ICAN Condemns Governor Newsom’s Amplification of Iranian Regime Propaganda
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) condemns Governor Gavin Newsom’s irresponsible decision to amplify unverified claims from the Iranian regime regarding the destruction of a school in Minab, Iran, during the ongoing U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
At a press briefing yesterday, Governor Newsom stated: “We have to reconcile why our bombs were used or Israeli bombs were used to kill children, young girls at a school.” In doing so, the Governor accepted at face value the narrative advanced by the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that has spent decades perfecting the use of civilian suffering as a propaganda weapon, and broadcast it to millions of Americans as established fact.
It is not established fact. The circumstances surrounding the Minab school incident remain contested and under investigation. Neither the United States nor Israel has confirmed involvement. The school was located in close proximity to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military installation that was a target of the operation. Independent verification of the incident’s cause has not been completed. And the Iranian regime, which routinely embeds military assets in civilian areas, has every incentive to exploit this tragedy for information warfare purposes, just as it has done for decades through its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza.
Governor Newsom knows this, or should. A sitting governor of the nation’s most populous state has a responsibility to speak with precision on matters of war and peace, not to launder the talking points of a theocratic regime that hangs women for removing their hijabs, executes gay men from cranes, and has funded and armed terrorist organizations responsible for the murder of Americans and Israelis alike.
“Governor Newsom’s remarks are not just reckless, they are dangerous,” said John Mirisch, Chief Policy Officer of ICAN. “When an American governor parrots the propaganda of a regime that has called for the destruction of Israel and funded attacks on American servicemembers, he gives that regime exactly what it wants: legitimacy. The Iranian government is waging an information war alongside its military one, and Governor Newsom just volunteered as a messenger. He owes the people of California, and the families of the six American soldiers who have died in this operation, an explanation for why he chose to stand with Tehran’s narrative instead of waiting for the facts.”
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, the internationally recognized standard for identifying and combating antisemitism. California is not among them. The City of Beverly Hills became the first local government in the nation to adopt the IHRA definition. California should follow Beverly Hills’s lead.