Shargh Daily: Majority of Iranians Are Indifferent Toward the Gaza Crisis

On November 7, retired Iranian diplomat Kourosh Ahmadi argued in Shargh Daily that Iranians are indifferent to the Israel-Hamas conflict and Palestinian suffering. The editorial was met with a sharp reaction from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece Mashregh News. Mashregh accused him of repeating “Zionist propaganda” allegedly aimed at “souring relations” between Iranians and Palestinians. The truth, however, is much more bitter than Ahmadi’s cautious formulation. Those Iranians who see the Islamic Republic as their enemy tend to perceive the enemy of their enemy, in this case Israel, as their friend. Mashregh News ought not be concerned about Ahmadi’s statement of the facts but rather with the deeper unpopularity of the Islamic Republic.

• November 7: In an editorial for reformist Shargh Daily, Ahmadi depicted Iranians as largely “indifferent” toward the war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinians:
  • In Iran, the debate about the Israel-Hamas conflict “is not just about the current war but has a wider dimension concerning developments within Iran and the relationship between the people and the regime. Therefore, we are witnessing contradictory positionings ranging from radical right to radical leftist views, the like of which cannot be found in Islamic states. Indifference is the most visible characteristic in the reactions of the majority of Iranians toward this crisis. This indifference is understandable but not defensible. It is understandable since the people’s demands” from the regime “are ignored, and they can therefore not be expected to be sensitive to matters of interest to the regime. But it is not defensible since the Palestinian issue is of primary importance for who we are, for the future of our policy, and for the role of the law and morality in our domestic politics … At a very minimum, every Iranian ought to feel solidarity with the people of Palestine at an individual level.”
• November 8: Mashregh News condemned Ahmadi’s editorial as a repetition of “Zionist propaganda”:
  • “Apart from Shargh Daily, BBC Persian, too, has made this claim. This is how Zionist media works on the people of Iran so that they perceive Palestinians as the enemies of the people of Iran. A similar psychological operation was done against the people of Palestine. Western and certain Arab media outlets constantly tell Palestinians: ‘Iranians want to’” fight Israel “‘to the last drop of Palestinian blood.’ They spread all sorts of rumors in Palestine about Iran, but the people of Palestine still perceive Iran as a country that aids the resistance and a country whose population supports Palestine … The Zionists are engaged in a futile effort to sour the relations between the people of Palestine and Iran.”

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