Nearly a dozen Iranian activists opposed to the Islamic regime in Iran — from Northern and Southern California as well as from Europe — visited Israel last month in an effort to raise awareness among Israeli political leaders, academics, non-governmental agencies and news media about average citizens who have suffered repression from the Iranian regime in the last few months during their increased public protests.
The 10-day trip called the “Shoshana Mission” was organized by the Los Angeles-based “Persian American Civic Action Network” (PACAN), a non-profit group that works with various Iranian American activists to advocate for an end to human rights abuses carried out by the Iranian regime as well as for a secular and democratic government in Iran.
“Our group went to Israel because that is the only country that has been consistently speaking out against the Islamic regime in Iran,” Zohreh Mizrahi, the president of PACAN, said. “Our goal was to increase visibility about the suffering the people of Iran are enduring at the hands of this regime that has not been covered by the mainstream American news media. We also went to bring about closer collaboration between Israelis and Iranian opposition groups and build relationships between Israelis and Iranian activists who want to one day help rebuild Iran when this current regime is toppled by the people of Iran.”
Mizrahi said that during their trip the PACAN group met with current and former Israeli members of the Knesset as well as Israeli foreign ministry officials to ask them to urge American leaders to reject any type of “deal that would only enrich and embolden the Iranian regime instead of helping average Iranians.”
“We wanted Israeli officials who have the ear of American leaders, to let them know that the Islamic regime does not have the best interests of the people of Iran in mind and to ask for their help in removing the regime’s false narrative to world that it represents the people of Iran,” said Mizrahi. “This regime only seeks to advance their own perverted version of Islam to the world and to send the wealth of Iranians to terrorists such Hezbollah, Hamas and to Venezuela.”
The PACAN trip to Israel was not the first time Iranian American activists reached out to Israelis on issues pertaining to Iran. In 2019, the organization first took a group of 10 Iranian activists to Israel to become better acquainted with Israeli society and learn how they could more successfully advance their own public awareness efforts against the Iranian regime.
But due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, PACAN board members decided to place their trips to Israel on hold, Mizrahi said.
Last year, six Iranian dissidents from the U.S. also visited Israel on a week-long tour organized by the Southern California-based Institute for Voices of Liberty (iVOL) in an effort to connect Iranian opposition activists with Israeli experts in water, agriculture and technology.
Dr. Amir Hamidi, a former U.S. diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates who led the PACAN delegation to Israel, said a large portion of the group’s efforts were focused on asking Israeli government leaders and news media to differentiate the Islamic regime ruling in Iran from the people of Iran when speaking about issues pertaining to Iran.
“We came to Israel to tell Israelis that the vast majority of Iranians have no hatred for them and we know his first-hand when we hear them protesting and chanting slogans such as ‘not Gaza, not Lebanon, I will only give my life for Iran’ or ‘our enemy is not America or Israel, our enemy is here!’”
Mizrahi, who is Jewish herself, said nearly all of the activists on the mission were non-Jewish Iranians who had not previously visited Israel but were impressed by the warm reception they received from various Israelis.
“Our group spoke at a conference at Ariel University which was attended by nearly 100 students and academics who were very interested in what we had to say because we are emersed in everything Iran—so we offered them unique insights and extensive knowledge about the tremendous hardships people in Iran face today with reduced pay, food and water shortages and their internet getting shut down by the regime,” said Mizrahi.
Hamidi, who is also a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency official, said many who attended his lecture at Ariel University were especially surprised to learn of the Iranian regime’s 40-year international drug trafficking efforts.
“I spoke for an hour and I took questions for another hour from the audience — they were totally shocked to learn that the Islamic regime in Iran runs a multi-billion-dollar mafia narco-terrorism enterprise whose international reach spans from Kabul in Afghanistan to Caraccas in Venezuela!” Hamidi said.
Professor Ronen Cohen, an Iran expert and Chair of the Middle East & Central Asia Research Center at Ariel University, said those who attended the lectures by the PACAN participants were particularly interested to learn about the deep historic ties between Iranians and the Jewish people.
“The real surprise was to hear the message of the delegation that talked about the real bond between Iranians and Jews or Israelis even today and not only from 2,500 years ago,” said Cohen.
Other Iranians on the Shoshana mission, such as Nazenin Ansari, editor of the Persian language Kayhan news outlet based in London, said they was pleasantly surprised by the welcome their group received from Israelis of Iranian heritage.
“The attachment of the Persian Jewish community in Israel to their Iranian cultural heritage and its preservation is stunning!” said Ansari. “We met many who had immigrated to Israel as children but still spoke Persian fluently. On a few occasions we met people who were not first or second-generation Iranians, but who still made an effort to trace their roots to Iran.”
Hamidi said that Israeli media news reporters and editors with whom he spoke were unaware of the strong support for Israel and sense of friendship Iranians in Iran feel for Israelis.
“Iranians know that Israel with its cutting-edge technology and water expertise is best suited to help them rebuild their country after they depose this criminal regime.” – Dr. Amir Hamidi
“Iranians know that Israel with its cutting-edge technology and water expertise is best suited to help them rebuild their country after they depose this criminal regime,” said Hamidi. “Since my return, about 99-percent of the private messages I have received from Iranians in Iran about my trip to Israel have been positive and wishing to join me next time in Israel!”
Len Khodorkovsky, a former senior advisor to the U.S. Representative for Iran during the Trump administration, praised the PACAN delegation for visiting Israel. Last year Khodorkovsky proposed the “Cyrus Accords,” a potential future peace deal between the people of Iran and Israelis based on increased interactions between both peoples.
“The warm relations between the Jewish and Iranian people dates back to Cyrus the Great,” Khodorkovsky said. “It’s another encouraging step toward the Cyrus Accords era when a free, democratic Iran and the Jewish state of Israel will live in peace and mutual prosperity.”
Mizrahi said PACAN’s leadership has plans in the near future to take other Iranian American activists and journalists to Israel in hopes of strengthening the relationship between Iranians and Israelis.
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