Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised pro-Palestinian protesters across American college campuses for being “on the right side of history” in an open letter to university students.
Khamenei said college protesters “have begun an honorable struggle” against the American government which “openly supports Zionists” in a X post on Wednesday. He also encouraged American students to “become familiar with the Quran” in another X post.
“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—a government which openly supports the usurper and brutal Zionist regime,” Khameini wrote in the open letter.
“The greater Resistance Front which shares the same understandings and feelings that you have today, has been engaged in the same struggle for many years in a place far from you,” he continued. “The goal of this struggle is to put an end to the blatant oppression that the brutal Zionist terrorist network has inflicted on the Palestinian nation for many years. After seizing their country, the Zionist regime has subjected them to the harshest of pressures and tortures.”
Dear university students in the United States of America, you are standing on the right side of history.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 29, 2024
Khamenei had previously advocated for the eradication of Israel days before the Iranian proxy Hamas’ October 7 massacre. Khamenei’s advisor congratulated Palestinians following the October 7 attacks, pledging to “stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.” (RELATED: Ivy League Schools Create Antisemitism Task Forces To Combat ‘Unacceptable’ Behavior By Pro-Palestinian Students)
College campuses have experienced many pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments in the past several months. These protests have sometimes devolved into violence and vandalism. Protesters at Columbia University broke into and occupied a campus building, with a maintenance worker claiming the protesters held him “hostage.”
In a House Education Committee hearing in December 2023, Harvard President Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth avoided answering if calling for the genocide of Jews violated university code of conduct.
The presidents of @Harvard, @MIT, and @Penn were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism:
Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?
The… pic.twitter.com/eVlPCHMcVZ
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 5, 2023
Magill resigned in December just four days after the hearing, followed by Gay’s resignation in January.
University administrators have come under fire for invoking the First Amendment in defense of these protests, despite maintaining a track record of censoring and punishing conservative students for speech.
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