Politics

Taking a stand

by Seth Gitell

Twelve men are in prison in Shiraz, Iran, on charges of spying against the Islamic Republic. Ten are members of Iran's millennia-old Jewish community. Two are Muslim. On Monday, more than 250 Bostonians -- including Mayor Thomas Menino, City Councilor Michael Ross, and Joshua Rubenstein of Amnesty International -- came to City Hall Plaza to demonstrate for the prisoners' freedom at a rally organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston.

An Iranian Revolutionary Court judge sentenced the prisoners earlier this month to terms of as long as 13 years for their alleged crimes. At first blush, these sentences could be thought of as light. After all, the men could have been sentenced to death -- which has been the fate of almost 20 other Jews charged with spying in Iran since the Iranian Revolution. But the Iranian court subjected the 12 defendants to a grossly unfair judicial process, complete with secret proceedings and coerced confessions. These unfortunates -- a rabbi among them -- are under almost constant scrutiny in Iran. They were almost certainly not capable of committing the crimes of espionage alleged against them.

Many of the speakers at Monday's rally, including Menino, contrasted the symbolism of the demonstration's location -- in the shadow of Faneuil Hall, the cradle of liberty in America -- with the lack of freedom in Iran. "The government of Iran has taken freedom away from 10 people because they are Jewish. The Iranian 10 must be freed," said Menino, who, as a pothole-and-streetlight pol, doesn't often get an opportunity to stand up for international human rights.

"We must continue to fight tyranny. . . . Governments who don't respect [human rights] must be put down," Menino added in a surprisingly strong speech. He outdid even GOP Senate hopeful Rick Lazio and the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Ronald Lauder, who told a rally in New York that "our goal is not to change the government of Iran."

During his speech, Ross noted that the city council had sent a letter to President Clinton urging him to help free the prisoners. "We . . . want to express our deep concern and outrage for the injustices that are currently taking place in Iran against members of the Jewish community," the councilors wrote. All but Paul Scapicchio, Charles Yancey, and Daniel Conley signed the letter.

None of the speakers mentioned the fact that in recent months the Clinton administration has been more open to a relationship with Iran: sanctions have been lifted on trade of Persian rugs, pistachio nuts, and caviar, and Clinton did not block a $200 million World Bank loan to Iran. But with Iranian officials now trying to arrest yet another Iranian Jew on charges of spying, the public outcry in Boston and elsewhere may make a difference.