The Golders Green stabbings have been openly celebrated by the Iranian regime as a “revolutionary” attack intended to “make the world unsafe” for Jews.
The appalling comments have been put out by officials of the Islamic Republic through media organisations devoted to pumping out the regime’s propaganda.
The armed forces news outlet, Defa Press, hailed the attack in which two Jewish men were stabbed as “revolutionary fever”.
The website – closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – appear to justify the violence in London by linking the rise in attacks on the Jewish community to the war between Iran and the US and Israel, arguing that it had triggered what it described as “revolutionary reactions” in Western countries.
Another IRGC-linked agency, Fars News, has portrayed the recent incidents targeting Jews in Britain as part of a “wider wave of protests against Israel”.
The regime-sponsored narrative puts the attacks in the context of what it depicts as intensifying global anger towards the US and Israel over their joint military campaign, which has seen what is presented as a rise in hatred against the Jewish community.
Iranian state radio and television have described the incidents targeting Jewish individuals and sites as in London as being “attacks on Zionist organisations linked to Israel”. The line echoes the regime’s claim that “hostility toward Zionists and their supporters has increased worldwide”, including in the UK.
While in Britain Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced criticism over the failure to take stronger action to protect the Jewish community and particularly for delays in the proscription of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, Iran state media tell a very different story.
In what appears to be a coordinated effort to seed disinformation across local social media platforms, the regime’s international-facing news outlets have sought to promote an alternative, anti-Israel narrative suggesting the attacks are part of a “false flag” operation to damage Iran.
IRNA – the Iranian government’s official news agency operating under President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has sought to project a more moderate image of the regime – accuses Israel of “staging the attacks in the UK” to pressure the British government into proscribing the IRGC.
The claim is the attacks are part of a plan to restore pressure on the IRGC, helping pro-Israel lobby groups that want the organisation designated as a terrorist group. Versions of this baseless narrative have been circulating across social media platforms in multiple languages, including some spoken within Muslim communities in the UK. Although ordinary Iranians have very limited access to the internet if any at all since a virtual shut-down by the regime in February, social media influencers who act as mouthpieces for the Islamic Republic retain privileged access through special SIM cards that enable them to go online so that they can promote official narratives.
Many of these produce rabidly antisemitic material delighting in any acts of violence against Jews and encouraging further plots.
After the attacks in Golders Green, scores of such hateful posts were circulated by pro-regime accounts.
One commentator, known as Hamodi, described the rise in anti-Jewish sentiment as one of the “blessings” of the recent war.
In a post on Telegram, he wrote: “The two people who were attacked will die like a dog as they are badly wounded.”
Last week, the Iranian embassy in London urged pro-regime supporters in the UK to enrol in an official “martyrdom” initiative known as the “Jan Fada” campaign, or “sacrificing life”, calling on “all brave and noble children of Iran” to take part in a “display of solidarity”.
Applicants were directed to register through a link associated with the foreign ministry, where they were asked not only for personal and contact details but also whether they could “provide any other help to the country”.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.