“[T]he Islamic Jihad Movement … is able to crush the enemy,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted, praising Palestinian terrorists in his latest violent Twitter screed, which has stayed posted on the platform uncensored for 11 days. Meanwhile, the platform continues to ban former President Donald Trump.
Khamenei posted a series of tweets Aug. 11, praising Palestinian jihad and supporting violence against Israel. One tweet said, “With its courageous Resistance, the Islamic Jihad Movement has nullified the Zionist regime’s deceptive policy and proven that each section of the collective Resistance movement is able to crush the enemy on its own.”
The U.S. State Department has classified Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as a “foreign terrorist organization” since 1997.
The Ayatollah’s “crush the enemy” tweet came as he “issued a message in reply” to a letter he received from Palestine Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah.
Another Aug. 11 tweet from Khamenei said, “The Jihad movement, by connecting the fight in Gaza with the West Bank & by other Resistance forces supporting it, has demonstrated the solidarity of Palestinians’ jihad to the vicious enemy. All Palestinian groups’ efforts in Palestinian lands must be to protect this solidarity.”
In addition to PIJ, the State Department classifies multiple other groups that rule Palestinians and conduct jihad against Israel as “foreign terrorist organizations,” including Hamas, Palestine Liberation Front and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Khamenei also tweeted that day, “Recent events in Palestine have added to the honors of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement and elevated the status of Islamic Jihad in the magnificent Resistance movement of the Palestinian nation.”
The ayatollah has a long history of violent social media posts. Even leftist publication The Atlantic called out Twitter in June for allowing Khamenei to post violent anti-Semitic content uncensored. Khamenei’s tweets seem to violate Twitter’s Violent threats policy.
Khamenei has repeatedly praised both the late mass murderer Gen. Qassem Soleimani and “Palestinian” terrorist-affiliated groups. A 2021 tweet praised “Palestinian Jihad’s internal power” and added, “Once, Palestinian youth defended themselves by throwing stones, but today they respond to the enemy’s attacks with precision missiles.”
Other shocking posts from Khamenei include two 2020 tweets calling the Israeli government a “cancerous tumor” and “a deadly, cancerous growth.”
These characterizations are ironic considering the U.S. has classified the Iranian government as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” since 1984.
Israel Today reported in July that Palestinians had carried out 3,700 terrorist attacks against Israelis in the first half of 2022.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment as of the publication of this piece.
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