Embassy of Israel, Tehran

The Israeli presence in Tehran served as a diplomatic and practical center for relations with Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The two countries developed commercial, security, and intelligence connections, and the mission was described as one of Iran’s most active diplomatic institutions during the Shah’s rule.[5][1] In 1968, Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian and his brothers purchased the Tehran home that later became the Israeli embassy building.[6] The available sources do not establish its precise street address or its long-term history after the 1979 transfer.

The status of the mission is not described uniformly. The Times of Israel says the Tehran presence was a diplomatic mission that was never officially recognized as an embassy and that no Israeli flag flew outside it; JNS describes a permanent delegation that served as a de facto embassy.[4][3] Other accounts refer to the premises as a trade mission, an unofficial embassy, or the building of the Israeli mission.[7][1]

The institutional history in Tehran began before Israel’s establishment. The Jewish Agency opened a Palestine Office there in 1942 to assist Jewish-Polish refugees from Russia and arrange their immigration to the Land of Israel; the office continued operating until 1979.[8] Israel also maintained a diplomatic mission in Tehran until early 1979.[8][4]

Iran extended de facto recognition to Israel in March 1950, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.[8] Other accounts date recognition later: the Library of Congress places the Shah’s de facto recognition in the early 1960s, while the National Library of Israel describes diplomatic recognition in mid-1960.[7][9]

Despite the discreet character of the relationship, the mission was part of a broad network of exchanges. Iran supplied oil to Israel, regular El Al flights connected Tehran and Tel Aviv, and the countries maintained trade, student exchanges, and close political and intelligence ties.[8][1] Commercial flights, military collaboration, and other practical cooperation accompanied the diplomatic presence; one account describes the officially collaborative period as lasting less than 20 years.[9] Relations also reflected shared concerns about Soviet influence and expansionist Arab nationalism.[1]

Cooperation covered several fields. Israeli assistance in Iran included agriculture, water resources, military affairs, intelligence, and medicine.[10][5] Aryeh Levin, an Israeli diplomat posted in Tehran in the early 1970s, described working with Iranians from different backgrounds and recalled having many friends in the city.[9] Levin was the mission’s No. 2 official from 1973 to 1977, with the title of minister plenipotentiary; he also described Israeli work in agriculture, town planning, and village reconstruction following the 1962 Qazvin-area earthquake.[4]

The relationship reached a high point in 1967 and began to deteriorate after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, according to an encyclopedia account. It links the change partly to the Shah’s view that rising oil revenues reduced Iran’s need to rely on Israel and, to some extent, the United States.[5] Even as the relationship shifted, the Tehran mission remained part of a network that included oil commerce, security contacts, and transport links.[8][1]

As protests against the Shah intensified in 1978, Israeli representatives prepared emergency plans and gradually reduced the Israeli presence. Israelis in provincial cities were sent to Israel, staff members’ children were evacuated, and the Israeli school in Tehran, which had 250 pupils, closed; women and nonessential staff subsequently left. By December, fewer than 100 of the roughly 4,000 Israelis who had been in Iran remained.[11] Ambassador Uri Lubrani warned in June 1978 that the protests could bring down the Shah’s regime, with serious consequences for oil supplies, security cooperation, and commercial ties, and cautioned that Iran’s Jewish community might face harassment.[12]

The evacuation included measures to protect people and records. One plan called for mission personnel to leave by crossing from the roof to neighboring rooftops and then reaching waiting cars and safe apartments. Important archives were packed and flown to Israel under special security arrangements, while other material was burned in barrels in the courtyard.[11] As pressure to leave grew, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official urged the remaining Israelis to depart quickly. Ambassador Yossef Harmelin reported that the mission could not arrange its own plane and would need to join another mission’s evacuation; he refused to leave while other Israelis remained.[12]

The last El Al flight from Tehran departed on February 10, 1979. Five hundred people boarded a plane with 400 seats, while 34 Israelis, including Knesset member Mordechai Ben-Porat, remained in three safe apartments. After the embassy was evacuated the next day, those left behind eventually departed on a Pan Am flight and landed in Israel on February 19.[11]

On February 11, after the Iranian army withdrew the soldiers and tanks that usually guarded the building, a crowd surrounded it and attempted to break in. A retrospective account estimates that about 25,000 people besieged the premises. Israeli officials escaped over the roof to a neighboring building and left in waiting cars; the crowd seized the building shortly afterward.[11] An Israeli diplomatic telegram covering the period after Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Tehran on February 1 had earlier reported that a crowd broke into the courtyard and outer reception room, without injuries.[12]

The Islamic Republic severed formal relations with Israel in 1979. A Library of Congress country study says the provisional government rescinded the Shah’s de facto recognition and turned the Israeli trade mission over to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); a Congressional Research Service report says Khomeini transformed the vacant Israeli embassy into an embassy for the PLO.[7][13] Other accounts describe the large, unofficial Israeli embassy building as being handed to Arafat or becoming a Palestinian mission.[1] The sources do not establish a precise date or procedure for a formal transfer, or the premises’ subsequent long-term history.

Yasser Arafat visited the building after the revolution and claimed it as the PLO’s local office, according to a contemporaneous Washington Post report reproduced in an archival collection. That report describes the visit and claim rather than documenting the date or mechanics of a formal handover.[2] Other accounts say Arafat received the keys to the building that had housed the Israeli delegation; a Ynet retrospective says he appointed Hani al-Hassan as ambassador and that the two appeared on the balcony with a PLO flag.[14][11] A separate account describes the PLO as taking over office space in the former Israeli embassy.[15]

Accounts differ on the timing of Arafat’s arrival in Tehran. The FDD dates it to February 17, 1979, while an ICT article gives February 5 and says he arrived with a 31-member Fatah and PLO delegation.[16][17] The date of the building’s transfer is not independently fixed by the contemporaneous report, which was dated February 19 and recounts Arafat’s visit after two days of meetings with revolutionary leaders.[2]

Arafat’s visit publicly symbolized the reversal of the former relationship. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point quotes him telling an Iranian crowd, “the road to Palestine now leads through Iran.”[15] Accounts describe the new regime’s opposition to Israel as an ideological and strategic goal, while noting that its partnership with the PLO was based on political aims rather than shared theology.[14] The relationship later encountered strains, including disagreement over Khomeini’s Velayat-e faqih principle and Arafat’s position during the Iran–Iraq War.[10][14]

Descriptions of the mission and its end reflect differing terminology and political perspectives. Sources variously call the site an embassy, an unofficial embassy, a permanent delegation, or a trade mission.[3][1] They also differ over recognition: some date Iranian de facto recognition of Israel to March 1950, while other accounts place de facto or diplomatic recognition in the early 1960s or mid-1960.[8][7] The record supports a sustained Israeli diplomatic presence and extensive bilateral ties, but the sources do not uniformly establish that the premises were formally recognized by Iran as an embassy.[3][4]

The post-revolutionary transfer is likewise presented in different ways. Some sources describe a handover of the former Israeli building to Arafat or the PLO, while the contemporaneous report records Arafat visiting and claiming the site without establishing the formal transfer’s date or procedure.[14][2] Sources also disagree about Arafat’s arrival date, giving February 5 or February 17, 1979.[16][17]