Over the past several years, Iranian leaders - most prominently, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - have made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. Some of these statements have been interpreted by certain journalists and experts on Iran to be simple expressions of dissatisfaction with the Israeli presence in the West Bank or eastern Jerusalem, or with the current Israeli government and its policies.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Photo: AP [file] , AP
Juan Cole of the University of Michigan argues that Ahmadinejad was not calling for the destruction of Israel, saying, "Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian." The British Guardian's Jonathan Steele argued that Ahmadinejad was simply remarking that "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." Steele continues: "He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. The 'page of time' phrase suggests he did not expect it to happen soon."
Scholars continue to soft-pedal the Iranian President's words. Professor Stephen Walt, who previously served as academic dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and co-authored The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy along with Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, told a Jerusalem audience during a joint appearance in early June 2008, "I don't think he is inciting to genocide," when asked about Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map.
In reality, the intent behind Ahmadinejad's language is clear. Those who seek to excuse Iranian leaders should not remain unchallenged when they use the tools of scholarship as a smokescreen to obfuscate these extreme and deliberate calls for the destruction of Israel. Language entails meaning. These statements have been interpreted by leading Iranian blogs and news outlets - some official - to mean the destruction of Israel.
US Congress Debate on Translating Ahmadinejad
Translating Ahmadinejad's statements is not purely an academic matter. When in 2007 the US House of Representatives debated a resolution calling on the UN Security Council to charge Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his repeated calls for the destruction of Israel (H. Con. Res. 21), the issue of the accuracy of the translation of his remarks came up in the House debate.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) requested that alternative translations of Ahmadinejad's language - like that of South African political scientist Virginia Tilley - be introduced into the Congressional Record. These versions assert the Iranian president was only seeking a change of regime in Israel and not the physical elimination of the country. H. Con. Res. 21 was adopted by a majority of 411 to 2, with Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) voting against.
Examining Ahmadinejad's Language
What emerges from a comprehensive analysis of what Ahmadinejad actually said - and how it has been interpreted in Iran - is that the Iranian president was not just calling for "regime change" in Jerusalem, but rather the actual physical destruction of the State of Israel. After all, it is hard to wipe a country off the map without destroying its population as well.
The Iranian government itself reinforced this understanding with its own rendition of his slogans on posters and billboards during official parades. Those who try to make Ahmadinejad's statements excusable by narrowing their meaning to a change of Israel's ruling coalition are misleading their readers. The plain meaning of what Ahmadinejad has declared constitutes a call for genocide - the destruction of the Jewish state and its residents.
A contextual examination of these statements demonstrates beyond a doubt that when Iranian leaders use the euphemism "Zionist regime" or "the Jerusalem-occupying regime," they are most definitely referring to the State of Israel and not to the present regime. Iranian leaders are simply following the time-worn practice in the Arab world of referring to the "Zionist regime" in an attempt to avoid dignifying Israel by recognizing its name.
Iranian leaders are also not talking about a non-directed, natural historical process that will end with Israel's demise. Rather, they are actively advocating Israel's destruction and have made it clear that they have the will and the means to effect it.
Ahmadinejad's "Wipe Israel Off the Map" Speech
In an address to the "World without Zionism" Conference held in Teheran on October 26, 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: "Our dear Imam [Khomeini] ordered that this Jerusalem-occupying regime [Israel] must be erased from the page of time. This was a very wise statement."
The New York Times translated the statement as Israel "must be wiped off the map," a non-literal translation which nevertheless conveyed the meaning of the original - the destruction of Israel. Despite the international controversy that Ahmadinejad's language generated, a report on his October 2005 speech was still available on his presidential website as of May 2008.
"Jerusalem-Occupying Regime" - Another Name for the State of Israel
Soft-pedaling Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel, Prof. Cole told the New York Times that all Ahmadinejad had said was that "he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse."
Official Iranian spokespersons and organs have since based their slogans on Ahmadinejad's statement, and have loosely translated the statement as "Israel should be wiped off the face of the world." This is evident in pictures showing banners and signs in parades and ceremonies. Even the Iranian newscaster that introduced the report on the "World without Zionism" Conference used the word "Israel" (instead of the "Jerusalem-occupying regime") and also the word "world" (instead of the "page of time"), and thus referred to Ahmadinejad's statement as "erasing Israel, this disgraceful stain, from the world" (clip available from the Jerusalem Center upon request).
