On July 1, 2016, the Iranian regime marked the 37th Qods (Jerusalem) Day, as it has since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, designated it on the last Friday in Ramadan. In addition to the regime's usual messages stressing the need for the annihilation of the State of Israel, this year antisemitic messages stood out in statements by senior Iranian officials, in newspapers such as the regime mouthpiece Kayhan, and on signs carried in regime-organized marches.
This report will focus on these antisemitic messages:
'Kayhan': The Character of the Jews And The Myth of the Holocaust
In its editorial on June 30, the eve of Qods Day, Kayhan, which is affiliated with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, discussed the circumstances that led to the state of the Jews, Israel, depicting the Jews as cheating, cunning, subversive, racist, plundering, and satanic, and as exploiting the "myth of the Holocaust" in order to steal Islamic lands. The newspaper stated that the enemies of Islam had invented an entity out of riffraff from ethnic groups under the guise of the Jewish religion, so that the Jews could enslave the world. It argued that the European states, headed by England and America, had agreed to the Jewish plot not only because they wanted to expel their own Jews, which were an element for subversion and espionage, but also because they wanted to use them as a perpetual deterrent to the rise of Islam.
The following are the main points of the editorial, "A Patch [also a reference to the yellow patch] That Doesn't Belong," with the byline of Mohammad Hadi Saharai:
"About 70 years ago some of the countries, primarily the European ones, with the support of the then-young America, spoke of and advocated the establishment of a state [for the Jews], and even ratified this, while the international community did not yet understand what was about to happen.
"The establishment of a Jewish state for the world's Jews involved a litany of lies [a reference to the claim that the Holocaust was a myth], which successfully duped [the countries that voted in favor in the UN vote] and led to the establishment of a state that would lead the Jews from a miserable life to a still more miserable life. But the reality was more dangerous than it seemed, and it is impossible to remain silent about it.
"Perhaps one of the questions that preoccupied the Imam [Ayatollah] Khomeini and the martyr Ayatollah [Morteza] Motahari, because they had more foresight than others, was: How is it that the Europeans, who up to that time had vexed and harassed the Jews and considered them parasitic, are now thinking of establishing a state for them and are concerned about their existence? Countries that for years had wearied of the Jews' subversion and clandestine activity, and that sometimes attacked them on various pretexts, and that even now are calling them, and depicting them in their symbolism, as mice because they are cunning and diabolical, suddenly saw an advantage in helping them. How did this come about?
"The myth of the Holocaust, although a figment of the Jewish historians' imagination, grew in part from the roots of social reality. Although the Auschwitz crematoria and the rest are a figment of the Jews' imagination, this great lie emerged from the Europeans' hatred of the Jews. Without such negative thinking and views vis-à-vis this people, it would have been inconceivable, and it would have been impossible to tell such a huge lie.
"This writer believes that in every people there is both good and bad, but still believes that there are peoples with certain pronounced traits. Corroboration for this [position] can be found in the Koran as well, which describes the rage of the Hijaz Arabs before the emergence of Islam as a sign that this trait was found in most of them. Or, for example, the Jews' [trait of] stiff-neckedness - [indeed,] the Koran states, several times [regarding the Jews] that a mark of shame accompanies them and that the wrath of God rests upon them.
"The question is: Has the Jewish religion changed, or has the nature of the Jews changed, so that the Europeans began to think about [the benefit of] their enemies? On the other hand, it is inconceivable that the policy of the world powers has changed. So what is the story [behind] their vote to establish this Jewish state, when Britain had abstained in the [1947] vote to establish this entity [Israel]? In effect, this is the policy of the 'Old Fox' [i.e. Britain], whose policy is always spreading discord [in order to continue to rule]...
"The establishment of the Zionist regime [a mere] three years after America's successful nuclear missile operations and after that country's nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is another point that must be considered - it may be America's power that forced countries to vote for Israel. [It is this] power that made it possible for a dagger called Israel to penetrate the Islamic world and cause its body [to suffer] 70 years of pain.
"[This] state comprised a small group of Jews who were long-time local [residents who originated from] the [now-]occupied territories, together with many immigrants from England, America, the Soviet Union, Poland, and other places, who strove to present a homeland because of their greed for a greater Hebrew state, their desire to escape misery and wretchedness, and their humiliation under the rule of others, and who [therefore] immigrated to the mirage of this country. This immigration led to the theft of the Palestinians' land and the establishment of the openly terrorist state of the Children of Israel. The crimes of Sabra and Shatila, of Qana, and of Deir Yassin, of the 22-day [2008-9] Gaza war, and of the 33-day [2006 Lebanon] war - all these comprise chapters in the annals of the crimes of strife-instigating and criminal [Jewish] people.
"The enemies of Islam drew the Jews to Palestine from every place in the world, and they pinned together diverse ethnic groups with different languages and customs, who had only the religion of the Jews in common, so that they might intermingle - and that they might, in this way, enslave the world more than in the past.
