Khamenei’s day-old Hebrew account on X suspended after threats against Israel
Social media platform does not offer reason for action; profiles run by Iranian supreme leader in other languages with similar content remain active
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s new Hebrew-language account was suspended from social media platform X on Sunday night, just one day after he opened the account following Israel’s reprisal strikes on Iran over the weekend.
The account was suspended after Khamenei posted a message warning that “The Zionist regime made a mistake” when it decided to retaliate for the October 1 ballistic missile attack carried out by Tehran.
Israel “erred in its calculations on Iran,” the post read. “We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”
Rules on X, formerly known as Twitter, ban content from “violent and hateful entities,” but the guidelines make an exception for posts from “state or governmental entities.”
There was no immediate comment from X or owner Elon Musk on the matter.
Multiple other accounts operated by Khamenei’s office, including in Persian, Arabic, English, and Bengali, remained active despite sharing similar sentiments to those published on the Hebrew account.
Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don't know Iran. They still haven't been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) October 27, 2024
A message posted on Khamenei’s English account earlier on Sunday warned that Israelis “still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power initiative, and determination of the Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.”
That post, and several others like it, amassed more than 14,000 likes and remains online.
Khamenei opened the Hebrew-language account following Israel’s long-awaited retaliatory strike against Iran early Saturday, in which the Israeli Air Force carried out targeted strikes on strategic military sites, including air defense batteries and drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites.
His first post, published Saturday evening, simply read, “In the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate.”
The Iranian supreme leader has a history of publishing posts on X in broken Hebrew, mostly making threats against the Jewish state. Prior to Saturday, however, he had done so on his main account, where items are mainly written in English.
Following the October 1 attack, in which the Islamic Republic fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, Khamenei warned in Hebrew that the “blows of the uprising front will become stronger and more painful on the worn and rotting body of the Zionist regime.”
He is no stranger to being suspended from social media. In February, Meta removed his Facebook and Instagram accounts over his support of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.
AP contributed to this report.
