are the phone lines between
Teheran and Tel Aviv used actively, but so also are flight
routes via Istanbul.
Jewish Iranians travel frequently to Israel.
To avoid getting the Iranians in trouble back in their home
country, Israeli border authorities do not stamp entry visas
into their passports. As with journalists, the entry visa is
stamped on a separate slip of paper, which is later thrown away
upon exit from the Zionist state.
"My parents came for a visit and left two
months ago," said Avi, who owns a shoe store on Jaffa Road. But
the elderly couple has no intention of moving here.
"The Jews there live very well," he explained.
"When [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini got in power he said there
is a difference between Persian Jews who are from Moussa (Moses)
and Zionist Jews."
Avi acknowledges that initially Jews were not
allowed to travel. "No one was," he said. "But now it's no
problem."
Summertime is the most popular season for
travel but sometimes Iranians come for just a wedding.
At Avi's, all the shoe salesmen are Iranian
Jews. One of them is expecting his mother-in-law back in Israel
from a two-month visit to Teheran. Meanwhile, his wife speaks to
her mother regularly. "My mother-in-law buys calling cards there
for $10 and they speak one hour."
But even more curious is the cooperation of
Iranian authorities in allowing Iranian-Israelis who don't have
an Iranian passport to visit the country of their birth and
roots.
"My uncle's cousin had not been in Iran for
over 20 years," said David, who runs a gift shop on Rehov Ben-Yehuda
with his brother and parents and asked that his last name not be
printed because he does not want the Iranian government to know
who he is. "He went to the Iranian embassy in Turkey and told
them, 'I am Persian and I am now Israeli. I want to go back to
Iran. If you give me a passport great, if not that's fine, too.
And they gave him one,'" said David, who is considering trying
the method.
The 30-year-old is afraid to ask and he thinks
he won't get one because he left Iran by illegally crossing the
border into Pakistan some 15 years ago without a passport. But
he, too, is dying to go back to Iran.
"I love the country, I don't like the people,"
stressed the young man dressed in jeans and a black kippa who
said he came to Israel because of Zionism.
"I thought that here it was good. I thought
that all the Jews leave their doors unlocked and no one stole.
But the Israeli people are not cultured. They are rude and
disrespectful. In Iran people trust each other and when they
give their word they keep it. Here you need a lawyer to get
anyone to keep their promise."
Moussa (also not his real name) is a
42-year-old clothing salesman on Jaffa Road who came to Israel
in the 1970s when he was 10. His family members own four shops
along the street. Many from his family travel frequently between
the two enemy states. "They come and go and do business," he
said.
Many of the Iranian-Israelis said that after
former moderate president Muhammad Khatami got in power in 1997
the government turned a blind eye to the travel. Now some fear
that may change since hardline president Ahmadinejad took over
in August.
"I'm scared," said Moussa. "Especially after
what Ahmedinejad said. He's a new leader and he wants to show
off like a peacock. We don't know what it will be like now."
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