"They created a history for this wandering people, and manufactured heroes. They distorted and falsified the reality that they could not eradicate - this is their area of expertise. [The enemies of Islam] disseminated all this deceit via outlets such as Hollywood, the satellite channels, magazines, and so on, and fed [it all to] the public. They retold the lie with such enthusiasm that even those who were lied about believe it. They created the myth of the Holocaust in order to attract economic investment, and conquered Islamic lands using the same lies they tell about the European Christians; to this very day, they extort a stipend for this from European countries such as Germany, England, and Poland, and so on, and every year they demand reparations from them.
"Although the main reason behind Europe's and America's support for the establishment of Israel lies in their desire to be rid of their [the Jews'] subversion via commerce, espionage, trade in antiquities, disruption of norms, and usury, the most important reason of all was [the desire] to create a dogmatic, merciless, racist, rapacious, and cunning base on the Islamic lands, called Israel, that would constitute deterrence in the world to counter a growing Islam, and so that they could cause the Muslims to perpetually fear this satanic dog.
"This measure, although it came... a few decades after the Sykes-Picot agreement that dismantled the power of the Islamic world, nevertheless attests to the connection between the events, because of the power of the permanent actors [i.e. the superpowers] who have been operating ever since [Sykes-Picot].
"These politics, which are known to be dirty, are English politics, whose sources are drawn from the blood of the innocent and the oppressed... and which is based on the doctrine of Satan. The same politics that uproots people in order to implement a certain policy... degrades people in order to instate a tyrannical [Jewish] people, executes countless children, and captures many women in order to remove a nuisance to an invading people. The crimes of Israel, America, and England are too numerous to count. Few events in the Islamic world do not bear the fingerprints of the three [members] of [this] axis of evil. This axis of evil is also tied to the arrest of the Shi'ite Sheikh Zakzaky... in Nigeria, the execution of Sheikh Nimr [by the regime] in Saudi Arabia, the arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman, and, later, the revocation of the [Bahraini] citizenship of Ayatollah Isa Qassim [by the authorities there].
"How wonderful it is that 37 years ago, the Imam Khomeini called the last Friday of Ramadan Qods [Jerusalem] Day, so that the courageous ones across the world can, while fasting, ask God for the death of these three Satans, and shout and demand the removal of this patch that does not belong, which constitutes a cancerous growth and Satan's artery of life - that is, Israel - in order to save humanity from it."[1]
Iranian Official: "God Removed His Blessing From The Jews, And Today There Are Only A Few Tens Of Millions"
Mohsen Rafighdoost, who served as minister of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-8 Iran-Iraq War and who today heads the Noor Foundation, explained in his June 29 Qods Day address that "wealthy Jews" had attempted to actualize the dream of the greater Jewish state "from the Nile to the Euphrates" and to plunder the area's natural resources. Denying that he was against the Jews, "but merely the Zionist segment of them," he went on to depict the Jews as usurpers and plunderers throughout history. Following are excerpts from his comments:
"God removed His blessing from the Jews, and today there are only a few tens of millions of Jews in the world. I will remind you that we do not oppose Jews, but merely the Zionist segment of them.
"After 300 years of Zionist [sic] activity, eventually, some 70 years ago, they managed to occupy an Islamic state and instill a false regime called Israel. This created an atmosphere that attracted wealthy Jews from around the world to come to Israel and fulfill two dreams. The first was, they were told that the Jewish state would be large, from the Nile to the Euphrates; the second was to plunder the natural resources in this area of the Middle East, which is rich in them.
"This issue was developed by free Zionist movements with the wars in '67 [the Six Day War] and '73 [the Yom Kippur War], but [Iran's 1979] Islamic Revolution replaced the Israeli Embassy in Tehran with a Palestinian Embassy, thus sounding the final chord of this advance...
"Several years after the victory of the Revolution, Hizbullah was created, and Israel suffered defeat at its hands in two wars [1982-2000 and 2006], to the point that all their illusions regarding 'a greater Israel' from the Nile to the Euphrates dissipated. Initially they tried to surround themselves with a wall, but after the 33-day war [the 2006 Lebanon War], according to our information, immigration to Israel ceased, and people even began emigrating [from it].
"Israel wanted some of the wealthy Jews to come to it also, as well as Jews from other countries like Ethiopia, in order to increase its population. After Israel's defeat by Hizbullah, which was a great event, Israel [also] suffered a defeat in Gaza, although [the latter is] a small area, and the most densely populated in the world.
"After a series of defeats, the flow of immigration reversed entirely, and therefore the Zionist regime [now] taxes emigration [from Israel]. Eventually, they said: Anyone who wants to emigrate from Israel must leave behind all their possessions, and [only] then can they leave. Despite this, people still volunteer to do this.
