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| Ayatollah Ali Khamenei |
Khamenei’s use of the word “filthy” and his singling out of “Jewish” members of the Trump administration, as well as calling them “cruel”, were all words used on his English language Twitter channel.
The nation of Palestine is under various, severe pressures. Then, the UAE acts in agreement with the Israelis & filthy Zionist agents of the U.S. —such as the Jewish member of Trump’s family— with utmost cruelty against the interests of the World of Islam.#UAEStabsMuslims— Khamenei.ir 🏴 (@khamenei_ir) September 1, 2020
The Iranian leader has long spread hatred for Israel using his official Twitter account, as well as during speeches and sermons. The official regime narrative presents Iran as not being antisemitic, pointing to the relatively large Jewish community in the country as evidence of the lack of antisemitism. It argues that in contrast to the Arab nationalist regimes of the 1950s, Tehran has had a more progressive policy.
However, the tweets in English using words like “filthy” and “cruel” appear to have been written by someone who has knowledge of traditional Western antisemitism.
Accusations that Jews are “cruel” or “filthy” are part of Western antisemitic tradition, appearing prominently throughout the Middle Ages. The Iranian leader did not tweet the same words in Farsi or on any of his other accounts, implying that a careful study was made by his media team to use the right words in order to push antisemitism through terms that have been used by Nazis and other regimes in the West.
In Spanish, he tweeted about “vile Zionists agents in the Trump family” but did not use the term Jewish.
