Iranian state television aired an anthem, saying “we will uproot the Jews with power,” broadcast alongside images of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Republic’s armed forces.
“Behind Ali, obedient to the Leader’s command, we are all proud soldiers; we will uproot the Jews with power,” the song said.
The broadcast marks the latest in a longstanding state-backed campaign of antisemitic content in Iran, home to the Middle East’s largest Jewish population after Israel.
Iran’s state media has repeatedly promoted antisemitic themes across films, festivals, and official speeches. In 2001, the government aired a mini-series titled Saint Mary that depicted Jewish communities at the time of Jesus’s birth as “lacking compassion and rationality.” The Jewish Association of Tehran criticized the series for reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
In 2005, then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted an international Holocaust cartoon competition. Ahmadinejad, who publicly denied the Holocaust, once said Israel should be “wiped off the map.” The contest continues today with backing from official cultural institutions.
Despite the state-sanctioned hostility, Iran maintains a Jewish population estimated between 8,000 and 10,000. The World Jewish Congress notes the community’s historical presence in Iran since 586 BCE, with roughly 100 synagogues still in operation.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s Jews have faced ongoing surveillance and periodic arrests.
Last week, authorities summoned and interrogated at least 35 Jewish citizens in Tehran and Shiraz over their contact with relatives in Israel, the US-based human rights group HRANA said.
Authorities have accused community members of “espionage, foreign ties, and collaboration with hostile states,” often with no evidence.
