The Silence of the Iranian People Regarding the Palestinian Issue
The silence of the Iranian people regarding the Palestinian issue has become more prominent a month after the sudden attack by Hamas militant forces against Israel, which reignited a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This issue has been raised more than ever in Iran, questioning why the Iranian people do not support the Palestinians as expected by the government.
In recent weeks, thousands of people in Western countries have held demonstrations and marches calling for an end to the war in Gaza and condemning the killing of civilians, including children. However, it cannot be denied that no spontaneous or popular gatherings have been held in Iran in support of the Palestinians, and whatever has occurred has been related to government-organized events.
The Indifference of the Iranian People Towards Palestine
In the limited political and media space within Iran, some political figures and media have acknowledged this lack of independent Iranian support for the Palestinians, although they have simultaneously tried to present this issue with a heavy dose of anti-Israel sentiment to avoid government backlash.
For instance, the website Etemad Online, affiliated with the reformist newspaper Etemad, in an article titled ‘Why Didn’t the People of Tehran Protest for Gaza Like the People of Paris, Istanbul, and London?’ claimed that the majority of the Iranian people still support the Palestinians, while attacking the opponents of the Islamic Republic.
This media outlet wrote that if the Iranian people do not take to the streets like people in other countries to support the Palestinians, it is because they are assured that the leadership and other officials support the Palestinians.
However, prior to this report by Etemad, the newspaper Shargh quoted former Iranian diplomat Kourosh Ahmadi, who explicitly wrote about us Iranians and the Palestinian issue, saying that indifference is the most noticeable reaction of most Iranians to this crisis. Mohammad Javad Zarif, former foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, also recently, despite the usual rhetoric of Islamic Republic officials against Israel, implicitly confirmed the lack of overt support from the Iranian people for the Palestinians.
In a meeting in Tehran regarding the Palestinian issue, he said, ‘Our constitution states that Iran should defend the oppressed, but it is not our duty to fight in their place.’ Without directly opposing the government’s regional policies, he added subtly, ‘I also believe that people are tired of paying the price, and there is no need for us to pay it.’
Before the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, political analyst Sadegh Zibakalam had said that if a referendum were held in Iran, the majority of people would oppose the government’s anti-Israel policy. The United States and the European Union consider the extremist group Hamas, which is supported by the Islamic Republic, a terrorist organization.
The Changing Meaning of the Oppressed in the Islamic Republic
The identity of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy introduced itself from the beginning with its anti-American and anti-Israeli stance, and has paid significant costs to confront the West and destroy Israel. Tehran officials claim that the anti-Israel policy and support for proxy militant groups in the region are based on a principle of the Islamic Republic’s constitution, which states that the country’s foreign policy should be organized based on Islamic criteria, brotherly commitment to all Muslims, and unwavering support for the oppressed of the world.
However, the government’s slogan of supporting the oppressed is very familiar to the people inside Iran, and the experience of organizations founded with this slogan after the revolution has clarified the government’s intentions and goals. For example, the Foundation of the Oppressed of the Islamic Revolution, established from confiscated assets of certain groups of people, not only did not reduce poverty and discrimination statistics but also became one of the centers of financial corruption in Iran.
Another example is the Basij Organization of the Oppressed, also known as the Basij Resistance Force, which now practically serves no other purpose than suppressing critics and opponents of the Islamic Republic and ordinary protesting people in the streets and markets. In a situation where the government’s unfulfilled promises to help the oppressed have led to repeated waves of protests, the officials of the Islamic Republic have tried to defend their performance by fundamentally changing the public perception of the meaning of the oppressed.
Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, publicly stated in a speech four years ago that the oppressed does not mean vulnerable groups but rather refers to the imams, leaders, and potential caliphs of the world and inheritors of the earth. In the new meaning that Khamenei proposed for the oppressed, it was officially confirmed by the highest authority in the government that existing facilities and resources should be spent on rulers and powerful individuals, not ordinary people.
Therefore, the understanding of what is mentioned in the Islamic Republic’s constitution as unwavering support for the oppressed of the world has led, in the ideology of the Islamic Republic, to a power struggle and expansion of governance beyond Iran’s borders, exacerbating the Palestinian issue.
Moreover, the contradiction of this interpretation of support for all Muslims and the oppressed of the world in the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy has become evident with the example of the Tehran government’s silence on the Chinese government’s behavior towards Uyghur Muslims. To the extent that with the publication of any news of the Uyghurs’ persecution by the Chinese government, the silence of the Islamic Republic on this matter has become a topic of conversation among the Iranian people.
The Fate of Palestine is Tied to the Islamic Republic
From the beginning of its establishment, the Islamic Republic, through severe repression of leftist groups, fostered an Islamist tendency in support of the Palestinian issue. The extensive financial and military aid to regional militant groups, including Palestinian Islamist groups, has led to nothing but the spread of terrorism and the proliferation of terrorist groups.
As the latest example of the results of this support from the Islamic Republic, and as recently stated by eighty political and civil activists in a statement, Hamas, in its recent attack against Israel, has diverted the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to the wrong path of blind terrorism. In their series of protests in recent years, the Iranian people have shown their opposition to this policy of the Islamic Republic with slogans like ‘Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life is for Iran.’
The publication Courrier International, in a report on Wednesday, November 8, titled ‘In Iran, People Oppose the Regime’s Support for Hamas,’ wrote that a large part of Iranian society believes that power should focus on domestic issues instead of the Palestinian issue.
The Iranian people, due to their own experiences, know that the ideology of the Islamic Republic is opposed to any compromise, and the consequence of this approach is nothing but political deadlock, sanctions, and repression. The silence of Iranians during the recent war may mean that the first help to the Palestinians and the most effective way to establish lasting peace in the region is to end the Islamist ideology and resolve the Palestinian issue in a different way.