Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

WATCH: Netanyahu Praises Iran Protesters For Their ‘Noble Quest For Freedom’

JERUSALEM (JTA) — “I wish the Iranian people success in their noble quest for freedom,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu, in a video posted on social media on Monday, denied an Israeli connection to the anti-government protests in Iran, which have reached their fifth day with 12 reported dead.

“I heard today Iran’s President Rouhani’s claim that Israel is behind the protests in Iran,” Netanyahu said in the 90 second video. “It’s not only false. It’s laughable.”

Netanyahu saluted the “brave Iranians” who “are pouring into the streets. They seek freedom. They seek justice. The seek the basic liberties that have been denied to them for decades.”

He called the Iranian people “smart,” “sophisticated,” and “proud.”

Netanyahu, who also chastised European governments for not being supportive enough of the protests, also said: “when this regime finally falls, and one day it will, Iranians and Israelis will be great friends once again.”

The protests, led by young people, are being held against the backdrop of moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s failure to bring more political change and economic opportunity.

In a crackdown against the protests on Monday, dozens of protesters were arrested and the Telegram messaging app, which has been used as a way for protesters to communicate, continued to be blocked.

Iran last faced mass popular protests in 2009, following the election to a second term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardliner. Up to 70 protesters were killed in those protests.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.