Israel must be uprooted and wiped off [the pages of]
history. —Inscription on a Shahab 3 missile in a
military parade in Tehran, September 22, 2003. [1]

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

• "The strategy of Muslim nations is that they cannot recognize the cancerous tumor of Israel."—Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, 2012[2]


• "Israel is a cancerous tumor that must be removed, and God willing it will be," —Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, 2012[3]


• "The Islamic Revolution Leader said the international hegemony, motivated by the dangerous Protocols of Zion, seeks to promote deviant and unworthy models for world young generations, adding that the practice was running on premeditated policies."—Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, referencing the anti-Semitic, Czarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which helped inspire the Holocaust, 2011[4]


• "There is only one solution to the Middle East problem, namely the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state."—Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, 2000[5]

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• "This entity [Israel] can be compared to a kidney transplanted in a body that rejected it. ... Yes it will collapse and its end will be near." —President Ahmadinejad, 2011[6]


• "See what has become of Israel. They [the West] gathered the most criminal people in the world and stationed them in our region with lies and fabricated scenarios. Today, it is clear that Israel is the most hated regime in the world. … But whether they want it or not, with God's grace, this regime will be annihilated and Palestinians and other regional nations will be rid of its bad omen." —President Ahmadinejad, 2010 [7]

Presidential Advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin

• "But among the Jews there have always been those who killed God's prophets and who opposed justice and righteousness. Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some groups within it engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness."—Mohammad Ali Ramin, 2006[8]

Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani

• "One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam be met."—Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani, 2005 [9]

General Mohammad-Ali Jafari

• "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous microbe Israel."—General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, 2008 [10]

Government-Controlled Media

• The "Israeli people must be annihilated. Residents of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa [and other urban areas] can be targeted by Shahab and Ghadr missiles until [the] final annihilation of [the] Israel[i] people. … In this report, we will offer [a] concise description of mid and long-range ballistic missiles that can target territories of this regional cancerous tumor i.e. Quds [Jerusalem] occupying regime." —Alireza Forghani, former governor of Kish Province, in part of an article that was published by multiple media outlets controlled by the Iranian regime, February 2012[11]


• "The nation of Muslims must prepare for the great war, so as to completely wipe out the Zionist regime, and remove this cancerous growth. Like the Imam [Ayatollah] Khomeini said: 'Israel must collapse'." —"Resalat" (Iranian newspaper), October 22, 2006 [12]


• "What are you? A forged government and a false nation. They gathered wicked people from all over the world and made something called the Israeli nation. Is that a nation? All the malevolent and evil Jews have gathered there. … Those [Jews] who went to Israel were malevolent, evil, greedy thieves and murderers." —Radio Iran, July 20, 1994[13]