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Source: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202602028235
Israelis Stand with the Brave Iranian People
(Iran International) Tamar Schwarzbard - In September 2022, when millions of brave Iranians took to the streets under the banner of "Woman, Life, Freedom," I was head of digital operations at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leading Israel's public diplomacy online in six languages, including Persian. We launched a digital campaign in solidarity with the protesters and Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who was killed for showing her hair. Our "Israel in Persian" accounts exploded. Posts expressing support reached millions. Every day, we received thousands of messages from inside Iran: "Thank you for seeing us, be our voice." For more than four decades, the Islamic Republic has insisted that hatred of Israel is central to Iranian identity. But millions of Iranians have told us otherwise. A Dutch GAMAAN survey published in 2025 found that 2/3 of Iranians said the government should stop its "destroy Israel" rhetoric, and a similar majority viewed the recent 12-day conflict as between the Iranian regime and Israel, not between Israel and ordinary Iranians. Israel is home to about 200,000 Iranian Jews. Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews from exile and allowed them to return to Jerusalem, an event recorded in both Jewish and Persian history. That shared past still lives between our peoples. When Iranians rose up, Israelis didn't see enemies in the streets of Tehran. We saw courage.