An October 16, 2018 conference titled "Antisemitism: Truth or Political Justification," at the building of the Association for the Defense of Palestine, marked the anniversary of the "assassination of Amir Tavakkol Kambouziya, a pioneer of the struggle against Zionism in Iran." It was attended by, inter alia, Ali Reza Soltan-Shahi and Shams Al-Din Rahmani; both spoke at the event. Soltan-Shahi, the event's organizer, is secretary-general of the Organization for Aiding the Islamic Revolution of the Palestinian People in the Office of the Iranian Presidency as well as a member of the Free Palestine team at the NEDA Institute for Scientific Political Research. Shams Al-Din Rahmani is a researcher of Palestine and Zionism and was a pupil of Amir Tavakkol Kambouziya (d. 1975),who was a writer and an opponent of the Shah.

These two speakers reiterated well-known antisemitic tropes, such as the Jews being the source of evil in the world and their control of the global economy which they arrived at by controlling the sources of money and oil. Denying the Holocaust, they claimed that the Jews were exploiting this "tale" to achieve their ends. According to Rahmani, the Jews are assassinating all those who do not cooperate with them, and the murderer of Imam Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin and the Fourth Caliph, was a Jew. He even stated in his speech that Islamic culture was essentially antisemitic and that "no book in the world spreads the spirit of antisemitism like the Quran."

Recently, the Iranian news agency Fars, which is close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported on a book titled Antisemitism: Truth or Political Justification, which was published in 2018 by the Institution for Strategic Studies and Research and with the cooperation of the Shahid Kazemi publishing house. The book includes an introduction and six chapters discussing antisemitism and analyzing "this made-in-Europe political myth [i.e. the Holocaust] that has spread across the world."



At the conference. Rahmani is on the left and Soltan-Shahi is on the right at the head table. (Source: Fars, Iran, October 17, 2018)

According to Soltan-Shahi, Amir Tavakkol Kambouziya was "a very powerful figure in the struggle against the Jews. He fought against the Jews' thought [focusing on] aspirations of expansion at a time when this issue was not on the agenda [as it is today]. Kambouziya died in 1975 under suspicious circumstances, and I believe that he was killed and martyred... Kambouziya was an enthusiastic supporter of the policy of [the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini... and besides Farsi had a perfect command of Arabic, French, Russian, English, and Turkish." Soltan-Shahi added that Kambouziya was a scientist, theosophist, philosopher, Quran commentator, logistician, and historian.



Amir Tavakkol Kambouziya; Kambouziya in his home library (Source: Mashregh, Iran, February 23, 2013)

The following are the main points of the speeches at the Antisemitism: Truth or Political Justification conference marking the anniversary of Kambouziya's death, as published by Fars; by Jamaran.ir, the website of the family of Ayatollah Khomeini; and by Defapress.ir, which is close to the IRGC:

Soltan-Shahi: "During The Holocaust, A Great Many [Jews] Emigrated To Palestine So They Could Tell World Public Opinion 'They Wouldn't Let Us Live [There] And Expelled Us'"; "These Tales Are The False Tales Of The Jews"

Ali Reza Soltan-Shahi, who spoke first at the conference, said: "Antisemitism is undeniable. I mean that even if sometimes we claim that we are not antisemitic, in fact we do show antisemitic behavior, and if we are not doing something against the Jews, we feel bad. It is part of our culture.

"In the matter of the faith and conduct of the Jews, and particularly the Christians [sic] who originated in the European countries, it should be said that the Jews' conduct is such that they are stirred up by anyone who is not a Jew.

"The Jews blame their actions on all those who are not Jewish. For instance, they say, 'We want to leave our place of residence, because they are harassing us here, or killing us.' But the truth is that they are emigrating because in that place the Jews no longer have a monetary and economic interest, and they know how to emigrate in large [waves] based on this pretext.

"An example of this is that despite the [good] treatment the Jews received from the residents of Isfahan [Iran], many left. Or, during the Holocaust, a great many of them emigrated to Palestine, so they could tell world public opinion 'they wouldn't let us live [there] and expelled us'; these tales are the false tales of the Jews."

Rahmani: "Kambouziya Maintained That The Main Reason For All The Problems Was The Totalitarian [Traits] Of The Jewish Evil"

The second speaker, Shams Al-Din Rahmani, said: "All current conditions in the world are the result of the Jews' 4,000-year struggle against Islam – the same Islam that has, if truth be told, [existed] since the first man.

"In 1971, I was privileged to visit Kambouziya in Zahedan. There, in the middle of the desert, he had established a farm. He invited me to his room, made of mud and straw, and he had so many books there that there was nowhere to sit. Kambouziya was very religious. In 1971 he was arrested [by the Shah's security intelligence organization SAVAK and detained] for two weeks, and was freed because of pressure by France. He had some 15,000 books, and prominent figures like Ayatollah [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei, [liberal cleric and Islamic Revolution ideologue] Ayatollah [Mahmoud] Talekani, [Islamic Revolutionary thinker] Jalal Al-e-Ahmad [d. 1969] and others would talk with him.

