Ayatollah Khamenei’s letter to US students shaped by insightful reading of history, politics

By Shivan Mahendrarajah

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s 29 May 2024 letter to American students is a paean to their moral uprightness and steadfast courage in the face of state violence—police brutality on campuses from New York to California—that shocked the world.

His tribute on behalf of the Iranian people, “an expression of our empathy and solidarity,” is shaped by insightful reading of history and awareness of American politics.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s observation that the “people’s conscience has awakened on a global scale, and the truth is coming to light,” is correct.

This awakening is “turning a page” in history and those part of this awakening “stand on the right side of history.”

The majority of the 193 nations on this planet support the Palestinian state: 146 countries recognize the State of Palestine; 47 countries refuse to do so. Just recently, Spain, Ireland, and Norway recognized the State of Palestine.

Populations in most countries, including those that do not recognize Palestine, oppose the ongoing genocidal war and ethnic cleansing of Gaza by the Israeli regime.

Massive protests in Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries since autumn 2023 prove that a majority of the world’s population of 8.1 billion is appalled by the horrific violence and deliberate starvation inflicted by Israel on civilians, most of whom are women and children.

That Israel has slaughtered 35,000 innocents and is methodically starving 2.2 million human beings, and doing so with complete diplomatic, financial, and military support from the United States, Canada, Britain, European Union, and Australia, has outraged the world.

Large-scale protests have been witnessed in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and Australia in recent months. These popular protests reveal the chasm between ruling elites, who unreservedly support Israel, and the populations of their countries.

In the UK, for example, where both political parties, Tories and Labour, staunchly support Israel, a public opinion poll taken in February 2024 showed that two-thirds of the British public want “Israel to stop [military action] and call a ceasefire.”

The Labour Party’s leader has acquired the moniker “Sir Kid Starver” for his enthusiasm for famine and homicide. One cannot even mention what the British public says about Rishi Sunak, Britain’s unelected prime minister.

Student protests emerged from the moral outrage unleashed around the world by Israel and its patrons in Washington, London, Brussels, Ottawa, and Canberra.

Students at Columbia University sparked the American campus movement in April 2024 by creating the first “Gaza encampment.”

Columbia has an extraordinary history of social justice activism. A tradition of moral uprightness among Columbians continued in 2024.Union Theological Seminary, now a part of Columbia University, is proud of one former student, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was murdered by the Nazis at Flossenbürg on 9 April 1945 for his opposition to fascism.

During the American civil rights era—even before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on 4 April 1968, sparking unrest in the country—Columbians protested against racial segregation.

In April 1968, Columbia students protested the Vietnam War; their actions ignited protests as far away as Berlin and Paris. Then, too, the university’s administrators called in the New York Police Department to assault its own students.

At the time, students were tear-gassed, badly beaten, and arrested by police.

Columbia’s students protested in April 1985 against apartheid in South Africa. Hamilton Hall became an “encampment” called Mandela Hall. Nearly four decades later, Hamilton Hall was retaken by students. It became Hind’s Hall, after six-year-old Hind Rajab, murdered by Israel.

Students who protested the Vietnam War were reviled in the media and by politicians. They were called “traitors,” “cowards,” “Reds,” “Commies,” “Viet Cong,” and more.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the domestic spy service, kept files on them. Today, these honorable students are labeled “terrorists,” “Hamas supporters,” “anti-Semites,” etc.

However, most Americans now agree that Vietnam was a senseless and unjust war and a terrible stain on the history of the United States of America.

The apartheid state in South Africa ceased to exist because of global revulsion, as expressed by students through calls for boycotts.Ayatollah Khamenei’s assurance to students, that “[a]s the page of history is turning, you are standing on the right side of it,” is prescient.

As with Vietnam and South Africa,morally upright American students will be on the “right side” of history. This is indisputable. Those who oppress them—politicians and their “jackbooted thugs” in police departments—will be judged harshly by history, although it is unlikely any will receive the “judgment at Nuremberg”that they deserve.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s statement on Israel’s origins and policies is worth reading:

“The apartheid Zionist regime’s genocide today is the continuation of extremely oppressive behavior that has been going on for decades. Palestine is an independent land with a long history. It is a nation comprised of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. 

“After the World War, the capitalist Zionist network gradually imported several thousand terrorists into this land with the help of the British government.

“These terrorists attacked cities and villages, murdered tens of thousands of people and pushed out multitudes into neighboring countries.

“They seized their homes, businesses and farmlands, formed a regime in the usurped land of Palestine, and called it Israel.”

Israel was born a terrorist entity. On 22 July 1946, Zionist terrorists exploded a bomb at the King David Hotel, killing 91 persons. During their long terror campaign, Zionists killed hundreds of British civilians and military personnel, one British Minister (Lord Moyne), and thousands of Arab civilians.

The British government rightly labeled them “terrorists.” The terrorists became politicians—the most notorious being Menachem Begin, prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983.

Eminent Jews includingAlbert Einstein and Hannah Arendt wrote in The New York Times (2 December 1948) expressing their opposition to the Zionist terrorist-politicians:

“Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.”

The Zionist terrorist regime engaged in ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arab Christians and Muslims. The distinguished Israeli scholar, Prof. Ilan Pappe, has documented this campaign in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford 2007).

As Einstein, et al. observed, “From its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future,” i.e., what is happening now in Gaza is a continuation of the Zionist terror campaign against Palestinians.

Israel is an apartheid entity. This is not an allegation by Gentiles but the conclusion by B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, explained in their report from 2021.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s tribute to students is welcome and accurate. Student protestors are, as he noted, “now a branch of the Resistance Front”: the motley coalition of social media activists, political activists, writers, academics, protestors, and armed factions opposed to apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel with the backing of the West.

This multi-faceted Resistance Front is indispensable because America is no longer controlled by Americans.

In October 1981, Ronald Reagan said of Israel’s arrogant demands, “American security interests must remain our internal responsibility. It is not the business of other nations to make American foreign policy.”

The era when Americans governed America for America has expired. These students, however, offer hope that profound changes are possible in the near future.

As Ayatollah Khamenei observed, “History is turning a page.”

Dr. Shivan Mahendrarajah is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was educated at Columbia University and earned his doctorate in Middle Eastern and Islamic History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of peer-reviewed history articles on Islam, Iran, and Afghanistan.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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