Iran Has Nothing to Do With Anti-Semitic Protests … Says Professor Brother of Iranian Spy

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a notable defender of the Iranian regime.

A University of Chicago professor whose brother is a convicted Iranian spy dismissed the notion that Tehran has boosted anti-Semitic protests on U.S. college campuses. Next semester, that professor will teach students about “Zionist settler colonialism.”

Alireza Doostdar, an associate professor of Islamic studies and dual United States-Iranian citizen, is slated to teach a course later this year on “liberatory violence” with a focus on “Zionist settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid,” according to a copy of the class overview obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. His brother, Ahmadreza, was sentenced in 2020 to 39 months in prison for spying on Iranian dissidents as well as Jewish centers on behalf of the hardline regime.

Iran has also used campus protests to spread its tentacles in the United States, according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who issued a rare public statement in July asserting that the Iranian government has encouraged and paid protesters in the United States.

For Doostdar, such accusations are “ridiculous.”

During a BBC News interview in May, Doostdar—a Faculty for Justice in Palestine member who supported unauthorized anti-Israel encampments on campus and was arrested during a “sit-in” protest in November—categorically denied that foreign entities such as Iran are supporting the protest movement in America. He also said he has “never heard anti-Semitic chants” at the University of Chicago, where Jewish students have been targeted with graffiti reading, “Zionist freakshow off our campus” and “Zionist IDF terrorists off our campus.”

“This is a ridiculous claim,” Doostdar said after a BBC host asked the professor if he had seen “any signs of foreign interference or extremism” in the anti-Semitic protest movement. He specifically targeted New York City mayor Eric Adams, a vocal critic of the protests who linked them to foreign influence efforts, saying the “NYPD has always had close ties to Israel and is still currently close.”