On Monday, Israeli politicians publicly celebrated the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, his foreign minister, and other officials following a helicopter crash the previous day, Anadolu Agency reported.
Raisi, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other key officials died, when their helicopter went down in the mountainous East Azerbaijan province on Sunday afternoon.
Among the celebratory reactions, Amichay Eliyahu, Israel’s heritage minister, posted an image of a wine glass on social media platform X, captioned with a celebratory “Cheers.” In a follow-up post, Eliyahu criticized those who opposed his reaction, stating, “Crazy people who only last night wished death to the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and right-wing people are asking us not to rejoice in the death of the murderer from Iran.”
Avi Maoz, leader of the Noam party and a Knesset member, also commented on the incident, recalling a recent threat made by the late Iranian president. “Less than a month ago, he (Iranian president) threatened that ‘if Israel attacked, there would be nothing left of it,’ and now he has become just a speck of dust in history,” Maoz remarked.
Avigdor Lieberman, former defense minister and leader of the opposition right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told the Ynet news site that Israel “will not shed a tear for the death of the Iranian president.”
However, Israeli ministers are not the only ones to celebrate the death. A handful number of Saudi-found Wahabi/ Salafi extremist Islam are also celebrating the death of the Iranian president.
On May 20, Gaza-based Salafi Pro-ISIS, Majdi Al-Moghrabi posted a video of himself with a group distributing sweets. He said, “Despite the pain and wounds we are experiencing in Gaza, we cannot fail to participate with our brothers in [Iran’s] Ahwaz, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, as well as all Muslims, in the joy over the demise of the murderous criminal thug Raisi, the leader of the death commissions, and a group of criminals with him.”
On May 20, London-based Egyptian Al-Qaeda ideologue Hani Al-Siba’i re-posted a lengthy article he had originally published on December 27, 2023. In the article, he criticized Hamas for paying tribute to slain Brigadier General Sayyed Reda Al-Moussawi, reminding readers that Al-Moussawi was a senior commander in the IRGC in Syria and notorious for his violent actions. Al-Siba’i mocked the tribute, comparing Al-Moussawi’s death to that of Raisi, and stated that such tributes disrespected Sunnis in Syria: “Whenever a human demon dies, they offer him a certificate of martyrdom,” he said mockingly.
On May 19, the Pro-Saudi, Pro-ISIS Telegram channel “Bilal Al-Hajr” posted a cartoon of a dead man’s hand with a ring on it, drawing a parallel to the photo of Qasem Soleimani’s hand after the U.S. airstrike near Baghdad Airport on January 2, 2020. The post read: “Sunnis all around the world eagerly await the photo of Raisi’s ring. May Allah heal our chests by killing him and tearing him apart, Oh Lord of the worlds.”
Another Pro-ISIS channel shared photos of rebels in Idlib distributing sweets to celebrate the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.