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By Meir Javedanfar
Following Hamas’ deadly terror campaign targeting Israel on October 7, it didn’t take long for officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its media platforms to glorify Hamas’ violence and join its antisemitic vitriol. This is not surprising given the financial and military assistance the Iranian regime has provided terror organizations Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) since the early 1990s. It is also not surprising that some figures, who are often labeled “reformist” or “moderate,” including former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, also echoed the regime’s talking points by praising Hamas’ attacks as “a great achievement for the people of Palestine.”
Support for Hamas and the PIJ in the Iranian press has long included the use of antisemitic content and Holocaust denial and analogies. In an interview with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Fars News Agency on October 18, Salman Razavi, who was presented as an expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, stated, “a real Holocaust is now taking place in Gaza, a serious and deliberate genocide has taken place there which is completely against international law.” He then went on to accuse Israel of trying to promote “an event called the Holocaust, whose real authenticity is ambiguous, in order to portray itself as a victim.”
Holocaust distortion is not confined to pro-IRGC outlets. An op-ed published on October 18 in Arman-e Melli, a so-called reformist publication, stated: “The bombing of Baptist Church hospital [also known as Al Ahli hospital – soon determined to not be caused by Israel] and the sacrificing of 500 persons, most of whom were women and children, is a Holocaust and mass murder which took place in front of the world’s media.”
The Iranian regime’s media outlets also took the opportunity to compare Israel to Hitler’s Nazi regime. This was most notable on the front page of the Farhikhtegan newspaper, which is managed by IRGC affiliate Mohammad Amin Imanjani. On October 19, the newspaper’s front page printed an article titled “The Return of Hitlers.” The article was accompanied by an illustration showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Benito Mussolini and U.S. President Joe Biden as Adolph Hitler. The article begins by stating that “the Zionists sacrificed 500 Palestinians to welcome Joe Biden.” Its author, Seyyed Mohammad Talebi, then likens the meeting between Biden and Netanyahu to the 1940 meeting between Hitler and Mussolini at the Brenner Pass, close to the German-Italian border. According to Talebi, just as Germany needed Italy on its side to confront France and the United Kingdom, Israel needs the United States: “Several decades after that meeting, Netanyahu and his friends are doing what they learned from Hitler” [i.e., trying to bring the United States into their war].
In the same article, Talebi goes as far as to argue that Israel is worse than the Nazis, citing as proof the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza – which Hamas blamed Israel for, but was almost certainly caused by an errant Palestinian-fired rocket. He writes that “not even the Nazis targeted hospitals, but the Zionists want to show that they are more bloodthirsty than the Nazis.”
The Iranian regime’s antisemitic propaganda and disinformation pose a stark contrast to how Iranian citizens and diaspora perceived and reacted to Hamas’ October 7 attack. An Iranian academic summarized the public sentiment when he reportedly explained that the “majority in Iran” express support for Israel as “a reaction to the minority who misuse government resources to suggest that Iranians are pleased with Hamas's attacks on Israel.” Similar sentiment about Hamas and the Iranian regime were also reported as being prevalent among the Iranian diaspora.
The Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his regime have even resorted to using Iranian Jewish citizens to stage despicable stunts to back their hate-filled disinformation campaign. On November 3, the U.S. State Department reported on and denounced as “abhorrent” the Islamic Republic of Iran’s coercion of its Jewish minority into staging a series of anti-Israel rallies in five Iranian cities on October 30.
Tehran’s shameful glorification of terrorism, use of Holocaust distortion and false Nazi analogies, and instrumentalization of its at-risk Jewish minority yet again reveals the true face of the Iranian regime. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, antisemitism, and Holocaust denial. Its exploitation of Iran’s Jewish community to serve its anti-Israel propaganda only add to its roster of shameless anti-Israel ideology and actions.
Meir Javedanfar is an Iranian-Israeli lecturer, author, and commentator. He has been teaching Iranian politics at Reichman University in Israel since 2012 and is Anti-Defamation League’s Advisor on Iranian Affairs. @MeirJa