Alireza Tabatabaeenejad

Overview

Alireza Tabatabaeenejad has excused Holocaust denial on social media and trivialized Iranian threats to annihilate israel. In addition, Tabatabaeenejad has spread others’ demonization of Israel, disguised as scholarship.

Tabatabaeenejad is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California (USC), in the Viterbi School of Engineering. He is affiliated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) where he is a member of the NASA ABoVE Science Team. Tabatabaeenejad is also the Lead Investigator of the NASA AirMOSS Root-Zone Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm Team.

Tabatabaeenejad received his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering in 2008, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM). He received his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from UM in 2003 and his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, in 2001.

Excusing Holocaust Denial

On April 8, 2015 — the day after the Washington Post reported on Iran’s International Holocaust Cartoon Contest to be held that May — Tabatabaeenejad claimed in various Twitter conversations that denial of the Holocaust is not anti-Semitic.

Tabatabaeenejad first tweeted: "Logically, I cannot say ‘antisemitism’ and ‘denial of the Holocaust’ are necessarily equivalent." Tabatabaeenejad later tweeted: “Inherently, #Holocaust denial is not #antisemitic.”

Tabatabaeenejad also defended Iranian anti-Semitism and claimed "Holocaust denial or recognition is not a measure of moderation." Tabatabaeenejad argued that Holocaust deniers should not be branded extremists simply by virtue of being Holocaust deniers. Rather, Tabatabaeenejad tweeted: “Holocaust happens, but someone denies it. His reasoning: Unknown. Why call him extremist, and not ignorant?”

Tabatabaeenejad further insisted: "Antisemitism has a definition: Hatred towards Jews. Not every Holocaust denier is an antisemitic [sic.]." He posited: “Denial of any genocide is ignorance and not necessarily extremism…”

Tabatabaeenejad’s initial tweets on the subject addressed a Wall Street journalist’s tweet that read: "Moderate Iran organizes Holocaust-denial cartoon contest" and linked to the above-mentioned Washington Post article about the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest. The article reproduced a cartoon of an Israeli jackboot, crushing a globe — which was displayed during the first competition in 2006.

Tabatabaeenejad tweeted to the journalist: "Instead of mocking, enlighten us as to why en exhibition to deny holocaust is anti-moderation!"

The winning cartoon from the 2006 competition showed the railroad tracks to the Auschwitz extermination camp superimposed over Israel’s security fence. The second prize-winning cartoon that year also portrayed Israel’s security barrier as a Nazi concentration camp wall and a keffiyeh-wearing Palestinian dressed as Jewish concentration camp prisoner. The cartoon that took top honors in the 2015 competition insinuated that the Holocaust is a Jewish money-making scheme — by portraying a cash register capped with a replica of the Birkenau concentration camp’s main entrance and "6,000,000" dollars in the cash drawer.

Although some suggested that Tabatabaeenejad’s statements violated USC’s Faculty Handbook (6-B (1) and 6-B (2), Carl Marziali, USC’s Assistant Vice President of Media Relations, reportedly defended Tabatabaeenejad, positing: "professors can say whatever they want."

On the evening of April 8, 2015, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering tweeted: "We strongly disagree with @alizerat but support the right to free speech."

On the afternoon of the 8th,Tabatabaeenejad also tweeted: "Yes, I think the Holocaust happened. I don't know though how many million Jews were killed. Why does my opinion matter here?"

That comment prompted an exchange with pro-Israel journalist Noah Pollak, that was reported on April 11, 2015:

Pollak asked: "@alirezat I mean, do you think a million were killed, or around 6 million, or in between? Just curious as to how you think about it."

Tabatabaeenejad responded: "@NoahPollak I really don't know. I should read about it. Why?"

Trivializing Iranian Anti-Semitism

On November 12, 2014, Tabatabaeenejad claimed on Twitter that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had "not denied" the Holocaust. However, on March 21, 2014, Khamenei tweeted: “#Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it's uncertain how it has happened.”

Tabatabaeenejad also claimed that Khamenei was "for annihilation of Israel but only through a referendum" and defended Khamenei’s call to destroy Israel, which was released three days earlier, on November 9, 2014. Khamenei’s English language Twitter feed introduced Khamenei’s plan, headlined:“Why should & how can #Israel be eliminated?” The plan called for a “referendum” — but also said: “Up until the day when this homicidal and infanticidal regime is eliminated through a referendum, powerful confrontation and resolute and armed resistance is the cure of this ruinous regime.”

On July 21, 2014 Khamenei had reiterated his longstanding and consistent position that Israel should be extirpated and called Israel a "cancer tumor," tweeting: “Usurper #Israel's govt,over half a century since this cancer tumor was formed in the body of Islam, has always led its course by #terrorism.”

On January 27, 2016 — International Holocaust Remembrance Day — Khamenei posted a Holocaust denial [video] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF9Mpi6Q8zY) to his website that echoed his March 21, 2014 statement — and called enforcement of laws against Holocaust Denial "the ignorance that exists in today’s world." Khamenei urged “the dear people of Iran, Muslims in the great Islamic Ummah and officials in different countries” to “stand up against the ignorance.”

Promoting Demonization of Israel

On September 22, 2016, Tabatabaeenejad tweeted an article by anti-Israel University of Michigan professor Juan Cole titled: "Colonial Slow Genocide: Palestinian Leader Abbas asks Britain for ‘Balfour’ Apology." Cole, in the article, said Israel is an “Apartheid state” founded on “settler-colonialism” and that the U.S. and Europe “perceive Israel as their human air craft carrier menacing the Middle East.”

The article also featured a map, dubbed "The Map That Lies," that falsely represented lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt, and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” stolen by Israel. In February of 2016, publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education recalled and destroyed copies of a college level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps.