October 7 in remembrance

Our Jewish and Israeli friends

October 7 is not a date that can simply pass on a calendar.

It carries names, faces, families, empty chairs, unfinished conversations, and lives that should have continued.

On that day, civilians were murdered in their homes and communities, families were burned alive, women and men were subjected to sexual violence and mutilation, and men, women and children were abducted into Gaza.

On this day, we remember those who were murdered, those who were taken hostage, those who survived, and all those whose lives were changed forever.

As Iranians, we stand with you in remembrance.

We know what it means to see young lives destroyed by an ideology that places hatred above humanity. We know what it means for families to carry grief that cannot be explained away by politics, slogans or distance.

Our experiences are not the same, and they do not need to be compared.

But grief recognises grief.

A mother who has lost a child does not need translation. A family waiting for someone who will never come home does not need explanation. The absence speaks for itself.

Behind every number was a human life.

Shani Louk. Ariel Bibas. Kian Pirfalak. Aida Aghili.

Different lives. Different histories. Different circumstances.

Yet each became part of a story of violence that reached into ordinary families and took away people who should still be here. Shani Louk was killed during the October 7 attack; Ariel Bibas was abducted that day and later confirmed dead; Kian Pirfalak became one of the child victims associated with Iran’s 2022 protest crackdown; and Aida Aghili was among those killed during the January 2026 protests in Iran.

They were not statistics.
They were someone’s children.
They were someone’s family.
They were someone’s entire world.

That is why, today, we simply want to say:

You are not alone.

For thousands of years, the histories of Iranians and Jews have crossed. There have been moments of refuge, friendship, culture and coexistence between our peoples that reach far beyond the conflicts of the present.

No regime, no ideology and no generation of hatred should be allowed to erase that history.

The people of Iran are not the Islamic Republic.

The hostility between Iran and Israel is not, in our view, the choice of the Iranian people. For decades, the Islamic Republic has pursued hostility toward Israel while supporting armed groups across the region, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

The same state ideology that has brought repression to Iranians at home has also helped sustain armed extremism beyond Iran’s borders. That connection is one reason many Iranians feel such a profound solidarity with Israelis confronting violence from groups supported by the Islamic Republic.

For both Jews and Iranians, home carries something sacred. It carries memory, ancestry, language, belonging and the stories handed from one generation to the next.

We, the undersigned, believe that a different future is possible, one in which our peoples are no longer separated by an ideology imposed upon them, but connected again through friendship, dignity and peace.

We also state clearly the political future we support: a free Iran, a peaceful transition away from the Islamic Republic, and the national leadership of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. His visit to Israel in 2023, including his participation in Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations at Yad Vashem, gave visible expression to the possibility of renewed friendship between Iranians and Israelis.

We look toward a future where Israelis can walk the streets of Tehran as friends.
A future where Iranians can visit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv without fear.
A future where our children inherit curiosity about one another instead of hatred for one another.

Today is first and foremost a day of remembrance.

So, we remember.
We mourn with you.
We stand beside you.

And we honour the lives that were taken by refusing to allow hatred to have the final word.

May the memory of every victim be a blessing.
May their families find strength.
And may the friendship between the peoples of Iran and Israel endure long after the forces that tried to divide us are gone.

We also wish to express our sincere gratitude to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for using the platform of the United Nations General Assembly to speak about the courage, sacrifices and aspirations of the Iranian people.

At a time when the suffering of Iranians has too often been overlooked internationally, those words were heard and deeply appreciated by many of us.

In remembrance, solidarity and hope,

The undersigned Iranian diaspora organisations and community groups:

Irangarayān Sydney

Australian Lion and Sun Association, Melbourne

Tas Javid Shah Association, Tasmania

The Lion and Sun Association of Iran Inc, Adelaide

Free Iran Unity NZ, New Zealand

Iranmadari Global Network