Ayatollah Khamenei Rejects Netanyahu's Statements About Iran's Efforts to 'Destroy Jews'

The leader of the Islamic Republic rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's statements regarding Iran's efforts to 'destroy Jews', calling them 'victim-playing' and 'lies'. He once again raised the idea of holding a referendum to 'determine the fate of the Palestinian country'. According to the Iranian leader's website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech on Sunday, June 9, referred to the Israeli Prime Minister as 'the Shimmer of the time' and 'child-killer', stating that he is 'playing the victim in Europe, claiming Iran wants to destroy us'. He mentioned that former Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser 'used to shout that we would throw Jews into the sea', but 'we have never said such things from the beginning and announced a plan... we said to refer to the Palestinian people for determining the fate of the historical country of Palestine'. Khamenei's remarks come at a time when Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, repeatedly emphasized from the very beginning of the 1979 revolution that 'Israel must be destroyed' or 'Israel must be erased from the pages of history'. In the final resolution of this year's 'Quds Day' rally in Iran, 'erasing Israel' was declared the goal of the Islamic Republic and the strategy of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei. Since the revolution, many officials of the Islamic Republic, especially former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have spoken about the necessity of 'destroying Israel'. The Israeli Prime Minister emphasized during his trip to Europe that Iran wants to 'kill six million more Jews' and 'wants to do this by acquiring nuclear weapons'. Netanyahu's reference was to a tweet from the account attributed to the leader of the Islamic Republic, which actually republished his statements from 2012 that 'Israel is a cancerous tumor in West Asia that must be eradicated; this is possible and will happen'. The publication of this tweet and Ayatollah Khamenei's order to the Atomic Energy Organization to prepare conditions for uranium enrichment up to 190,000 SW was extensively exploited by the Israeli Prime Minister during his trip to Europe. The Iranian leader detailed the referendum plan for 'determining the fate of the Palestinian country', stating that Muslims, Jews, and Christians who are 'truly Palestinian' and 'have been residing in Palestine for 80 years, 100 years, whether in the occupied territories or outside of them' should participate in this referendum. Among those, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, on June 3, called for the removal of this tweet and increased pressure on Iran to withdraw its forces from Syria during a joint press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister. In another part of his speech on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei claimed that 'the statements of Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Iran's intention to destroy Jews were confirmed by European officials', stating: 'That European audience listens to the Israeli Prime Minister's words and nods, but does not say you are currently committing these crimes in Gaza and Jerusalem'. Khamenei's remarks come at a time when Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, expressed concern over the killing of several Palestinians during protests on the day of the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem during a meeting with her Israeli counterpart. Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu's presence in Paris and London last week was accompanied by anti-Israeli protests from Palestinians and their supporters, although the German government did not allow similar protests to take place in Berlin. Ayatollah Khamenei added: 'Is this plan of the Islamic Republic, which has been officially registered at the United Nations, not in accordance with the principles accepted by the world? Then why are the Europeans unwilling to understand it?' For the first time, former President Mohammad Khatami called for a referendum in Israel and Palestinian territories to determine the future system of areas he referred to as 'occupied Palestine' during the ninth summit of Islamic countries in Doha, Qatar, on November 14, 2000. Khatami outlined the conditions for such an issue as 'the return of all Palestinians to their homeland in occupied Palestine', 'a referendum for the original people of Palestine, including Muslims, Christians, and Jews', 'the establishment of an independent Palestinian system desired by its people throughout the land of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital', and 'the independent government deciding on all current residents of this land'. The two-state solution, a plan supported by the international community for Palestinian independence alongside Israel, has effectively been stagnant for over a decade. Meanwhile, the killing of over a hundred Palestinians in recent protests on the seventieth anniversary of Israel's establishment and the Palestinians' protests against the US's decision to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem have darkened the prospects of relations between Israel and the Palestinians.