Thank you.
When the subject matter is international human rights violations and Iran, we regrettably have a wide range of subjects that we can discuss. Today we are focusing on Iranian anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism not just because we represent B'nai Brith; we do so because anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are central to the regime of the mullahs of Iran. Though the regime bills itself as Islamic and Shiite, it is more accurate to describe it as anti-Zionistic and anti-Semitic.
There are many different ideological strands to the anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism of the regime, and here I will mention only five.
First of all is Holocaust denial. Under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there was vociferous Holocaust denial. There was one Holocaust denial conference in December 2006, and another one scheduled for December 2013. The new President Hassan Rouhani initially cancelled that 2013 conference, but then he reinstated it, and it took place last year, in October 2014.
Second, Iran rejects any possible peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel. Their attitude is that Israel should not exist whether the Palestinians accept its existence or not. President Rouhani has said that Israel is an old wound that should be removed.
Third, there is the mistreatment and expulsion of its own Jewish population, which we heard about from Yehuda Azoulay. In 1948, the Jewish population of Iran, according to the Jewish Agency, was 100,000 to 120,000. In 2011, according to an Iranian census, it was less than 9,000, and presumably it has decreased since then. We have seen Jews in Iran, including Jewish community leaders, arbitrarily executed, accused and convicted of spying for Israel, and their property confiscated. They've been forced to condemn Israel publicly and take part in anti-Israel demonstrations.
Fourth, there's the installation or the foundation of Hezbollah, which began in Iran in 1982 as part of the Iranian revolutionary guard corps. The Iranian regime sent fighters from Iran to Lebanon at the end of 1983. These fighters constituted the initial core of Hezbollah. I'm pleased to see that Canada has listed both the Hezbollah and this Iranian revolutionary guard corps as terrorist organizations.
Finally, in this short list there's the attack by Iran against the Jewish communities worldwide, not just against Israel, but the diaspora. We saw, in 1992, an attack in the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, and in 1994 an attack against the Jewish community organization in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and wounding over 200. The Argentinian prosecutor in these murders, Alberto Nisman, was murdered in Buenos Aires just last month.
In July 2012, Hezbollah operatives killed five Israeli tourists and wounded 32 others. One of the two attackers was a Canadian citizen, Hassan El Hajj Hassan.
In response to those five points and a general anti-Semitic drift to the essence of the regime, I want to mention six possible recommendations.
One is to expand exceptions to the state immunity legislation to allow for Iran to be sued for international human rights violations. It's now designated under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, so it can be sued for acts of terrorism, but its international violations go beyond terrorism and I would suggest that we need an expansion.
Second, I suggest we ask Lebanon for the extradition of the Bulgarian bomber, the Canadian citizen bomber, Hassan El Hajj Hassan.
Third, I suggest that we direct our concerns to the ongoing negotiations about the nuclear weapons in Iran. Any regime that is hell-bent on destruction of Israel and the Jews should be kept as far away from weapons of mass destruction as possible. I endorse the recommendation previously made to this committee, that if there is some sort of agreement between Iran and other states about nuclear weapons capability, it should include some human rights component, as there used to exist in the Helsinki accord.
Fourth, I'm pleased to see that the European Union belatedly, in July 2013, in response to the Bulgarian attack, listed the military wing of Hezbollah on its list of terrorist entities, but this division between military and civilian wings doesn't really make any practical sense since there's no division in funding or responsibility. I would ask Canada to ask the EU to list all of Hezbollah as terrorist.
Fifth, every year at the United Nations General Assembly there is a resolution on Iran of which Canada is the lead sponsor, and it has some language condemning harassment against Jews and persecution of Jews, but it doesn't mention either anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism. I suggest the language should be strengthened.
Sixth and finally, I'm pleased to see that the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has recommended that the government encourage the negotiating parties to take into account all refugee populations as part of any just and comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts. I like the recommendation but I must express some reservation about the government response to it, which says that it would relate only to later stage negotiations and not to negotiations with the Palestinians.
We suggest that this type of principle that there are two refugee populations is central to the first stage peace negotiations. We cannot see our way through to peace without breaking the chains of anti-Zionism holding Palestinian refugees down. We do that by confronting the myth of one refugee population with the reality of two refugee populations. We do that by confronting the myth that Israel is a western imperial colonial enterprise, a myth which holds particular sway with the mullahs of Iran, with the reality that Israel is in large measure composed of Jews from the Middle East, including Iran. Unless the Palestinians themselves accept the reality of dual victimization, a meaningful peace becomes impossible.
I'll stop there, and we'll leave it for questions. Thank you.