'Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya' and Claimed Attacks on Jewish Targets in Europe
One of the wider consequences of the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has been a rise in reported attacks on perceived ‘Zionist’ and ‘American’ targets in Europe. These attacks- spanning from Greece to Britain- have been claimed on social media by a group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (‘Islamic Movement of the People of the Right’). The concept of ‘Ashab al-Yamin’ (‘People of the Right’) is ultimately derived from the Qur’an and refers to the believers who will go to Paradise.
Attacks claimed thus far by the group include:
- Attack on a synagogue in Liege, Belgium (claimed 9 March).
- Attack on a ‘Zionist target’ in Greece with an IED (claimed 11 March).
- Attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam, Netherlands (claimed 13 March).
- Attack on a synagogue in Amsterdam, Netherlands (claimed 14 March).
- Attack on the World Trade Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands (claimed 16 March, within the framework of going after American-linked targets).
- More recently, attacking a synagogue in London (claimed 23 March).
With regards to the most recent attack, leftist and anti-Zionist commentators based in the West- such as British rapper ‘Lowkey’ and British-Iranian pundit Aaron Bastani- have tried to suggest that an Israeli or Zionist ‘false flag’ operation is at work, because the video put out by the group claiming the attack included a description of the synagogue that mentions (for example) a connection with Avraham Kook and ‘his aliyah [immigration] to the land of Israel’ (per the Hebrew version of the description) in the video (see below). Why, so the argument goes, would an anti-Zionist group use such language to refer to Israel? But this line of reasoning is a rather weak argument against the authenticity of the claim. In all likelihood, the video producers simply used AI to generate a description of the synagogue that tied it to Israel and Zionism, and the use of Hebrew in particular to direct threats and discourse against Israel and ‘Zionist’ targets is well established in ‘axis of resistance’ social media output.
In addition, if some pundits in Western countries are skeptical, the group’s supporters on social media who have promoted its claimed attacks are not. Indeed, social media channels that support Iran and the Iranian-backed ‘axis of resistance’ in the region have consistently shared the group’s output and praised its claimed attacks. Some examples (including the most recent attack) are shared below.
From an Iraqi Telegram channel that supports the ‘axis of resistance’: “A movement calling itself Ashab al-Yamin claims the targeting of a Zionist organisation in London.”
From a Telegram channel that supports the Iraqi faction Kata’ib Hezbollah (which is supportive of Iran): “God is great! The Islamic Resistance Harakat Ashab al-Yamin officially claims the targeting of a Jewish temple in the Dutch capital Amsterdam.”
From a Telegram channel linked to Iraqi ‘Islamic Resistance’ faction Quwat Dhu al-Fiqar: “The Islamic Resistance Ashab al-Yamin strikes a Zionist target in Greece with an IED.”
A post by the same channel praising the group and its claiming of the London attack: ‘Peace be upon the People of the Right, peace be upon [Qasem] Soleimani’s soldiers.’
While the evidence thus far does not allow us to say whether the group is being funded and directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (for example), we can say for sure that those producing its social media output, claiming attacks in its name and circulating its social media output are supporters of Iran and the ‘axis of resistance.’ There is no need to suppose a ‘false flag’ conspiracy theory here. The fact is that there are supporters of Iran and the ‘axis of resistance’ who believe that it is legitimate to go after any targets worldwide that are perceived as linked to the U.S. and/or ‘Zionists’ , including synagogues and various Jewish institutions. In fact, at least some of them see Jews as collectively guilty and worthy of being targeted (the existence of a Jewish community in Iran notwithstanding) and that the long-term war with Israel and the U.S. will ultimately culminate in the appearance of the Imam al-Mahdi and destruction of Jews worldwide. Most recently also, Kata’ib Hezbollah’s leader Abu Husayn al-Hamidawi issued a call to ‘the mujahidin of East Asia, the Caucasus, and Gulf states, and even the lone lions in the regions of the world, so that we can make this a total war against all the forces of arrogance, otherwise the situation will become dangerous and and have great ramifications in the future’ (see below).
Ultimately, the conspiracy theory promoted by some Western anti-Zionist leftists about a ‘false flag’ is partly reflective of a disconnect between them and at least some supporters of Iran and the ‘axis of resistance’: the former cannot appreciate that the latter see the struggle in ideological terms and as a war against Jews, and really do think it is legitimate to attack Jewish institutions and synagogues within this framework. One does not have to endorse the American and Israeli military campaign against Iran to recognise the nature of such beliefs.