Background
Menashe Amir was born in Tehran, Iran, on December 27th 1939 in a secular Jewish family. He grew up in the ancient Jewish quarter called "Mahaleh".
Menashe Amir was born in Tehran, Iran, on December 27th 1939 in a secular Jewish family. He grew up in the ancient Jewish quarter called "Mahaleh".
He is a former head of the Israel Broadcasting Authority"s Persian language division. He is also a leading Iranian expert in Israel and a chief editor of the Foreign Ministry"s Persian web-site. Amir made aliyah (immigration) to Israel on October
19th 1959.
He has been working as a journalist and a broadcaster for over 55 years, and broadcasting to Iran for over 52 years. Amir became popular in Israel during his coverage of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Currently retired from his post in the Israel Broadcasting Authority, he continues to host his radio program
Amir is hosting a daily 1.5 hour radio program in Persian, which is broadcast every evening to Iran on a shortwave.
The program includes a call-in portion, with Iranian listeners calling a special number in Germany. While no hard data is available, the show is very popular in Iran and some experts estimate that up to 5 million Iranians listen to lieutenant
Beside political discussions, the program also broadcasts the music banned in Iran. Iranian newspapers often denounce the radio as the "Zionist regime radio", and rebuke the radio program assertions.
In the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the "Zionist radio the bad British radio" for misleading the public.
This was widely interpreted as a reference to Menashe Amir"s program on Kol Yisrael and a reference to British Broadcasting Corporation Persian. Amir founded the Israeli Foriegen Ministry Website in Persian on 2006, and served as its Chief Editor for 4 years.