On May 4, the IslamicRepublic News Agency (IRNA) published an article that materially misquoted andmisrepresented the positions of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network(IJAN). (Berlin, May 4-Iran must lead global anti-Zionist campaign: French Jewishactivist).

The article implied that IJAN expects Iran to be "the vanguard of the confrontation [againstZionism and Israel]."The article also failed to report criticism of Iran'sengagement that our speaker clearly expressed, creating the false impressionthat IJAN awaits and accepts Iran'sleadership in the struggle against Zionism. To correct the misconception aboutIJAN that the article in question promoted, we wish to make the followingclarifications. 

• We support the Palestinian popular struggle against Zionism in all its dimensions while respecting Palestinian self-determination, and urge all those who aim for justice in the Middle East to do the same.
• We stand in solidarity with the people of Iran against all threats of military aggression against Iran by the U.S., Israel, and supporting Northern states. We are committed to participating in anti-war mobilizations in our respective countries against any plans of military aggression.
• We categorically reject the Islamophobic demonization of Iran and its President.
• We appreciate Iran's material and moral support for popular forces of resistance to Zionism and U.S. imperialism in the region.

IJAN neither expects nor accepts a leadership role from Iran in the struggle against oppression in Palestine. As the peoplemost impacted by Israeli oppression, Palestinians should and are leading thestruggle against it. Similarly in Lebanon,leadership has and will continue to come from the people of Lebanon who suffered from and continue to liveunder the threat of Israel'smilitary aggression. 

As this article was written in the wake of the DurbanReview Conference in Geneva and the speech of Iran'sPresident that opened the conference, we would like to further state that:

• We condemn the President of Iran's toying with holocaust denial in the written version of his speech.
• We are appalled by the US, Canada and European boycott of the conference and the white European representatives' walkout on the President of Iran's speech for the mere mention of unassailable facts about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
• We are disheartened by the government of Iran's appropriation of the conference and the Palestinian issue without accountability to the goals and efforts of the Palestinian and other anti-racist struggles represented in Geneva. This was damaging to the work of Palestinian civil society done previous to and culminating in Geneva, as well as to the many other anti-racist struggles. It was a tactical victory for Zionism.
• We reject the President of Iran's misrepresentation of the history of Zionism, implying that all Jews in Israel are of European origin, and therefore promoting the same racism against Arab Jews (Mizrahim) that is foundational to Zionism. 
  

In closing, weurge the government of Iran to adopt the framework put forward by the PalestinianBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee and to implement it in itsown decision-making sphere by denying Iranian contracts to companies (such asVeolia) that benefit from Israeli colonialism.