Iran is in trouble, so leader Ayatollah Khamenei is resorting to a well-tested method: He is distracting the people with demagogy, and he doesn't shy away from the most evil historical terms, says DW's Kersten Knipp.
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Image: Reuters/Official Khamenei Website
Ali Khamenei isn't having an easy time of it at the moment. The Islamic Republic of Iran, where he has been the supreme religious leader for 30 years, is not functioning very well. The country is almost completely isolated on the international front, and at home, the people are complaining ever more loudly.
And the aging ayatollah has little to offer in either direction. The fiercely aggressive course he and his government have taken has not met with much approval domestically or abroad.
That is why it is good for Khamenei that he has long been able to present the people with a reliable enemy. Iran's supreme leader has learned over the years that if nothing else works, he can throw a few flippant allusions at this enemy that everyone will understand. So for him, it is good that Israel exists.
Inspired by Hitler and Himmler
It is also good for his strategy that the Nazi regime in Germany existed. For to this day, it would seem that Ayatollah Khamenei sees something worth emulating in this regime of mass murderers and war criminals. At any rate, he drew inspiration from Hitler, Himmler and all the other Nazi criminals for this year's Quds Day, an annual event initiated by Iran to express support for the Palestinians and defy Israel: He used the term "final solution," the name given by the Nazis to the murder of around 6 million Jews in Europe.
DW's Kersten Knipp
The term appeared on Khamenei's website to accompany the dream "Palestine will be free," a goal that for the supreme leader obviously entails the conquest of the holy site in Jerusalem known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
For the illustration upon which the Nazi term is found shows the entire site in the hand of Muslims — Palestinians and Iranians. A poster of the former commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the Americans in January, can also be seen in the drawing. Even the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, features as part of the illustration.
The Iranian government has tried to cover its back a little in that the poster calls for a referendum on the status of the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary site, saying that as long as there isn't one, the Islamic world has to continue its resistance to Israel. This pseudo-democratic subterfuge does not conceal the real purport of the whole, which is made apparent by the term "final solution."
Iran's anti-Semitic Quds Day poster shows Temple Mount entirely in Muslim handsImage: DW/A. Ruci
'Fear of democracy'
In a tweet on May 21, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, tried to backpedal a little, claiming that the term was used in connection with the referendum. "Why are US and West so afraid of democracy?" he asked.
Fear of democracy: At least it can't be denied that Javad Zarif has a sense of self-irony. The regime that he represents on the international stage holds the 173rd place (from 180) in the most recent World Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders.
In the most recent annual report by the human rights organization Amnesty International, Iran is also not given very high marks as a bastion of democracy. "The authorities heavily suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly," the report for 2019 says. "Security forces used lethal force unlawfully to crush protests, killing hundreds, and arbitrarily detaining thousands of protesters." And there are yet other sources of similar information on the dire state of freedom in the country.
Iran's Islamic Revolution 40 years on
40 years ago, the revolutionaries led by Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. Anger against the Western-backed Shah regime helped Khomeini establish his hardline Islamic system, which still dominates the country.
Image: Reuters/Official Khamenei website
'I feel nothing'
On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile in France. When a reporter asked him how he felt upon his return to Iran, Khomeini replied: "Nothing — I feel nothing." Some analysts interpreted his remarks as the Shiite leader's idea about embarking on a "divine mission" where emotions hardly mattered.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images
The Shah ran out of time
Two months before Khomeini's return to Iran, an estimated six to nine million people took to the streets in the country's major cities. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, compared to the violent September 8, 1978, protests. The Shah regime, headed by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, had realized that its time in power was over and that they could not stop Khomeini's return.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/UPI
Even women rooted for Khomeini
The revolutionary mood was so intense in Tehran that even many women celebrated Khomeini's return, ignoring the fact that Khomeini had slammed Shah's measures for women's emancipation in exile. In 1963, the Shah of Iran granted women the right to vote.
Image: picture-alliance/IMAGNO/Votava
A spectacle of exuberance
In 1971, the Shah and his wife Farah Diba (seen in the picture) staged a lavish spectacle on the ancient site of Persepolis to mark the "2,500th anniversary of the Iranian monarchy." Many heads of state attended the event. Khomeini, in his message from exile, condemned the monarchy as "cruel, evil and un-Islamic."
Image: picture alliance/akg-images/H. Vassal
Exile and death
Under pressure from the Islamic Revolution, the Shah (left) had left Iran on January 16, 1979. After spending time in several countries, he succumbed to cancer on July 27, 1980 in Cairo, Egypt.
Image: picture-alliance/UPI
Consolidating power
In the beginning, women's rights were not a major issue for the Islamic revolutionaries. They only imposed hardline Islam after consolidating their victory.
Image: Tasnim
Soldiers join the revolution
Upon Khomeini's return to Iran in 1979, the military did not confront the protesters. On February 11, the army declared itself neutral. Despite that, the revolutionaries executed several generals in February and April.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EPU
New government
Soon after his return, Khomeini declared the monarchy, the previous government and parliament illegal, and said he would appoint a government "because of the fact that this nation believes in me." According to Iran experts, it was not self-deception but reality.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/FY
The liberal face of the revolution
Mehdi Bazargan, a scholar and pro-democracy activist, had campaigned against the Pahlavi dynasty, for which he had been incarcerated for several years. Khomeini appointed him as his first prime minister, although Bazargan was critical of him as well. Bazargan had called Khomeini a "turbaned Shah" after a meeting with the Ayatollah in Paris. He remained in office for only nine months.
Image: Iranian.com
Occupation of the US Embassy
In November 1979, radical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took the embassy staff hostage. The students were fearful of Shah's return to power with US help. Khomeini took advantage of the situation. He dismissed his opponents as "US allies."
Image: Fars
Ali Khamenei – guardian of the revolution
In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was elected by the expert council to succeed Khomeini. Khamenei, to this date, has the ultimate power over all state institutions. Although the 79-year-old does not have the same charisma as his predecessor, he represents the policies of Iranian hardliners who refuse to reform the system and continue to persecute dissidents.
Image: Reuters/Official Khamenei website
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Economic hardship, rampant corruption
Economically, things aren't running that well either. The inflation rate for 2020 is likely to reach 31% and the unemployment rate — the official one — 17%. And the fight against corruption is also faltering: In the 2019 Corruption Perception Index put out by Transparency International, Iran ranks in 146th place, again from 180 places overall.
So the Iranian government has little to show for itself at the moment. That makes the threatened "final solution" a welcome diversionary tactic for it.
