A Persian and a Hindu Who Stood with the Jews

Adapted from a speech delivered by the author at a United Against Terror rally in Western Sydney on 6 July 2025, organised by Minority Impact and Never Again is Now.

At a time when the comfortable West is learning to hate—when institutions like Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Sydney University, and The Australian National University have become breeding grounds for antisemitism and moral confusion—it is worth pausing to ask: have we forgotten the examples we once revered?

Last month, as Israel conducted Operation Rising Lion—a decisive 12-day campaign in June 2025 to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities—a familiar cast of performative radicals took to the streets. In city after city, cloaked in keffiyehs and echoing slogans they barely understand, they chanted genocidal rallying cries that call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. These self-styled activists and ideological opportunists—many of whom may struggle to locate Haifa or Beersheva on a map—chose, in their infinite self-assurance, to align themselves with the Ayatollahs of Iran, one of the most violent and regressive regimes on the planet.

Had they taken a moment to step outside their echo chambers, they might have noticed something telling: for nearly two years, proud Australian Iranians have been rallying in support of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. These men and women, exiled by tyranny, know friend from foe. And they have been consistently, visibly, and courageously standing with Israel—against the terror state that continues to brutalise their homeland and threaten the civilised world.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. It funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and death squads across Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. It jails artists, tortures dissidents, and murders its own citizens—teenage girls, minority faith leaders, LGBTQ individuals—with medieval cruelty. It executes people for speaking freely and sends drones and missiles across borders in pursuit of regional domination. It also provides ideological and financial cover to the broader Islamist terror ecosystem, which has brutalised parts of India for decades—through attacks on Hindu pilgrims, targeted bombings, and the ongoing infiltration of jihadist ideology across Kashmir and beyond.