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Students under attack by Iranian regime condemn Israeli atrocities in Gaza

“Statement by ‘Office for the Consolidation of Unity’ to Condemn the Crimes in Gaza”

January 16, 2009

The Israeli army has committed a crime against humanity.  It has transgressed international law and the Geneva Convention, which demands the protection of civilians.

 The silence of Western governments and the absence of effective punishment for the perpetrators of this human catastrophe will weaken the dialogue on human rights globally. It allows oppressive governments to present the issue of human rights as an instrument of powerful countries bent on promoting their domination and political interests around the world. In Iran we have seen how this weapon has been used to discredit internal human rights struggles and to confront the few existing human rights institutions. 

In the 1990s, the conflict between Palestine and Israel reached a peace interval.  Despite Israel’s occupation and its warlike treatment of its Arab neighbors, Palestinians accepted the division of the region into two states, Palestine and Israel.  But Israel has not honored its commitments.  It has not agreed to fully withdraw from the West Bank, dismantle the separation wall, and to make arrangements for the dignified return of Palestinian refugees to the post-1967 occupied territories.  It has not accepted a Palestinian state.

 The most painful aspect of this long-term crisis has been the treatment of Palestinian people as pawns in a game. Governments and forces in the region which stand to gain from unrest in the region, have tried to turn the Palestinian problem into a winning card for their games.  Unfortunately some Palestinian forces also consider power, promotion of ideology, and survival at any cost to be their most important principle. They do not consider universal rights and interests as part of the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people.   The flames of hatred between Palestine and Israel arethe primary fuel for fundamentalist groups such as Al Qaida.

 Iran’s former reformist administration [of President Khatami] sought to adopt a relatively reasonable position on the conflict.  But the current administration’s policies are contradictory, tension-filled and against Iran’s national interests.  On the one hand they call for “wiping Israel off the map of the earth.”  On the other hand, they claim “friendship with the people of Israel.”  These policies have denigrated Iran’s regional stature and have discredited it in the world community.

 The current administration and its supporters are using the crisis in Gaza to achieve gains for themselves.  They suppress independent forces inside Iran and try to turn public attention away from internal problems and crises.  The promotion of attacks on our student organization [the Office for the Consolidation of Unity], the harassment of Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, the arrest of eleven students at Shiraz University, the increasing arrests of civil rights and social activists, creating false pretexts for wider clashes with Islamic Student Organizationsand student activists,  are all measures to promote this purpose. 

The fundamentalists’ claim to support the Palestinian people can only be believed if they practice humanitarian standards in relationship to the people of Iran.  The government’s main motivation is to use the crisis in Gaza as a tool to promote its own internal and international aims. They want to turn the issue of defending the Palestinian people into their private property, their monopoly. 

 Although the policies of some Palestinian groups cannot be condoned, Israel’s violations of international resolutions and its lack of adherence to its commitment to the Arab peace proposal [at the Annapolis, Maryland Summit], have been the greatest promoters of terrorism and extremismin the region.  The Israeli army’s current crimes in Gaza, its murder of unarmed people and its targeting of the leaders of Palestinian groups, constitute an obvious case of state terrorism.

To conclude, we condemn terrorism of any kind as an inhuman act.  The most significant way of preventing terrorism is to hold all of its global perpetrators responsible.  Hence,  Israel’s speedy withdrawal from theGaza Strip,  ending the economic blockade of Gaza and honoring commitments to a peace treaty, are the best ways to create a secure region and protect people’s lives in a sustainable form.

 The Persian original of this statement can be found at:

http://www.akhbar-ooz.com/news.jsp?essayId=19025

Source: University Times, Cal State-Los Angeles

Iranian Regime Arrests Socialist Students

According to the latest report - December 23, 2007 - from the Committee for the Freedom of the University Students, support group for dissident students at Amir Kabir University of Technology (formerly Tehran Polytechnic), it has been more than 3 weeks since the beginning of these arrests desribed below and during this period neither the family members nor the students’ lawyers have been permitted to meet them. In a few cases the inspectors have threatened the families so that they may not ask for a lawyer. Since new arrests are going on every day, nobody knows about the future of the imprisoned students.

