Iran and its representatives have actively appreciated Anti-Israel protests in American universitiesAccording to experts, claiming that this movement represents a “change in attitude” of the grassroots level of the public.
“These are the mainstream, most important news agencies or websites inside Iran that are covering this,” Dr. Saeed Ghasseminjad, a senior adviser on Iran at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
“They’re covering it very religiously, and as you can guess, they certainly support it,” he said, referring to widespread protests on American college campuses.
Several Ivy League universities, including Columbia University, Harvard University and Yale University, have faced growing anti-Israel protests that have intensified in the past week. Columbia adopted hybrid learning at its main campus due to safety fears due to the protests.
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The unrest has spread to other universities, such as the University of Texas at Austin, where an anti-Israel demonstration turned into arrests as the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety tried to maintain order. These protests have attracted considerable attention in Iran, with officials and news outlets covering them intensely and using them as alleged evidence of rising anti-Israel sentiment in the US.
Pro-Palestinian protesters at a camp at Columbia University in the Morningside Heights area of New York, US, on Monday, April 22, 2024. Columbia University uprooted its New York City campus and moved its classes online after days of anti-Israel protests. Condemnation from the White House and City Hall. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian Expressed support for those who speak badly about Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also said that law enforcement’s response to the ongoing protests and subsequent mass arrests has left him “deeply concerned and disappointed.”
Ghaseminejad’s social media platform.”
“According to images and reports from universities such as ‘Yale’ and ‘Harvard’, students have gathered on these campuses to condemn the genocide carried out by the Israeli regime in Gaza and demand that the academic association sever ties with the Zionist regime ,” an article in the Iranian newspaper Kayhan said.
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“The Harvard students held a large banner that read: ‘Stop the massacre in Gaza’The article continued. “Interestingly, by carrying the Palestinian flag around the campuses and wearing keffiyehs around their necks, the students chanted slogans against the crimes of the Zionist regime and the US government’s support for these crimes.”
A broadcast by the Iranian news network Al-Alam glorified the protests as evidence of “the emergence of a widespread change in the attitude of the American public, and especially the youth, toward their government’s policies and unconditional support for the Zionist regime.”
State troopers arrest a man at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Jay Jenner/American-Statesman)
The report claims, “These changes are gradually impacting the approach of these universities – which for years have been a source of power for this regime through their lobbying efforts in the US.”
Ghasseminejad was born in Iran, but in 2008 he was kidnapped and jailed with a suspended sentence for student activism, after which he left the country. He said some Middle Eastern outlets cover the unrest every day, several times a day, and are “following it closely.”
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Some? Iranian proxy leaderAccording to Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) in Washington, people like Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah have emphasized in recent speeches how important anti-Israel protests are in the US.
In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, Stalinsky wrote that Nasrallah had praised the “very impressive” protests on March 13 and argued that his campaign “uncommitted” protest votes against President Biden. We should salute him”.
On April 22, hundreds of anti-Israel protesters demonstrated in front of the Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley campus, where they set up a tent in solidarity with Columbia University protesters who are demanding a permanent ceasefire in the war between Israel and Israel. And Gaza. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Nasrallah called the protest votes “the most important means of pressure on the Biden administration” to effect change in US policy.
Stalinsky wrote, “It is no coincidence that the official statements of Hamas and major jihadist groups regarding the protests are almost identical.” “These statements seem like talking points to put pressure on American and Western decision makers. They seem to be working.”
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Stalinsky was particularly concerned about the way student groups organized to create Deliberate campaign to be seen at grassroots level But it has taken cues from people like Khaled Barakat, a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who hosted a “Resistance 101” course with Columbia University’s Apartheid Divestment Student Group.
During a video call with the student group, Barkat discussed his “Friends in Islamic Jihad” and called for Iran’s “strategic vision”, while his wife urged students to explicitly support the actions of armed groups, according to The Jerusalem Post.
This file handout photo provided by Hezbollah’s media office on September 2, 2023 shows Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Shia group, during a meeting with Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of the Palestinian Hamas movement, at an undisclosed location in Lebanon. (Hezbollah Media Office/AFP via Getty Images)
“He often talks to Hezbollah, Al-Manar TV, which … is illegal to broadcast in the US, it used to be available on satellite, but now it’s blocked,” Stalinsky told Fox News Digital. The Hezbollah leader gave an interview on March 30 to talk about Western support for the Palestinians against Israel and said, “The vast majority of young Americans and Canadians … support armed resistance,” Stalinsky said. .
Stalinsky also said that Barakat discussed how the curriculum influenced students’ thinking, with professors putting forward specific ideas that highlight more sympathetic angles that push students toward activism.
He argued, “I have a master’s in Middle East studies, but… it’s not learning about the Middle East” that causes the problem. “It’s about who is teaching about the Middle East.”
He pointed to the prevalence of Students for Justice in Palestine, which is based on the belief that university students should engage in activism. But protesters also show “considerable ignorance”, with some admitting over the past six months that they sometimes had no idea what they were protesting.
“They (the protests) are part of the incitement,” Stalinsky said. “It wasn’t like some student was watching the news at Columbia, and they decided to do this.”
