Where’s the Coverage? Iran Calls for Palestinian Terrorist Attacks
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for Palestinians to carry out terror attacks against Israel. Khamenei’s Feb. 21, 2017 exhortation was underreported by major U.S. news media outlets.
Reuters news service—citing a transcript of Khamenei’s remarks posted on the Ayatollah’s official website—reported the dictators’ comments. Khamenei called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and claimed, “With Allah’s permission, we will see this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime.” The phrase, “usurping regime” is frequently used by Islamists to refer to the Jewish state’s presence on land that they consider to be Muslim.
Khamenei also asserted: “The Palestinian intifada continues to gallop forward in a thunderous manner so that it can achieve its other goals until the complete liberation of Palestine.” As CAMERA has noted, Iran’s desire to “liberate” “Palestine” includes the theocratic regime’s self-stated objectives of the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its Jewish citizens.
According to the ADL, Khamenei’s remarks were delivered at “the opening address at the annual Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising). …The Conference was reportedly attended by delegates from 80 countries, a representative of the Jewish anti-Zionist Netueri Karta group, and leaders of the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah terror organizations.”
CAMERA has pointed out that Tehran supports several U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah, which carry out terror attacks against Israelis. In its report, Reuters omitted this pertinent fact.
Reuters, however, was one of the few U.S. news outlets to even note Khamenei’s vow to support Palestinian terrorism. According to a Lexis-Nexis search, many major newspapers, such as The Washington Post, USA Today and The Baltimore Sun, failed to report the Supreme Leader’s remarks.
An English-language transcript of Khamenei’s speech can be found here.
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