From an Iranian Correspondent. 
December 7 2007. During the past few days, over 20  independent socialist students from universities at Tehran, Tabriz, Ahvaz and Shiraz have been arrested by the security forces of the Islamic Republic.  A statement of support from the Unity Center of the Free University of Tabriz emphasizes that Iran's young independent socialist activists have been especially targeted because of the links they have forged with labor and womens rights movements.   I appeal to you to do whatever you can to publicize these arrests and demand the students' immediate release.  Below please find a list of the names of the arrested students and a statement  by the Unity Center of the Free University of Tabriz.   
Names of students arrested since December 2, 2008 who still remain in prison: 
Anushe Azadfar
Ilnaz Jamshidi
Mehdi grabloo
Nader Ahsani
Behruz Karimi Zadeh
Keyvan Amiri Eliyasi
Nassim Soltan Beigi
Ali Kalani
Amir Mehrzad
Milad Moini
Behrang Zandi
Hamed Mohamadi
Arash Pakzad
Ali Salem
Mohsen Ghamin
Roozbeh Safshekan
Roozbehan Amiri
Yasir Pir Hayati
Said Aqam Ali Khalili

Protest Against the Mass Arrests of Socialist Students at Tehran’s Universities
Statement by the Unity Center of the Free University of Tabriz (Iran)
December 5, 2007
Friends, Students, the Iranian Nation:
The boots of dictatorship cast a heavy shadow on Iranian universities.  Even as previously arrested students from Amir Kabir and other Tehran universities endure the most extreme mental and physical tortures, a new round of  mass arrests of socialist students at Tehran’s universities is being reported. 
 On Tuesday December 4,  just a few days prior to a “Student Day”  rally  sponsored by  socialist students at Tehran University,  state security forces arrested over 25 Left activists and pivotal figures of this movement at  Tehran University.  The slogan of the rally was to be “No To War.  The University Is Not a Military Base.”   These clashes even spread to the University of Mazandaran [Near the Caspian Sea].  Despite all these pressures and the continuation of the arrests, students at Tehran University were able to hold their rally under extreme police presence.
The crackdown on student activists and the extensive suppression of socialist students in the past few days indicate important points.    A cursory look at the history of student political activism in the last three decades shows that since the so-called Cultural Revolution of 1981 and the elimination of all opposition voices at the universities, and after the overcoming of the deep- freeze by the mid 1990s, and the experiences of the past few years,  this is the first time that a movement  has risen up that is completely independent of state institutions.  This movement is projecting its call for freedom and equality with perseverance at the university.     
In the not so distant past, student movements hoped for support from certain layers of the rulers or half-heartedly hoped for foreign intervention.  But now the movement that is taking shape at the university is not contaminated by any of the above mentioned views.  That is because, it cannot tolerate imperialist plunder and also challenges the totality of  native state institutions.
If we look back and review the experience of suppression of students in the early 1990s and early 2000s (such as the bitter events of July 1999 and June 2003) we can become aware of the precise consciousness of the current movement and its understanding of the necessity for independence from any power institution (be it the rulers or the critics within the government).  It is clear that the most important reason for the suppression of this forward looking movement is this definition of its attitude to political deals and its refusal to be used as a means.    Furthermore the link that this movement has established with other social movements (workers’ movement, women’s movement etc.) is a fine point that should not be overlooked.  Much more remains to be said about this which needs more space than the current statement.
As a group of students from the Free University of Tabriz, we support the completely independent student movements and the need for independence of each movement.    We also express our strong opposition to the latest attacks on students at Tehran’s universities.  We are also very sad to see the deliberate silence of many political activists and the news boycott concerning the suppression of socialist students.  In expressing our support for the imprisoned students, we strongly demand the unconditional release of all the arrested students.
Unity Center,  A  Student-Political Organization
December 5, 2007 
www.kanoonevahdat.blogfa.com
For further information, please contact the Unity Center at  kanoonevahdat@yahoo.com

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