A little boy in military uniform with a scarf around his neck keffiyeh It is pro-Palestinian and in the background is the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Israeli police raided during Ramadan in April. This is one of the images chosen by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for its campaign to persuade young men to join Hamas in the war against Israel. The campaign, which started immediately after the terrorist attack on October 7, was renamed “Al-Aqsa Mosque Flood” and spread through billboards, and was also covered on social media by Iranian state television and radio. Iranian television reported that more than 3 million volunteers were ready to be deployed. However, the propaganda does not seem to be working as much as the Tehran regime expected. The bitter memory of losses in the war against Iraq and the anger caused by the deaths of Mahsa Amini and Armita Geravand, blamed by the morality police, have an impact on recruitment. Finally, the fatigue of the population also has an impact, as they do not look favorably on the large military expenditures made by the government at a time of serious economic crisis.
Controversial symbols
Symbolism is at the center of Iranian propaganda. The boy represented for the military campaign wears a badge on his jacket with the portrait of General Qasim, who for a long time led the elite Jerusalem unit of the Revolutionary Guard. The general was killed by American forces in Baghdad in 2020. Then there are billboards with dozens of men marching towards Al-Aqsa Mosque holding Palestinian and Iranian flags. It was the last straw to launch the October 7 attack.
رونمایی از جدیدترین دیوارنگاره میدان ولیعصر(عج) pic.twitter.com/7XQCbsjpfC
— اعتمادآنلاين (@EtemadOnline) 24 October 2023
Promotions of the regime attempting to translate solidarity with the Palestinian people into military support for Hamas also evoke disturbing memories, such as those linked to the deaths of more than half a million Iranians in the war against Iraq in the 1980s. There were thousands of children among those who never returned to their homes. “The Iranian regime frequently supports the Palestinian cause with some form of advertising campaign aimed at mobilizing the public, but [il popolo iraniano] “He is not fooled by the regime trying to use this case for its own interests,” Jonathan Piron, a historian at the research center who specializes in Iran, told France24. Ethiopia Brussels. The expert said that although Iranians were not indifferent to the dramatic situation experienced by the Palestinians, some of the public interpreted this speech as “propaganda”.
disobedience hour
Calls for military service in mosques or on the streets are accompanied by slogans such as “Death to Israel” and the usual anti-American phrases. According to Piron, these slogans have now been abandoned in the anti-regime demonstrations held since last year and have been replaced by slogans calling for the death of the country’s highest political-religious leader, Ali Khamenei. Along with posters of the Revolutionary Guards calling on them to “get rid of the tyrant” by joining the armed struggle in Gaza. social Additionally, a video of a young Iranian woman jumping over the Israeli flag to avoid stepping on it is also circulating. Academician Piron interpreted this choice as a “powerful symbol”, reversing the trend at a time when Israeli and American flags were “painted on the ground in front of some Iranian public buildings, forcing pedestrians to walk on them”.
Drapeau d’Israël’s Persian sauté par-dessus, which he placed ashore on the Rue de Téhéran to avoid the piétiner. pic.twitter.com/kj49BQRdYm
– lettres de Tehran (@LettresTehran) October 20, 2023
Women, especially the new generations, constitute the hardest core of resistance and disobedience to the regime’s orders; First of all, they become the main victims of the internal pressure exerted by the morality police. Last year, following the death of young Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly punished for not wearing the veil correctly, another Kurdish-Iranian named Armita Geravand, who remained in a coma for more than a month, also died. According to multiple reconstructions, she was also attacked by the morality police for walking around Tehran’s subway with her head uncovered.
Criticism of support for Hamas
Both events further exacerbated the conflict between the regime and its opponents, who were deaf to popular intolerance and military support for Hamas. Iran’s financial and logistical support for the terrorist group has been known for some time, and despite Tehran’s denials, there are widespread suspicions that it contributed organizationally to the bloody attack carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on October 7. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2020 Country Report on Terrorism in Iran, the regime “provides combined support of up to $100 million annually to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the General Command of the Front. Popular for the liberation of Palestine.” Opponents criticize both the government’s manipulation of the Palestinian cause and international spending, particularly the money paid for operations in Syria and Lebanon and the subsidies given to Hamas. They would prefer the regime invest in the economy to support the Iranian people in the midst of a severe economic crisis.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
