Tehran, Iran| In a fiery and unfiltered statement that has rapidly gone viral across Persian-language social media and international platforms, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has directly challenged Israel and its Western supporters on their moral standing in the ongoing Gaza conflict, questioning whether “Zionists” can still claim to be defenders of human rights while, in his view, committing systematic atrocities against Palestinian civilians.
The full quote, delivered in Persian and quickly translated and disseminated by Iranian state-affiliated accounts, reads:
“Are you Zionists even human? You talk about human rights, yet is killing all the residents of an apartment building, destroying a hospital, and starving children under the pretext of fighting terrorism considered humane? Previously, when a girl in Iran died because of an incident, you shouted about democracy and freedom across the world. I’m not defending our own mistakes, but with your horrific record, you have no right to speak nonsense!”
Breaking Down the President’s Accusations
President Pezeshkian’s rhetorical broadside centers on three specific charges widely echoed in pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel narratives.
He accuses Israel of indiscriminately bombing civilian infrastructure, pointing to repeated airstrikes on high-rise residential buildings in Gaza—structures Israel claims housed Hamas command centers or weapons caches—while human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of possible war crimes when entire families are wiped out in single strikes.
He further condemns the destruction of hospitals and medical facilities, highlighting intense fighting around and direct strikes on facilities like Al-Shifa, Al-Ahli, and the Indonesian Hospital, which Gaza health officials say have been deliberately targeted, even though Israel maintains these sites were used by Hamas as military headquarters and weapons depots (a claim partially corroborated by U.S. intelligence yet fiercely disputed by Palestinian authorities and many international observers).
Finally, Pezeshkian charges Israel with using starvation as a weapon of war through its blockade, which has triggered catastrophic hunger in Gaza; UN agencies warn that famine is imminent in the north, with children already dying of malnutrition-related causes, while Israel insists it permits humanitarian aid but restricts quantities for security reasons and blames Hamas for diverting supplies.
The Mahsa Amini Contrast: Hypocrisy or Double Standards?
The most cutting part of Pezeshkian’s statement draws a direct parallel to the 2022 death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly improper hijab wearing.
Western governments, celebrities, and activists launched a global #MahsaAmini campaign that dominated headlines for weeks and triggered new sanctions on Iranian officials.
President Pezeshkian—himself a reformist who won election promising greater social freedoms—acknowledges Iran’s “own mistakes” but argues that the same voices that amplified Amini’s death have remained largely silent or defensive in the face of what he describes as the “industrial-scale killing” of Palestinian women and children.
Context of the Statement
The remarks appear to have been made during a closed-door meeting with youth activists and were subsequently leaked (or strategically released) to the public.
Coming just days after the latest intense flare-up in Gaza and amid stalled ceasefire talks, the timing maximizes domestic support for Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” policy while applying moral pressure on Israel’s Western backers.
International Reactions (as of November 23, 2025)
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has not yet issued an official response, but government spokesperson Eylon Levy posted on X: “The president of a regime that hangs gay people from cranes and guns down women in the street for showing their hair is lecturing the Middle East’s only democracy on humanity. The irony is thicker than Tehran’s air pollution.”
The U.S. State Department called the remarks “revolting antisemitic rhetoric that dehumanizes Jews,” while reaffirming unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
Palestinian Authority officials welcomed the statement, with senior negotiator Husam Zomlot writing: “Finally a world leader says what needs to be said without fear.”
Human-rights groups were divided—some criticized Pezeshkian for deflecting from Iran’s domestic abuses, while others acknowledged that scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in Gaza should not be dismissed simply because of the messenger.
What This Means Moving Forward
President Pezeshkian’s unusually direct and emotive language marks a departure from the normally guarded diplomatic tone of his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi.
It signals that even Iran’s “reformist” leadership is willing to adopt maximalist rhetoric on Palestine when domestic sentiment demands it—and when it serves to blunt Western criticism of Tehran’s own human-rights record.
Whether this escalates into a broader war of words (or worse) remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: in the court of global public opinion, the battle over who gets to claim the mantle of “humanity” in this decades-long conflict has rarely been framed more starkly.
As images of destroyed hospitals and starving children continue to flood social media alongside memories of Mahsa Amini’s funeral, President Pezeshkian’s question—“Are you Zionists even human?”—is resonating far beyond Iran’s borders, forcing millions once again to confront the uncomfortable moral asymmetries of the Israeli–Palestinian tragedy.
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