Politics
By Victor Nava
Published
May 29, 2024, 11:24 p.m. ET
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – known for brutally suppressing demonstrations in the Islamic Republic – expressed his support on Wednesday for anti-Israel protesters on US college campuses, claiming they are “on the right side of history.”
“Dear university students in the United States of America, you are standing on the right side of history,” the 85-year-old radical cleric posted on X.
“You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honorable struggle in the face of your government’s ruthless pressure – which openly supports Zionists,” Khamenei added.
Khamenei has been accused of “crimes against humanity” by the United Nations. AFP via Getty Images
Khamenei, the highest-ranking political and religious authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran, went on to laud the “support & solidarity” some student demonstrators have received from “professors” as a “consequential development” for the anti-Israel movement.
“I too empathize with you young people, and value your perseverance,” he wrote.
The Islamic fundamentalist dictator then offered some “advice” to the student protesters.
“Dear university students in the US, my advice to you is to become familiar with the Quran,” Khamenei said.
A United Nations Human Rights Council report, released in March, found that high-level state authorities in Iran, including Khamenei, “encouraged, sanctioned and endorsed violations of human rights” in the regime’s crackdown on widespread protests sparked by the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Amini had been arrested for allegedly violating the regime’s strict dress rule for women, which requires females to wear headscarves.
UN investigators found that many of the regime’s human rights violations related to the protests amounted to “crimes against humanity.”
“[A]uthorities at the highest level of the State, including the Supreme Leader, senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … participated in, aided and abetted or otherwise contributed to the violations,” the report states.
The wave of anti-Israel protests on US college campuses have been marked by tent encampments set up by the disruptive demonstrators. James Keivom
Since mid-April, more than 1,000 college students have been arrested during anti-Israel protests sprawling across more than 25 campuses in the US, from Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles.
Several tent encampments have popped up at Ivy League and state school demonstrations after the first “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was born at Columbia last month.
Some Jewish students and faculty say that the tent camp has forced them off campus for their own safety.
Khamenei endorsed US student protests against Israel in an X post on Wednesday. X / @khamenei_ir
The anti-Israel demonstrators have called for their school to divest from the Jewish state.
Some protesters have called for another “intifada” and have engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of Jewish and pro-Israeli students and faculty.
The term “intifada’’ refers to past Palestinian uprisings that killed hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians. Th “Second Intifada” — the last widespread revolt — occurred in the early 2000s.
The campus protests were endorsed in April by Hamas, the terror group responsible for the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.
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