(PatriotSpotlight.org) – The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has publicly backed anti-Israel protests on American college campuses. The Islamist theocrat, whose regime is the number one backer of global terrorism, said these students had joined a wider international movement against what he termed “Zionist oppression”.
Writing in an open letter on May 25th, Khamenei argued that these U.S. students had joined a “branch of the Resistance Front,” on a par with Tehran-backed terror groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The explicit endorsement of Khamenei comes on the back of a slew of high-profile anti-Israel pro-Palestinian encampments and protests that have engulfed scores of American universities in recent months. More than 2,000 protesters, some of whom were not students themselves, have been arrested for breaking college instructions to disperse.
While student’s specific demands vary across campuses, they all condemn Israel’s war in Gaza and in most cases call for the dismantlement of the Jewish State. The ongoing war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-led terrorist onslaught in Southern Israel last October 7th, which caused the loss of life, kidnap, torture and abuse of more than 1,200 Israeli lives. Over 100 Israelis are thought to still be held hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.
Khamenei emphasized that the goal of this struggle is to end what he claimed was “the blatant oppression that the brutal Zionist terrorist network” had long imposed upon the “Palestinian nation”. He said the support from academics was a major development for the anti-Israel movement.
Addressing the global perception of the conflict, Khamenei slammed what he termed the “global Zionist elite” for labeling Palestinian actions as terrorism. Likely drawing deliberately on antisemitic stereotypes, he accused this “elite” of controlling most U.S. and European media via bribery. He rounded off his message to American students by urging them to “become familiar with the Quran,” suggesting that it teaches a principle of not oppressing others while not accepting oppression.
Khamenei’s statements come in the wake of heightened tensions following Hamas’s October 7 attack, which prompted Israel to declare war on the militant group. The current war has caused thousands of casualties and prompted global controversy.
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