According to a recent report published by MEMRI, since the October 7th massacre, the Iranian regime has increased their level of antisemitic rhetoric to the point that they argue that Jews are humanoids who use sorcery and utilize demons.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report published by MEMRI, since the October 7th massacre, “the regime has cultivated open hatred towards and demonization of the Jews and Zionists (i.e. Israelis), as part of its ongoing policy that strives for the elimination of the State of Israel. Senior regime officials and regime mouthpieces are repeating and echoing modern antisemitic ideas such as the Nazi racial doctrine of “untermenschen” – subhumans – according to which the Jews and Zionists are not human but “humanoid creatures.” These definitions facilitated the Nazi discrimination against Jews in Germany in the 1930s and presaged the near-destruction of European Jewry.”
“Additionally, Iranian antisemitism is unique in that it claims that the Jews and Zionists engage in sorcery in order to accomplish their goals,” MEMRI added. “This rhetoric is drawn from Islamic Shi’ite religious sources. After the October 7 attack on Israel by Iran’s proxy Hamas, regime officials became more blatant in their statements that the Jews and Zionists are non-human “humanoids” who engage in sorcery. The attribution of such characteristics to the Jews and Israelis are aimed at justifying the atrocities – murder, rape, torture, and mutilation – carried out against Israelis by the armed Hamas and Gazan invaders.”
According to MEMRI, “A few days after the attack, the Jews were described in the October 18, 2023 editorial of the regime mouthpiece Kayhan, which is directly overseen by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as “predatory humanoid creatures” like “stray dogs who should be caged far away from human society.” In a speech the same day, Iran’s then-president Ebrahim Raisi called the Jews “humanoids… who look human but whose hearts… are worse than those of animals” – a statement that he based on Islamic sources.”
“In speeches in Hebrew and English broadcast on February 7, 2025 as part of a cultural event on Iran’s Channel 3 TV, Iranian teen girls said that the Zionists “appear human in form but act inhuman” look human but act inhumanly,” MEMRI noted. “The Iranian regime also combines Nazi antisemitic themes with elements from Islamic-Iranian folklore against the Jews and Israelis, in order to instill a religious/political narrative justifying hostility towards them and in an attempt to demonize and incite against them, so as to justify the anti-Israel ideological perception of the resistance front in its struggle against Israel until it is destroyed,” MEMRI concluded.
For example, “A cartoon published January 5, 2024 by the Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), titled “Killing Children in Gaza and Kerman [in Iran] Israeli-Style,” depicted a Satan-like figure with horns and a blue and white skullcap identifying it as Jewish and Zionist with an M-16 rifle on its back. The figure is seen to be directing “child killing operations” in Gaza and Kerman in Iran, shouting through a megaphone, “This is an ISIS operation.” The cartoon was published following the January 3, 2024 ISIS attack in the city of Kerman, Iran during a memorial ceremony on the anniversary of the killing of IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani. The cartoon was captioned: “Israel ordered ISIS to take responsibility for the terrorist act in Kerman, when a few minutes after the terrorist act, statements by several officials and accounts affiliated with the Zionist regime proved the Zionist regime to be the main element in this crime against the people of Iran.””
In another example, MEMRI noted: “A cartoon published by Tasnim on February 2, 2025 depicted Israel as a monstrous decapitated figure whose severed head, lying at its feet, is horned and has a Star of David on its forehead. Its hands and feet are clawed and it wears an American flag loincloth as it stands before the Palestinian boy who beheaded it with a sword. The text states: “The American barbarism of the Israeli regime against Gaza will fail. This American barbarism, which is being carried out by the Zionists against the Gaza Strip, is doomed to failure and will be unable to continue.””
According to MEMRI, “A visual representation of the Shi’ite-Iranian perception that Jews are creatures who only appear human and who practice sorcery can be seen in the hit Iranian TV show Imam Ali. The show, that first aired in 1996, was recently remastered and rerun during the month of Ramadan 2025. The first episode of the series opens with a scene of a Jewish sorcerer character wearing a black skullcap. He is ugly and grotesque – wild orange hair, a long crooked nose, broken and blackened teeth, a distorted face, and frightening and evil mannerisms. He performs magic, turning a man into a dog and then back into a man and turning a shoe into a pigeon, all before a laughing Muslim audience. His appearance is clearly drawn from established antisemitic images, especially those found in Nazi propaganda.”
“Notably, the antisemitic segment appears at the beginning of the first episode, emphasizing that the creators of the show are placing this negative depiction of the Jew front and center – it is not a minor or secondary plot detail, but rather the ideological keystone in the opening of what is presented as a formative text of the Islamic Republic,” MEMRI noted. “The presence of such a character at the heart of a work that is central to the political and religious culture of Iran reflects how deeply antisemitic ideas inform the official cultural discourse in Iran.”
According to MEMRI, “The series was government funded and produced by the Iranian Broadcasting Authority, which as noted began airing it on its channels in 1996. It focuses on the last five years in the life of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, who was the fourth Caliph and the first Imam according to the Shi’a. The series depicts Ali’s time as caliph, focusing on the era’s political and religious landscape, including disputes among the Muslims, internal conflicts, and fighting over the leadership of the Muslim nation following the death of Mohammad. The production featured about 150 actors and over 5,000 extras, and is considered to be one of largest, most involved, and most prestigious productions in the history of Iranian television. The show received many accolades for its direction, sets, casting, and acting, and is still considered one of the most important and influential pieces of television content broadcast in Iran. The series was recently remastered to 4K and was aired on Iran’s Channel 1 during Ramadan 2025, as a counterbalance to the Saudi historical drama series Muawiya.”
According to MEMRI, “On September 30, 2024, Mostafa Karami, a cleric and lecturer at Howzeh-ye Elmiyyeh, the seminary for training Shi’ite Islamic scholars, told the Iranian Broadcasting Authority in an interview that “the Zionists and Jews use demons as a secret army in carrying out covert missions.” He suggested that such forces could have assisted in the September 27, 2024 assassination of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah. Karami claimed that there are historical accounts of Jews enlisting demons for military and intelligence purposes.”
MEMRI concluded, “On December 3, 2024, the Howzeh-ye Elmiyyeh website published an article by Shi’ite scholar and lecturer Mahmoud Javadi. The article discusses the connection between the occult, demons, and sorcery and modern life and warfare, focusing on the ties between Israel/the Jews and the supernatural and occult. Claiming that Israeli leaders, acting on the recommendation of rabbis, are employing the occult sciences and demons in order to, for example, locate Hezbollah’s tunnels and assassinate the leaders of the Palestinian resistance, it also argued that the Jews’ knowledge of sorcery has been passed down through the generations.”
Photo from JewishNewsOne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLSgYYB0qtI
