Pro-Iran protests are alarming. Why do people hate Israel?
Over the weekend, such protests took place around the country - and the world. Activist groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and the People's Forum that applauded the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, are the same ones that rallied in New York City to oppose the attacks on Iran.
"We demand an immediate end to US and Israeli attacks on Iran and its sovereignty," the groups said in a statement on Sunday, June 22.
It would be one thing if this were just an anti-war movement. But it's much more than that.
That's evident from the people carrying signs in support of Iran and against Israel. It's no surprise that anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led the disruptive and often violent protests at Columbia University in 2024 and was recently freed from months in federal immigration detention, joined one of the anti-Israel demonstrations wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
Similar events were held in other Western cities, including London.
It makes me wonder: Do these activists really know whom - and what - they're supporting?
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In Iran, freedom does not exist. So what are Westerners thinking?
I would rather think these protesters are cheering for terrorists out of ignorance or stupidity than that they honestly side with the religious extremists who exert full control over the Iranian people.
But it's hard to tell.
The National Students for Justice in Palestine, for instance, put out a statement on Instagram: "The empire will fall, from Gaza to Tehran," which called Israel a "Zionist vassal state" of the United States. The same group openly celebrated the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
One thing is certain. Many of those who are chanting in favor of Iran and Palestine - particularly women and LGBTQ+ people - would not be treated favorably in either country.
The human rights abuses in Iran are well-documented.
Amnesty International sums up the situation in Iran this way: "Authorities further suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Women and girls, LGBTI people, and ethnic and religious minorities experienced systemic discrimination and violence. Authorities intensified their crackdown on women who defied compulsory veiling laws, the Baha'i community, and Afghan refugees and migrants. Thousands were arbitrarily detained, interrogated, harassed and/or unjustly prosecuted for exercising their human rights. Trials remained systematically unfair. Enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment were widespread and systematic. Cruel and inhuman punishments, including flogging and amputation, were implemented. The death penalty was used arbitrarily, disproportionately affecting ethnic minorities and migrants."
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Most Iranians don't support the regime they live under. Americans should know better.
It's jarring to see so many people in America, which has the greatest set of freedoms in the world, cheering for a regime that has zero respect for the rights of its citizens.
Abbas Milani, codirector of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution, recently told Fox News that 80% of Iranians are opposed to the ruling regime, although most live in fear of expressing what they really think.
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On the day Israel launched its air strikes on Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Iranian people via video that Israel was "clearing the path for you to achieve your objective, which is freedom."
Following the Israeli strikes, one Iranian, on the condition of anonymity, told the BBC: "The enemy has been killing us slowly for decades. The enemy is the Islamic Republic!"
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It's a shame that Americans - and others in the Western world - would rather cheer for the authoritarians than for the freedom of an oppressed people.
Standing up for Iranians' freedom actually would be something worth fighting for.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
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