It was an almost surreal scene inside Israel’s embassy in Berlin. Decorations and greetings from a recent Purim celebration still covered the walls and ceilings, marking the ancient story of the Jews of Shushan in Persia. Around a large oval table in a closed meeting room sat about a dozen Iranian exiles living in Germany, invited to share their experiences and hopes for the war with Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor.
Some participants said they still have family members in Iran. “It is difficult for us, but we are willing to pay the price for their freedom and ours after nearly 50 years of the ayatollah regime,” said one attendee, a Kurd who fled Iran in 2011.
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Meeting at the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, Ambassador Prosor fourth from left
(Photo: Israeli Embassy in Berlin)
As he finished describing his family’s situation, the mobile phone of one Israeli participant suddenly sounded an alert warning of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.
Prosor opened the meeting by saying Israelis are prepared to endure short-term hardship to ensure long-term security.
“The people of Israel are ready to pay a price in the short term to ensure peace and security in the long term,” he said. “Such peace will only be possible the day the rule of the ayatollahs is replaced. It is important to say clearly: Israel’s enemy is not the Iranian people but the regime in Tehran.”
“We believe and hope that the Iranian people will succeed in taking their fate into their own hands and building a different Iran, free and democratic. When that happens, Israel and the Iranian people will be able to cooperate again as they did in the past,” he added.
Prosor then told the participants he had come primarily to listen and invited each of them to speak.
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Meeting between Iranian exiles and Israel’s ambassador in Berlin
(Photo: Zeev Avrahami)
Those present included men and women, Kurds and Iranians, students and older activists. Some were born in Iran, others in Germany to families who had fled the country. Many described themselves as political activists.
Two participants said their fathers had been imprisoned in Iran for political opposition, and one said a parent had been executed.
“We are not worried about Israel, but I ask you, Mr. Ambassador, do not allow the Americans to make a deal,” one exile said. “We ask that you continue until the regime changes.”
When Prosor responded that Israel would not stop until the regime changes, the participants applauded enthusiastically.
One Kurdish exile addressed the ambassador with a question she said many in the room shared.
“I want to ask you something that I think I ask on behalf of everyone,” she said. “When do you think we will finally be allowed to visit Israel?”
The meeting, titled “The Future of Democratic Iran,” lasted more than an hour.
Participants also criticized how the war has been portrayed in German media. One exile said the coverage “largely reflects the regime’s propaganda.”
Others expressed frustration that protests and activities organized by the Iranian opposition in exile receive little attention, and that much of the German public appears indifferent to the repression of Iranian citizens and their human rights.
“I cannot believe it when I go to demonstrations against the Iranian regime and in support of Iranian citizens and see groups across from us protesting against the war and in support of the regime,” one participant said.
“That proves to me that the facts do not matter to them. The only thing they are willing to protest is Israel. Friends of mine who hear what I say about Israel these days have simply stopped talking to me.”
Another exile argued that even the way the war is described is misleading.
“This is not a war against Iran but against the ayatollah regime,” he said. “It is a just war for freedom and democracy in the Middle East, for saving lives, like the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. Iranian friends tell us emotionally: ‘They are liberating us.’ I believe history books will describe this moment as the beginning of a great liberation.”
The youngest participant at the meeting was a music student who arrived in Berlin in 2019 and asked that almost no identifying details be published about her, including her name and even the instrument she plays.
Prosor listened closely as she described the painful reality of daily life without contact with her family and without knowing their situation.
He then told her about a well-known Hebrew song and said, “Your melody cannot be stopped.”