AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg
In response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13, several anti-Zionist organizations and activists in the U.S. have praised Iran for its actions, alleging that authentic supporters of Palestine must support the attack.
This rhetoric is reminiscent of the language and messages expressed by some anti-Zionist activists in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre by Hamas, where the violence against Israelis was immediately glorified and justified by more radical elements.
Perhaps the most notable such immediate reaction to the Iran attack occurred at a conference held by the March on the DNC coalition, cosponsored by Chicago SJP, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Students for a Democratic Society at UIC and others. As news of the attack broke, more than a hundred activists at the event appeared exuberant upon learning of Iran’s attack, cheering and chanting “hands off Iran!”
Also at the conference, Shabbir Rizvi, a Chicago-based writer for the Iranian regime’s PressTV, was filmed teaching attendees how to chant "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" in Persian. After the attack on Israel, he replied to a tweet from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi defending his country’s actions: “God bless Iran and the heroes of the IRGC.”
Other notable groups and individuals who have expressed support for Iran’s unprecedented attack include an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine; an official on the International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA); Professor Asad Abukhalil (CSU Stanislaus); and Mohammed Habbeh, National Development Coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
On the same night as Iran’s attack on Israel, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) applauded Iran who “dared to take action to bring an end to this genocide [against Gaza].” They presented Iran’s attack as an act of self-defense against Israel. “Zionism’s ultimate ambitions as a project are escalation against and destruction of not only Palestine, but our region as a whole….Iran has a right to defend itself.” The PYM is an anti-Zionist activist organization with chapters in the United States and Canada, which has played a role in convening many of the anti-Israel rallies since October 7. Drew SJP re-posted PYM’s statement on its Instagram account.
Although they did not applaud the attack, CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) issued a statement which seemed to claim that Israel provoked Iran’s attack in order to distract attention from its alleged “genocide” in Gaza. “We call on the Biden administration to reject the far-right Israeli government’s ‘transparent’ attempt to distract from the #Gaza #genocide by dragging the U.S. into a regional war and instead demand that the Israeli government de-escalate the crisis it started. #Iran #Israel.”
Jewish Voice for Peace did not applaud Iran’s attack, but they perversely blamed Israel for “intentionally escalat[ing] regional instability,” and added that Israel and the U.S. are to blame for bringing “the entire region to the precipice of an all-out war.” Their preferred solution is for the U.S. to “halt weapons sales to Israel immediately and end all funding of the Israeli military.”
Hours after the attack, an account affiliated with fringe anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta tweeted: “G-d BLESS IRAN,” along with a photo of what appears to be one of their representatives speaking at a protest against a backdrop of the Hezbollah and Iranian flags.
The far-left International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) issued a statement saying that Iran’s attack on Israel was merely a response to the “bloodthirsty killing frenzy and expansionist aggression” that drove Israel to bomb Iran’s Syrian embassy. According to the ILPS, Iran’s response was a form of “legitimate defense,” and they called on supporters to prepare for “mass demonstrations is all possible regions to prevent U.S. war on Iran.”
Claiming that Iran was merely defending itself, the North Carolina Green Party played into an antisemitic trope about Jewish control and alleged that Congress is sympathetic to Israel because it has been “bought” by pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC: “Iran has a right to defend itself. Or does that only apply to Israel against anyone they want to take land from? Eyes on every member of Congress that has been bought and paid for by AIPAC.”
Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which has had a presence at several anti-Israel rallies since October 7, released a statement urging the public to side with Iran: “Iran has helped the Palestinian resistance, and we should stand with Iran just as we stand with Palestine.”
In response to a post from Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan, who called for an end to regional aggression in the Middle East, the anti-Zionist group Madison for Palestine cheered Iran for “retaliating against genocidal Zionists” and berated him for calling for de-escalation. “HOW DARE YOU demand the [Palestinian] resistance to stop defending themselves against this massacre.”
Hunter College Palestine Solidarity Alliance, an affiliate of SJP, reposted a report of a drone attack from the anti-Israel account Arabs of Canada and added: “true solidarity.” In another post, PSA Hunter College placed a laughing emoji over a clip of Israelis allegedly running into shelters during the Iranian attack.
Professor Asad Abukhalil of California State University at Stanislaus expressed his feelings of shame “that Iran did what all Arabs could not do” (via Google Translate).
As news of the attack broke, Mirah Wood of Democratic Socialists of America’s Official International Committee expressed her “full solidarity with Iran as it retaliates against the Zionist entity.” She also pleaded for the public to “support Palestinian resistance.”
Also in the midst of the attack, Nerdeen Kiswani, founder and leader of NYC-based vociferous anti-Zionist group Within Our Lifetime, called on her readers to “support the axis of resistance” (usually a reference to Iran and its proxies) in order “to support Palestine.”
As reports broke of Iran launching drones at Israel, Ali Abunimah, co-founder of anti-Zionist publication The Electronic Intifada, tweeted: “If the reports are accurate we must hope that the Iranian self-defense drones will inflict precise and devastating blows at Zionist enemy terror bases and terror infrastructure and that there are enough of them to overwhelm terrorist air defenses.”
Mohamad Habehh, a national development coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine, stated in a post that “Iran has the right to self-defense.”
Asa Winstanley, a journalist at Electronic Intifada, tweeted: “THANK YOU IRAN.”
