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For nearly four decades, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over a regime that placed antisemitism at the center of its ideology, foreign policy, and global strategy.
Under Khamenei’s rule, the Islamic Republic institutionalized a worldview portraying the Jewish state as a malignant force that must be eradicated. At the same time, the regime financed and armed terrorist organizations responsible for attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets across multiple continents.
Khamenei was killed in an airstrike during the opening phase of the ongoing joint U.S.–Israeli military operation against the Tehran regime, closing a dark chapter defined by ideological incitement, international terrorism, and decades of violence aimed at Israelis, Jews, and Americans.
This ideology manifested itself through explicit antisemitic rhetoric, Holocaust denial, and support for terrorist attacks against Jewish targets worldwide.
Antisemitism as Official State Ideology
When Khamenei assumed power in 1989, he inherited a revolutionary system built by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that framed hostility toward Israel as a religious and political obligation.
Under Khamenei, Iranian leaders routinely described the Jewish state in dehumanizing terms, portraying it as a disease that must be eradicated. In a 2011 book, Khamenei wrote explicitly that “Israel is a malignant cancer gland that needs to be uprooted.”
The message was echoed across Iran’s media and propaganda networks. In 2020, Khamenei’s official social media accounts declared that “the long-lasting virus of Zionism will be uprooted” and called Israel a “deadly, cancerous growth” that must be destroyed.
This rhetoric framed the very existence of the Jewish state as illegitimate and temporary, echoing classic antisemitic narratives that portray Jews as a destructive force that must be removed. Under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition, such language constitutes antisemitism, including Holocaust denial, the demonization of Israel, and the denial of Jewish self-determination.
Holocaust Denial and Erasure of Jewish History
Khamenei’s antisemitism also manifested in systematic attempts to deny and distort the historical record of the Holocaust.
In 2001, he claimed that “Zionists” had “fabricated” the scale of the Holocaust to gain global sympathy and justify the creation of the State of Israel. He also claimed that the authenticity of Nazi gas chambers was “not clear,” casting doubt on one of the most thoroughly documented crimes in modern history.
These statements formed part of a broader campaign by the Iranian regime to promote Holocaust denial and revisionism.
In 2014, Khamenei’s official X account posted that “#Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it happened, it’s uncertain how it has happened.”
The regime also turned these narratives into organized propaganda campaigns. In 2015, official Iranian cultural institutions organized a Holocaust cartoon contest featuring grotesque imagery and comparisons between Israeli actions and those of Nazi Germany.
In the same period, Khamenei’s website promoted propaganda calling for “the final solution: resistance until referendum” to eliminate Israel, echoing language historically associated with the Nazis’ “Final Solution” to exterminate European Jewry.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum documented such contests as part of Iran’s broader policy of promoting Holocaust denial and distortion.
From Ideology to Violence
While promoting antisemitic narratives, Khamenei’s Iran also built and funded a global network of terror proxies responsible for attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.
These attacks demonstrated how Tehran used proxy organizations to extend violence far beyond the Middle East.
One of the earliest major examples occurred in 1992, when Hezbollah terrorists bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people. Israeli investigators concluded that senior leaders of the Iranian regime authorized the attack.
Two years later, Hezbollah operatives carried out a suicide bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center in the Argentine capital. The attack murdered 85 people and wounded hundreds, making it the deadliest antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the time.
Investigations by the United States, Israel, and Argentina concluded that senior Iranian officials were directly involved. An Argentine prosecutor later stated that Khamenei “led the decision to carry out a bomb attack in Buenos Aires in July 1994 and issued executive order (fatwa) 39” authorizing the operation.
Over the following decades, Iran deepened its support of terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Through funding, weapons transfers, and training, the regime enabled a wide range of attacks against Israeli civilians, including rocket barrages, suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, and car-ramming assaults.
In 2012, Hezbollah perpetrated another attack targeting Israeli civilians when a suicide bomber destroyed a tourist bus at the airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, killing five people.
These networks later played a central role in the October 7th massacre in 2023, when Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 people in Israel and abducted more than 250 others, triggering a multi-front war waged against Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iran-backed forces across the region.
During this conflict, Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck Israeli civilian areas, killing dozens.
Calls for Israel’s Destruction
Khamenei famously predicted that Israel would cease to exist by 2040. In 2017, Iranian authorities amplified that message during anti-Israel rallies in Tehran, where demonstrators unveiled a digital clock counting down to the Jewish state’s pending disappearance.
After October 7th, Khamenei praised the attack as a “decisive blow” that placed Israel on a path toward destruction.
The regime’s propaganda also blended antisemitic rhetoric with attacks on Jewish identity itself. In 2020, Khamenei’s official X account denigrated U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner by referring to him as “the Jewish member of Trump’s family,” using his Jewish identity as a point of attack.
Antisemitism and Anti-Americanism
For decades, Iran’s antisemitic ideology has been closely intertwined with hostility toward the United States. The regime frequently labels Israel the “little Satan” and the United States the “great Satan,” presenting both countries as central enemies of the Islamic Republic.
Iran-backed militias killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. The regime also repeatedly planned and supported attacks against U.S. forces, diplomats, and allies worldwide.
At home, the Iranian dictatorship maintains its power through repression. The regime persecutes religious minorities such as Baha’is and Christians, enforces severe restrictions on women, suppresses freedom of expression, and imprisons or executes political opponents.
These policies reflect a regime that combines ideological extremism, authoritarian control, and external aggression.
End of a Dark Chapter
For decades, the Iranian regime has been the world’s leading exporter of antisemitism. Under Khamenei, that ideology translated into both propaganda and violence — from Holocaust denial campaigns to terrorist attacks targeting Jewish civilians across the globe.
His death marks the end of a defining era for the Islamic Republic. Yet the networks, institutions, and narratives he entrenched remain powerful forces within the regime.
Recognizing the ideological roots of that system is essential to understanding the broader struggle against antisemitism, terrorism, and authoritarian extremism.
