Mystery solved: 8 of 11 missing Iranian Jews were murdered

It is a story that has troubled Israel for years. Eleven Iranian Jews tried escaping the Islamic republic in the 1990s but went missing. For the longest time their families had no information about their fates, until now. Israel declared on Thursday that its Mossad intelligence service had proof that eight of the 11 men had been murdered.

The men were members of the Iran's Jewish minority whose disappearances in 1994 and 1997, and the attendant silence from Tehran, have been cited by the U.S. State Department as pointing to possible anti-Semitic persecution.

The families of the eight, from the group that went missing in 1994, had pressed Israel to seek information about their fate as part of its past prisoner swaps with Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Credit: GPO


In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that the Mossad had investigated and "received from a reliable source, privy to the details, information that these Jews were captured and murdered while escaping (Iran)."

The information is a boon to the Mossad's credentials. Learning what happened to the Jews who disappeared "was a sensitive and complicated investigation that constitutes another achievement for the State of Israel's intelligence capabilities," the statement said.

The statement did not elaborate on who might have carried out the killings.

It described the eight as part of a group of 11 missing Iranian Jews, but it did not name them or offer an explanation as to the discrepancy with the U.S. figure of 12.

The announcement was primarily aimed at comforting the relatives of the men who disappeared, including wives now officially declared widows in accordance with Jewish law. Netanyahu met with the bereaved families in Tel Aviv on Thursday, and told them: "I offer my condolences and hope [you] find solace in the information. We will continue to do what it takes to attain all the information possible about our missing."

Also in attendance was former Chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who held a prayer with the families.

Netanyahu thanked Mossad chief Tamir Pardo for solving the case. He also thanked David Meidan, his special envoy on prisoners and missing persons, who was his representative in negotiations with Hamas to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Meidan retired from the Mossad some two years ago, after 35 years of service in command and operational positions in Israel and abroad. Upon his retirement, Netanyahu asked him to continue tending to the matter of captured and missing Israelis when called upon, which he did in the matter of the missing Iranian Jews.

"This is a matter that has occupied the intelligence organizations for over 20 years, and we can say today that the mystery has come to an end," Meidan said. He added that "first and foremost, this is a great intelligence achievement. A credible source was secured in a complicated area, who gave reliable information that provided the picture of the fates of eight of the 11 missing people. Today we can tell the families that the circle is closed."

President Shimon Peres, meanwhile, recorded a message to the Iranian people on Thursday to wish them a happy Iranian new year ("Nowruz").

"I wish you a peaceful year," Peres said.

U.S. President Barack Obama also sent Iranians a Nowruz message, saying "If you meet your international obligations, there can be a new relationship between our two nations."

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