By Kayhan Life Staff
Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel was a guest speaker in the UK House of Lords on Sept. 7 at an event organized by Lord Stuart Polak CBE to honor the memory of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in Tehran while in the custody of the Morality Police on Sept. 16, 2022.
“This exclusive gathering will serve as a tribute to Mahsa’s courage and the emblematic message of ‘Woman, Life, and Freedom,’ a clarion call that has assumed universal resonance of the Iranian people’s courageous quest for liberty and a better tomorrow,” Lord Polak’s formal invitation to Minister Gamliel read.
“Minister Gamliel’s attendance is a significant gesture of tribute to the late Mahsa Amini, underscoring her solidarity with the struggle by Iranian people and the courageous quest for liberty, democracy, and a better tomorrow,” the invitation added.
In her opening remarks, Minister Gamliel said: “I believe we have started a process that will lead to significant changes in the future.”
Ms. Gamliel praised the gathering for commemorating Mahsa Amini, who “was murdered because she was wearing ‘improper’ hijab, according to fundamentalist standards.”
Gamliel argued that Mahsa Amini’s death “awakened Iranians to what was taking place in Iran.”
“Although her tragic death broke the hearts of millions of people in Iran and worldwide, it made the international community aware of the Iranian nation’s fight for freedom and the life they deserve.”
Israeli Intelligence Minister speaks to Persian-language media outlets in London on Sept. 6
Gamliel said Mahsa Amini “symbolized Iranian women’s entitlement to civil and human rights enjoyed by women in other parts of the world.”
The intelligence minister noted that the Islamic Republic has “held Iranian people hostage and controls the nation, using violence and murder.”
“At least 354 were hanged in Iran in the first half of 2023, which some claim to be a tactic to frighten and intimidate the opposition,” Gamliel said. “There is no limit to the regime’s criminal activities.”
Gamliel read the names of some of those who have been executed or handed life sentences by the Islamic Republic, explaining that they were a few examples of hundreds of individuals whose only crime was to wish to live free lives.
“While the names of the oppressed are different, they are persecuted for the same reason, and the IRGC is behind many of these heinous crimes,” Gamliel asserted.
“Many world leaders have remained silent, unfortunately,” Gamliel said. “Over 7,000 schoolgirls were victims of toxic gas poisoning in dozens of schools. The IRGC uses fear tactics inside Iran, in the region, and beyond. We must realize the Islamic Republic and its terrorist elements are culprits in the war and the bloodshed in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and other places.”
“The Iranian regime’s agents in Israel, like the Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and Hamas, organized meetings to coordinate tactics for destroying the Jews in their ancestral land,” Gamliel warned.
“While continuing to deny the holocaust and the murder of six million Jews, the Islamic Republic is trying to develop a nuclear capability to kill seven million Jews in a nuclear attack,” Gamliel asserted. “Tehran is behind almost all the disturbing developments in the region.”
Speaking of the Abraham Accord — which was signed in the fall of 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain — Gamliel said: “Iran tries to undermine the normalization of the relationship between Israel and Arab countries. World leaders must know that the Iranian regime has a negative presence everywhere, including Britain.”
“In the name of Israeli and Iranian nations and all those striving for peace, justice, and stability in the region, we want to see the IRGC declared a terrorist organization,” Gamliel pleaded. “We must work together to end Iranian regimes’ killings inside and outside Iran. We must do this in the name of Mahsa, Kiyan, Pouya, Monir, Mohammad, and millions of others who seek a free and secure future.”
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Gamliel explained the long history between Iranians and Jewish people: “I am here as a Jew, highlighting a thousand years of historical brotherly ties between Iranian and Jewish people. It was Cyrus [the Great] who, in 514 B.C., welcomed my people back to Jerusalem to build their temple, restoring their freedom and safety.”
“We must now help Iranian people to free themselves from tyranny and achieve their freedom and prosperity,” Gamliel added. “As an Israeli [government] minister, I consider it a significant task. I also deem it a vital issue as a woman and a mother. We must make this theory a reality.”
Another speaker, Mattie Heaven, a British-Iranian Conservative DCP from the West Midlands and a member of Coventry City Council, said: “My message today is simple. With unity and togetherness, Iran’s brutal regime does not stand a chance of survival. Which is why the Islamic Republic has invested huge amounts of resources to cause division and destroy our unity.”
In 2022, Ms. Heaven’s husband, Vahid Beheshti, a British-Iranian activist, held a 72-day hunger strike outside the British Foreign Office, demanding that the government designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
“Today’s event is significant and will be an enormous step towards yielding positive results for not only the people of Iran but also Israel, the Middle East, and the rest of the world,” Heaven noted.
While highlighting the significance of the event at the House of Lords and the need for a united front against the ruling regime in Iran, Heaven warned about the Islamic Republic’s successful attempts to wreak division among opposition groups.
“The regime has reached its end. It is a criminal and corrupt regime and lacks all credibility. It has reached a dead end in all fields, be it financial, social, judicial, cultural, and the list goes on,” Heaven said. “But the one thing that we must all admit is that the regime is good at creating division among the people and opposition leaders. The regime has been doing this for the last 44 years, which is the key reason they still rule over Iran.”
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Councilor Heaven acknowledged Israel’s crucial support for the Iranian people in their quest for freedom and human rights.
“Today, we are honored to be joined by Israel’s Minister of Intelligence, Gila Gamliel. This is very important for us, as the minister, and the people of Israel play a key role in this dialogue of creating unity,” Heaven noted. “Israel is the only country that the Islamic Republic has openly and repeatedly called for its destruction and complete elimination from the map. Israel understands the regime’s threat just as well as the people of Iran do.”
“For the people of Iran, the number one priority is to take Iran back from its occupiers of 44 years and restore peace, safety, and security across Iran, the Middle East, and the rest of the world, including Israel and here in the UK,” Heaven concluded.
Another speaker at the event, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, said Iran was a significant part of strategic defense talks between his country and Britain.
“This [Iran] topic is part of the strategic talks between us and the U.S., which shows the issue’s significance,” Ambassador Hotovely noted.
Mr. Hotovely explained Israel was highly concerned by the Islamic Republic’s threats because it affected stability in the Middle East. He argued that the “extremist regime of Iran and its IRGC were the principal destabilizing factor in the region,” adding that the international community will gradually realize this, even though Russia’s war in Ukraine dominates the world news.
