Knesset offers tourist guide to Iran, for Purim

List of tourism sites released as Purim joke, countering Iranian list of areas to attack in Israel.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Iran's Kish Island 390 (photo credit: Caren Firouz / Reuters)
Iran's Kish Island 390
(photo credit: Caren Firouz / Reuters)
The Knesset Research and Information Center put out a guide on Monday of hot spots for Israeli tourists in Persia – otherwise known as Iran.
The list is partially a Purim joke, but it is also the center’s response to a report by the Majlis Research Center, its Iranian counterpart, on the ideal places in Israel for the Islamic Republic to attack.
Dr. Shirley Avrahami, the manager of the Knesset Research and Information Center, said that she compiled the list out of a hope for peace, while the Majlis’s researcher Ahmad Tavakoli made his list out of a hope for war.
The first site on the Israeli list is the grave of the Purim story’s heroes Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan, 360 km. southwest of Tehran.
According to Iranian Jewish tradition, when the Messiah comes, a cave will open up, connecting the Hamadan mausoleum to Jerusalem. The Jews remaining in Iran visit and pray at the site.
Other tourist spots in Iran include the capital city Tehran, and Persepolis, the historical capital of the Persian Empire.
Avrahami recommends staying at the Darwish Grand hotel, designed as a model of ancient Persepolis, on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, which was rated one of the top 10 most beautiful islands in the world by The New York Times in 2010.