Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Lauds Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests: U.S., Israel Reputations ‘Ruined’

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP
Joshua Klein

Iranian “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is lauding the pro-Palestinian protests across U.S. college campuses, particularly praising the chants “against Israel and America,” while depicting the radical demonstrations sweeping the country as a form of victory for the Islamic regime over the “ruined” Western democracies.

The 85-year-old ayatollah posted a clip Sunday showing various scenes of anti-Israel protesters rocking college campuses, some being engaged by police.

“See what is happening in the world,” he wrote. “In Western countries, in England and France, and in states across the US itself, people are coming out in huge numbers to chant slogans against Israel and America.” 

“US & Israel’s reputation has been ruined,” he added. “They truly have no solution.”

“So ‘progressive’ students are in line with a genocidal, misogynistic, homophonic, imperialist theocrat,” wrote long-time activist and communal leader Andrés Spokoiny. “That’s tell you all you need to know.”

“Hamas’ sugar daddy is a new fan of the campus pro-Hamas protests,” wrote journalist Noga Tarnopolsky.

“Congrats @Columbia! You’ve given support + comfort to one of the worst autocratic and tyrannical leaders in the world,” wrote former New York City Councilman David Greenfield.

“The Iranian Ayatollah posts in support of the pro-Hamas student morons. He knows what side he’s on. Does Biden?” asked one X user.

The clip has garnered over 2 million views as of Tuesday morning.

Khamenei, an authoritarian widely criticized for backing terrorism and perpetuating various human rights abuses, posted the same video again on Monday evening, this time with a Hebrew caption.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed support for the violent antisemitic protests breaking out on American college campuses, applauding the demonstrators for criticizing the “Israeli regime” and slamming “American police and security forces” for attempting to restore order. Ironically, in Iran, security forces brutally suppress protests and enforce harsh penalties like death for minor infractions.

Pro-Palestine Protesters Erect Encampment at University of Texas

Anti-Israel protests and encampments, which started at Columbia University on April 17, have spread to several other universities in recent days, including Yale, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, UCLA, and George Washington University. 

Despite suspensions and arrests, new encampments continue to emerge. The protesters have various demands such as urging universities to divest from Israeli companies, sever academic ties with Israeli universities, call for a ceasefire favoring Hamas, and grant amnesty to students sanctioned due to their involvement in the protests.

Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism worldwide as well as one of the primary funders of Hamas, the Iranian proxy Islamist terrorist organization that perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history on October 7, targeting attendees at a music festival and those in southern Israeli towns, all while thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli civilian centers.

The massacre saw terrorists kill approximately 1,200 people and wound over 5,300, with at least 242 hostages taken — more than half of whom still remain in Gaza. The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.

Pro-Palestinian Demonstrator Snatches Israeli Flag from Counter-protester, Scuffle Ensues

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

The government of Iran responded to initial reports of the attack by staging a massive street party in Tehran that same day. Attendees chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America” and were treated with free lemonade and a fireworks display to celebrate the mass killing of Israelis.

In addition, the Iranian parliament gave Hamas a standing ovation, shouting “Death to Israel!” and “Palestine is victorious, Israel will be destroyed!”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei glorified the carnage as the brutal events were unfolding, writing in a post, “God willing, the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people.”

Prior to the massacre, on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. homeland by radical Muslim terrorists, Khamenei celebrated the demise of “the arrogant power of America” in a speech in Tehran.

In November, he declared that the common chant of “Death to America” in his country is “not just a slogan – it is a policy,” one his regime intended to bring to fruition.

Earlier this month, the Islamic theocrat ranted against the “evil nature” of the West and declared Israel “must be punished and will be punished” for an airstrike that eliminated one of Tehran’s most influential terrorist operatives.

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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