Speaker of parliament in Iran condemns anti-Semitic TV programs

Iran’s parliamentary speaker has criticized anti-Semitism in the state media. He cautioned state media “to respect the rights of religious minorities in the programs they produce”, Gholamali Haddadadel said on Wednesday after Maurice Motamed, a Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, had complained about anti-Semitic television broadcasts. "Insulting Jews and attributing false things to them in TV programs has not only hurt the feelings of the Jewish community but has also, it can be said with conviction, led to the emigration of a considerable percentage of the Jewish community,” the Iranian news agency quoted Motamed. An estimated 25,000 Jews live in the Islamic Republic, down from more than twice that number when the pro-Western Shah was toppled in 1979.