"Kambouziya maintained that the main reason for all problems was the totalitarian [traits] of the Jewish evil... Many of the deaths of antisemitic individuals in history, like Jalal al-e-Ahmad, [Egyptian president] Gamal Abd Al-Nasser, and Ayatollah Talekani [are suspicious], and it should be said that the Jews tried to attract such people to them and the moment they did not succeed in doing so they eliminated them. One of the accusations [in the indictment] against Lt.-Gen Rezwani (head of the SAVAK in Zahedan) was the suspicious circumstances of Kambouziya's death...

"The roles of the Jews at the dawn of Islam and in the movement of translating the writings of [Greek] philosophy are very clear. Islam had nothing to do with the Jews as long as they kept their views to themselves. But as soon as they wanted to give their views a practical dimension and entangle society, Islam became the enemy of this Judaism, seeing it as Zionism."[1]

Rahmani: "How Do American Officials [Dare To] Instill The Awareness That The Jewish Holocaust Is Connected To [American] History? ... The Jews Make All This Fuss In Order To Take Over"

The website of Ayatollah Khomeini's family, Jamaran.ir, which also reported on the conference, had more from Rahmani: "Yedidya Shofet, the rabbi of the Jews of Iran [until the Islamic Revolution in 1979], writes in his memoirs: 'I went to visit Ayatollah Talekani after the revolution. I told him that in the language of the Jews, 'Jew' and 'Israel' are synonymous, [and that] when they call 'Death to Israel,' the Jews think they mean them.' Since then, according to [Shofet], Ayatollah Talekani did not call 'death to Israel' in his speeches at Friday prayers... But we know Ayatollah Talekani and his background [and we know that this is not true]."

Reiterating his Holocaust denial, Rahmani added: "For example, they show in these pictures [from concentration camps] a mountain of shoes, and from this they extrapolate genocide of Jews. How [can] we understand from a photo of shoes that they were on the feet of Jews who were subsequently murdered?!

"The Jews in the U.S. fully control [everything], and the atmosphere there is not antisemitic at all, and there are more Jews there than in Israel. All the economic media infrastructure and the Council on Foreign Relations in the U.S. are in the hands of Jews, where they created [the story of] the Holocaust and where Holocaust museums were established everywhere. How do American officials [dare to] instill the awareness that the Jewish Holocaust is connected to [American] history – despite the fact U.S. played no part in the Holocaust, and that those harmed by it did not have American roots? The Jews make all this fuss in order to take over [everything], and they do this in order to justify [the need to] defend the Jews.

"Ayatollah Hashem Rasouli Mahallati [an Iranian regime official close to Supreme Leader Khamenei] wrote that in [the city of] Kufeh [Imam Ali's capital, since his burial called Najaf, located in today's Iraq] were 8,000 Jews who opposed Imam Hossein and Imam Ali. Sheikh Abbas Qomi [d. 1941] wrote that the mother of Ibn Mujam Mordi [who assassinated Ali in 661] was a Jewess [that is, Imam Ali's assassin was a Jew]."[2]

Rahmani: "No Book In The World Spreads The Spirit Of Antisemitism Like The Quran... All The Jews' Claims Of Genocide Against Them Are Lies And Falsehood"

Defapress.com, which is close to the IRGC, which also reported on the conference, further quoted Shams Al-Din Rahmani's statements: "No book in the world spreads the spirit of antisemitism like the Quran – but not in the sense of hostility towards the religious Jews. The Quran always confronted the activity of the Jews, not their thoughts."

On criticism of the book Antisemitism: Truth or Political Justification, Rahmani said: "The Judaism and Christianity we know today must not be recognized as monotheistic religions, due to the great distortion that has been introduced into them. For example, the Jews do not believe in life after death. The true Islam [that is, the Shi'a] has perpetual enmity with the (Zionist) Jews that have a problem with Islam. In the history of Islam we see that in all the army of Islam's wars against the Jews, Imam Ali headed the army. After Imam Ali's killing and the beginning of the rule of the Umayyads and the dynasty of 'Abbas [both of them Sunni], [Sunni Islam] bears no hatred of the Jews, or anything against them.

"All the Jews' claims of genocide against them are lies and falsehood. Although there are many documents that refute the Holocaust, they [the Jews] are not revealing them, and point [instead] at irrelevant photos that cannot prove or support their claims [that the Holocaust happened]...

"Beyond religious matters, the dispute between Jews and Iranians is rooted in history. The Zionists' propaganda is very extensive, and it operates deeply and is profoundly rooted, so as to present themselves as truthful even though they are [essentially] false.

"The Jews also lie about World War II. While they attacked Hitler, they never mentioned the cruelty of [UK prime minister Winston] Churchill and the like. The lowest reported numbers of those murdered in the war was 60 million, [while] the Jews claim that five million of them were burned in the ovens. They never talk about the rest of those harmed by the war. Why don't they allow [anyone] to ask such questions, and why do they only talk about a claim that cannot be proven?

"Unfortunately, there are in Iran those who, in the guise of intellectualism, accuse all who speak against the Zionist Jews of fascism and antisemitism. We must tread this path wisely and discover the truth, and always speak it. We must clarify and explain the doubts [about whether the Holocaust actually happened]."[3]