Iranian pro-government Tasnim News created a fake image of a Kurdish businessman with a rabbi in order to justify killing the businessman. The image was posted on social media and online by Tasnim News. It began in Farsi media in pro-government Iranian circles and then was also posted on Tasnim’s English language site on January 21. The image shows Peshraw Dizayee, a businessman whom Iran targeted last week in Erbil. Iran used missiles to murder a businessman and members of his family in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Tasnim News claimed that “Peshraw Majid Agha Dizayee, a prominent figure closely associated with Israel’s spy agency, was among the key individuals killed in the missile attack by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on a Mossad headquarters in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.” Iran then used an image of the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, and added a cut-out of Dizayee into the photo, creating a fake photo of the two meeting. Media in the Kurdistan region and people around the world have expressed outrage about Iran’s regime murdering the businessman and targeting his family, and then using “photoshop” to create the image. Iran’s Press TV also created fake images by adding Dizayee into photos.
Iranian state media published photoshopped images of Peshraw Dizayee with a Russian rabbi and the head of Tasa Elite.https://t.co/HkhYdw8vfp
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) January 21, 2024
Kurdistan24, a news network, noted, “Iranian state media published photoshopped images of Peshraw Dizayee with a Russian rabbi and the head of Tasa Elite.” The investigation into the fake photos clearly shows that Dizayee’s image was added to the photos. In another instance, Iran’s media manipulators even went so far as to remove the hair of a waitress in the background to make the female waitress appear to be a man because Iran’s regime forces women to cover their hair.
Justifying Iran’s Iraq strike
The use of the image to justify the killing of civilians in Iraq is a new low for the Iranian regime. Iran’s regime has targeted dissidents across the region. However, the killing of civilians and a family is a new escalation in Iran’s attacks around the region. In addition, the fact Iran then created fake images of the victim with a rabbi to justify his killing appears to illustrate Iran’s regime lurching into antisemitic conspiracy theories. It appears to indicate that Iran’s regime and its media arm believe that using any image of a rabbi is enough to justify killing people in the region. Iran provided no evidence that the Kurdish businessman had any connections to Israel. The added his photo to a picture with a rabbi in Russia, as if this justified killing him.
