HispanTV, the Iranian regime’s Spanish-language news channel, spreads anti-Jewish hatred and disinformation about the Middle East conflict, international analysts say.
“By targeting the world’s nearly 600 million Spanish speakers through satellite, cable, livestreaming, its internet platform, and social media […], HispanTV plays the leading role in disseminating anti-Jewish hate and anti-Israel prejudice in Latin America in particular and in the Spanish-speaking world globally,” the New York-based nongovernmental organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) states in its report HispanTV: The Iranian regime’s Long Arm of Hate in Latin America.
“In addition to physical violence, the Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of anti-Semitism and terrorism — uses cultural centers and media outlets throughout Latin America to incite hostility against Jewish communities,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO, in a July 15 statement. “The cynical use of media outlets such as HispanTV to amplify anti-Semitic conspiracies and disinformation is reprehensible and unethical.”
Tehran broadcasts its propaganda through the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Service (IRIB), sanctioned by the United States in 2013 and 2022 for spreading disinformation and for its role in human rights violations. IRIB is Iran’s largest media company, and the only organization authorized to broadcast in the country, according to the State Media Monitor, a project of the Media and Journalism Research Center, a research institute that specializes in media research worldwide.
The Telesur link
According to ADL, the Iranian regime mainly uses HispanTV and its English-language counterpart, PressTV, to promote global anti-Semitism. In Latin America, experts have warned about the link between HispanTV and the Venezuela-based free-to-air TV channel Telesur.
“HispanTV’s content is also frequently broadcast by the Chavista-controlled Telesur network. The message from Telesur, while more subtle, is equally toxic. It is mainly anti-Israeli and certainly affects the security of the Jewish community,” Luis Fleischman, a professor of sociology and political science at Palm Beach State University in Florida, told Diálogo.
The link between Caracas and HispanTV has grown stronger since the channel was created in late 2011 as part of Iran’s foreign policy. “[HispanTV] emerged as a result of the sanctions that completely isolated the country, as a consequence of the development of its nuclear program,” international analyst Sergio Castaño, a professor at the International University of La Rioja, Spain, said on Diálogo Político, a platform for political influencers on relevant issues for Latin America.
According to Castaño, the Iranian regime has found growing acceptance among left-wing Latin American governments since former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strengthened ties with the Venezuelan regime of Hugo Chávez. “Therefore, one of HispanTV’s purposes is to support candidates who defend the postulates of the extreme left in Latin America. It seeks to help them win elections and, with that, to find governments in line with their interests in as many countries as possible,” Castaño added.
Conspiracy theories
HispanTV’s strategy consists of mixing revisionist historical accounts and conspiracy theories to present Zionism as a corrupt and irrational ideology, allied with Nazism and aimed at eliminating the Palestinians and dominating the world, ADL notes in its report.
“By distorting historical facts and contemporary issues, HispanTV’s propaganda aims to delegitimize Zionism and perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Jewish power. This approach not only mischaracterizes the Jewish community and its history, but also contributes to a more generalized climate of intolerance,” ADL said.
A headline on the HispanTV website on March 19, 2020, for example, claimed that Jews were behind the COVID-19 pandemic: “The new coronavirus is the result of a Zionist plot.” Another headline, dated April 10, 2017, propagated the myth that Jews control the U.S. movie industry, “Why do Jews dominate Hollywood?”
HispanTV also refers to the leaders of the Hamas terrorist group killed by Israel as “martyrs” while spreading misinformation about the Middle East conflict. The program El Frasco, which HispanTV aired on November 25, 2023, for example, denies that the tunnels under hospitals in Gaza belong to Hamas’ military structure. According to the program, the images of the tunnels would be part of a “cascade of fake news that the Zionist regime’s propaganda has launched since October 7 with the unrestricted support of the Western mainstream media.”
Likewise, HispanTV spreads false information about the conflict between Israel and Iran. In April 2024, for example, the channel shared a video claiming to show destruction in Israel following Iran’s missile and drone attack. But the images were those of a forest fire in Chile, the New York Post reported.
AMIA bombing
Another constant element in HispanTV’s network is denial of the role played by Iran and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah in the 1994 terrorist attack against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA). Since 2006, the Argentine justice system has accused Iran of organizing and Hezbollah of perpetrating the attack, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds.
Mahmud Aid, an Argentine convert to Islam who studied in Qom, Iran, and a frequent guest of HispanTV, has addressed the AMIA attack on several occasions, blaming the “international Zionist lobby” for pointing fingers to Iran.
Mahmud Aid is the Islamic name of Benjamín Ernesto Aid, who was the director of the El Mártir Mosque in Tucumán and president of the Argentine Islamic Organization. Aid is mentioned in the indictment of Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman in the AMIA case.
Nisman, who was found dead in his apartment in 2015, argued that the El Mártir Mosque was part of a “network set up by Iran that was used by fundamentalist elements as an effective tool to recruit followers and turn them into individuals suitable for the intended intelligence activities,” Argentine news site Infobae, reported on October 3, based on the Argentine prosecutor’s report.
