“The Israeli premier has sunken in the quagmire of crime, and has never played any role beyond poisoning the [international mental] atmosphere, massacring innocent children and women, and tyrannically occupying the lands of Palestinian people,” said the Jewish legislator Siamak Moreh Sedgh.
The parliamentarian, who also directs the Tehran Jewish Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish organizations that represent Iran-based Persian Jews, called the Israeli official “a tyrant,” who would manipulate religious values to enable carnage and occupation, and who had chosen racism as his ideology.
“A person of such characteristics could never function as the spokesperson for a religion, whose most essential motto is ‘love your own kind as you love yourself.’”
Meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, the Israeli premier claimed that ancient Persia had made a failed attempt to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago, a legend commemorated through the Jewish holiday of Purim, which Israel celebrated last weekend.
Netanyahu has constantly referred to the legend as a basis of his anti-Iran arguments in his meetings with different world leaders.
According to Jewish accounts, Persian King Xerxes I discovered his viceroy Haman the Agagite’s conspiracy to slaughter Jews some 2,500 years ago and had him executed.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu has been selective in his recount of history, ignoring the Hebrew Bible which has repeatedly praised Persian King Cyrus the Great as the patron and deliverer of the Jews who put an end to their Babylonian captivity.
The Iranian MP said the remarks came as no surprise from “such racist and criminal person,” adding that his “nonsensical rant” failed to adversely affect the faith of the devoted Iranian Jews in their homeland.
Netanyahu’s comments have likewise been met with backlashes from senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who have questioned the Israeli official’s knowledge of history and scripture.
In a Sunday tweet, Zarif said the Israeli premier has resorted to fake history and falsifying the Torah to sell lies against Iran.
