Rabbi Younes Hamami, the religious leader of the Iranian Jewish community, attacked Israel during a live interview with the country's Channel 3.
During the interview, Hamami disavowed the State of Israel and expressed opposition to its policies. "We are Jews who believe in our holy Torah; by all means, we do not approve of the Israeli government and what it is doing in the holy land," Hamami said in broken Hebrew during the interview with one of Iran's most popular television programs.
"We demand peace for the entire world, for all those who live in the holy land," he added to the sound of applause.
During the interview, Hamami condemned the "Zionists and the Israeli government who commit war crimes and kill innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon."
He claimed that there is a significant difference between Judaism as a religion and Zionism as a political movement. "Judaism as a religion follows the Torah of Moses and fundamentally opposes arrogance and oppression," Hamami explained. "There are rules in Judaism's Torah, even during war, which state that one must prevent harming defenseless civilians. According to Jewish law, even during war, it is forbidden to uproot fruit trees in a besieged city."
In a comparison that caught the attention of those in Iran and around the world, the Jewish leader claimed that "Zionism is like ISIS, which carries out violence in the name of Islam. Just as ISIS can not represent Islam, Zionism can not represent Judaism."
The Iranian television network stressed during the broadcast that "Hamam Hamami sees Zionism as a pervision of the Jewish religion and emphasizes that the Zionist regime contradicts the religious principals of Judaism."
The Jewish community in Iran currently numbers about 8,000 members and is thought to be the largest Jewish community in a Middle Eastern Muslim nation. The community has official recognition in the Iranian constitution and has a representative in the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) but is subject to certain restrictions.