US antisemitism envoy slams Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei’s ‘Zionist merchant’ comments

Slamming his tweets, Lipstadt wrote: "We denounce this continued, egregious antisemitism.

"This rhetoric is unacceptable – not to mention dangerous – especially from a head of state. It must cease."

We denounce this continued, egregious antisemitism.

This rhetoric is unacceptable – not to mention dangerous – especially from a head of state. It must cease. https://t.co/m2JmxRMUrz

— Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) July 28, 2022

Khamenei has faced extensive accusations of antisemitism. In June the Ayatollah was accused of using “Zionism” as a dog whistle for Jews after he tweeted: "The Zionists have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime. Even then, Zionist capitalists were a plague for the whole world."

The Zionist movement for a national Jewish homeland in Israel was founded in the late nineteenth century.  

In 2020 Khamenei strongly criticised the United Arab Emirates' decision to normalise relations with Israel, accusing the country of acting “...in agreement with the Israelis & filthy Zionist agents of the U.S. -- such as the Jewish member of Trump's family -- with utmost cruelty against the interests of the World of Islam."

In 2020 Lipstadt’s predecessor as special envoy, Ellie Cohanim, criticised Twitter for limiting President Donald Trump’s account, but not that of the Iranian theocrat.

Iran’s Jewish community dates back to the biblical era but has dwindled from about 100,000 in 1948 to less than 9,000 following the political upheavals of the late twentieth century.

Post-revolution Iranian governments have been explicit about their firm anti-Israel stance.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016, Khamenei himself released a video titled “Holocaust: Are the Dark Ages Over?", which included 2014 remarks in which he questioned the Nazi genocide of over six million Jews.