"Mr. [Khamenei] was right when he said, 'If the state [of Israel] cannot create deterrence like it did in the Six Day War, it will not manage to exist in the region'... We are currently fighting courageously in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIS), [but] we are actually not fighting ISIS in Syria [at all] - [we are fighting] Israel and America.
"ISIS is an ugly phenomenon, much like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda - which were created by America. But these terrorist groups will become a problem for them [America and Israel], as has happened thus far. If today we are fighting in Syria and protecting a certain movement, it is because [they] do not want us to reach 25 years [the time limit set by Khamenei for Israel's continued existence] and Israel will [indeed] be destroyed."[2]
Khamenei Advisor In IRGC: "Qods Day Is The Start Of The Countdown To The End Of The False Occupying Zionist Regime"
On June 30, 2016 Gen. Yadollah Javani, Khamenei's advisor in the IRGC, said: "Tomorrow is Qods Day - a day when we raise our voices against the main violators of human rights, a day when we call for death to the evil ones, a day when we voice our heartfelt cries over the child murderers who have occupied the Palestinian lands and Jerusalem...
"Thirty-seven years ago, the Imam Khomeini named the final Friday of Ramadan 'Qods Day'... thus burying in history, once and for all, the infantile Zionist dream of establishing a regime from the Nile to the Euphrates in the heart of the Islamic lands. This strategic move has become a roadmap for the increasing strengthening of the 'resistance front' and the waning of the 'camp of compromise [with the West].' This roadmap has prepared the ground for the unifying of all the potential in the Islamic world to liberate Jerusalem... Qods Day is the start of the countdown to the end of the false occupying Zionist regime...
"Thirty-seven years ago, global Qods Day gathered the scattered energies in the Islamic world, thus setting a strategic siege on the child-murdering and occupying Israeli regime and its supporters in the West and in the region... Now, the anti-Zionist resistance camp in the region has become invincible... in the shadow of the guidelines and strategies of [Leader] Khamenei, and on the horizon we already see the signs of the liberation of Jerusalem and the collapse of the Zionist regime...
"Now, the sword of the Islamic ummah is in the powerful hands of the resistance; soon it will slice the shameful artery of the occupiers of Palestine and Jerusalem. This day is undoubtedly near... The day is nigh when the policy and strategy of eradicating Israel from the world and restoring the nomadic and oppressed Palestinian people to its main homeland will come true."[3]
IRGC Statement: "In Light Of The Guidelines Of... Khamenei, And In Light Of His Support, We See Signs Of The Liberation Of Jerusalem And The Collapse Of The Zionist Regime"
On June 30, 2016, the IRGC issued a Qods Day statement noting: "The signs of the liberation of Palestine and the collapse of the Zionist regime [are already] appearing, and in another 25 years Israel will disappear from the map of the region.
"Thirty-seven years after the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini instituted Qods Day, the internal capabilities and energy of the Islamic world are stronger than ever - so much so that the child-murdering Zionist regime has been pushed into a strategic siege in which all the ruling Zionist regime's efforts to prevent the global wave of anti-Zionism are fruitless.
"The ideal of the liberation of Jerusalem and the oppressed Palestinian nation from the usurping Zionists, in light of the words and guidelines of [Iran's] Islamic Revolution, has made the anti-Zionist resistance front invincible, and has [transformed it into] the iron fist of the Islamic ummah against the camp of compromise [with the West] and the false murderous Zionist regime...
"The resistance, and the third intifada, have made the occupied lands an unsafe and frightening place for the occupiers of Jerusalem, and have instilled dread [in the Zionists]...
"The issue of Palestine continues to be a top priority for the Islamic world. Israel is the No. 1 enemy of regional and global security, and the Zionist regime's Satanic dreams of realizing a 'greater Middle East' and extinguishing the flames of the Palestinian resistance and intifada are fading. In light of the guidelines of the leader of the Muslims, the Imam Ali Khamenei, and in light of his support, we see the signs of the liberation of Jerusalem and the collapse of the Zionist regime, and, by the grace of God, in 25 years, this tree of evil and this cancerous growth [i.e. Israel] will disappear and be uprooted from the map of the region."[4]
Images From Qods Day Marches In Iran
Iranian President Hassan Rohani in Tehran Qods Day march. Signs in the background feature swastikas incorporated into the word "Israel" (Fars, Iran, July 1, 2016)
Effigy of the Statue of Liberty with a Star of David crown at a march (Tasnim, Iran, July 1, 2016)
Saudi King Salman, ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, President Obama, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu hanged in effigy (IRNA, Iran, July 1, 2016)
Burning Israeli and American flags, along with images of President Obama, Saudi King Salman, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (ISNA, Tasnim, Iran, July 1, 2016)
Burning a coffin covered by Israeli flag featuring images of Saudi King Salman with vampire fangs (Tasnim, Iran, July 1, 2016)
Endnotes:
