Iranians Who Hate Hamas? Pro-Israel Iranians Start To Emerge in Protests Over the War Iran’s Proxies Have Launched Against the Jewish State

When supporters of the ayatollahs attempt to bring a Palestinian Arab flag onto a soccer field, they are hooted down — in no uncertain terms — by fans.

AP/Michel Euler
From left, Adva Gutman, Ayelet Sela bin Nun, Alon Adar, Adva Adar, and Daniel Toledano with portraits of relatives held hostages by Hamas during a press conference at the Paris town hall, October 31, 2023. AP/Michel Euler

Unjustly lost amid the din of pro-Palestinian protests around the world, and notably in European capitals such Paris, London, and even Athens, is the noise that a number of Iranians are making in favor of Israel and against Hamas. 

One such, Ghorbani Niyak, stated on X: “We, the British Iranians and the people of Iran along with the rest of the diaspora stand with the people of Israel and we condemn all terroristic attacks on civilians; we condemn Hamas and we condemn the anti-Semitic behavior that we are witnessing en masse in the West.”

That statement was posted alongside a video clip of a pro-Israel rally that took place over the weekend adjacent to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at London’s Parliament Square. The rally appeared to have drawn a significant number of people, who assembled peacefully.

There was a also a recent pro-Israel demonstration in France, of all places, at which a number of Iranians showed up to a Paris rally in support of Israel. As at London, that rally drew a surprisingly large number of people.

It would be a mistake to make too much of these pro-Israel rallies. Vast numbers of Iranians are protesting in favor of Hamas. One can speculate, though, that many of those are under government duress. One can also speculate that the pro-Israel sentiments are much wider than the size of the pro-Israel demonstrations would suggest.

The London rally occurred against a backdrop of larger pro-Palestinian protests at the British capital, amid reports that Iranian agents have been whipping up anti-Israeli sentiment at some of these demonstrations. According to some reports, there has been direct involvement of the hardline Iranian regime in incitement through online disinformation campaigns as well as the physical presence of IRGC operatives at some protests. 

That makes the dissenting views of Iranians who are opposed to both the regime and its support of Hamas all the more courageous. The momentum has been building for some time. Last month, just a day after Hamas launched its onslaught against civilians in southern Israel, some supporters of the mullahs tried to bring Palestinian flags onto a soccer field during a match. That prompted a group of fans in the bleachers to chant, in Farsi, “Take that Palestinian flag and shove it up your a–.”

A journalist working for an Israeli news site, Ynet, reported that on October 26 a rally was held at Brussels at which the city’s “Jewish and Persian communities proudly stood together against the plague of Hamas terror.”

So take that, Tehran. Of course, Iran holds the distinction of being the world’s top sponsor of terror, and its radical Islamic leaders are not known for looking kindly upon dissent. That has not deterred voices inside the country itself from expressing their disdain for Palestinian Arab terror. 

Ms. Schrader reported that last month an Iranian political prisoner, Fatemeh Sepehri, recorded a video condemning Hamas. In that video, Ms. Sepehri said, “I condemn Hamas’s attack on Israel and say loudly that the Iranian nation stands by the Israeli nation.”

Such unambiguous language has sometimes been lacking from quarters where one might think it would be a no-brainer. Celebrities like the American-born model and social media influencer Gigi Hadid have issued public statements more critical of Israel than of Hamas, in that case prompting a rebuke from the Israeli government. 

No less a public figure than President Obama has come out swinging for — wait for it — an ambivalent stance with regard to Hamas’s campaign of terror against Israelis. Mr. Obama, speaking for a podcast produced by his former speechwriters, said erroneously that “what is true is that there are people right now who are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did.”

That is a somewhat spurious claim: As a reminder, while not every Palestinian put Hamas in a position of power and kept it there, many thousands did. In this respect, anti-regime Iranian protesters could have a thing or two about which to school some Western officials, too. 


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