A recent image from the Iranian city of Qom has drawn international attention: a children’s dartboard painted with the Israeli flag serving as its bullseye, marked by multiple holes from darts thrown by local children. The image, shared widely on social media, exposes a troubling trend of using play and education to encourage hostility toward Israel, revealing new layers in the Islamic Republic’s campaign of incitement against the Jewish state.
This documented game is not a rare artifact but a physical manifestation of a broader pattern. Observers and analysts emphasize that for decades, the Iranian regime has woven anti-Israel messaging into educational materials, mass media, and public symbols. Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, routinely frame Israel as an existential enemy, and Iran’s state-run media propagate rhetoric that openly calls for Israel’s destruction.
Education of Hate: Systematic Indoctrination
Analysts note that incitement appears early and often. Iranian schoolbooks have repeatedly been shown to contain anti-Israel language, portraying the state of Israel as an illegitimate presence in the Middle East. Schoolchildren are often exposed to curricula and cultural activities, such as weekly sermons or holiday parades, in which Israel and Jews are routinely vilified.
State television and children’s entertainment reinforce this message. Programming routinely depicts Israelis and Jews not simply as adversaries, but as sub-human or demonic—an approach designed to instill hatred from childhood and prepare future generations for the regime’s confrontational policies.
Cultural Symbols as Tools of Policy
Physical symbols like dartboards imprinted with the Israeli flag, effigies burned during mass rallies, and anti-Israeli graffiti reflect a policy designed at the highest levels of Iran’s theocracy. Those in Qom and other centers of religious learning frequently hold events on Al-Quds Day, established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, where children and adults together chant slogans such as “Death to Israel” and burn Israeli and American flags in public squares.
Iran’s war on Israel is not confined to propaganda. The regime funds, arms, and directs a regional network of proxies—including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Syria and Iraq—each committed to Israel’s destruction. The Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the murder, mutilation, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians, was executed with direct Iranian support and coordination.
Weaponizing Play: Psychological Dimensions
Experts warn that exposing children to such imagery and symbolism has a corrosive long-term effect, hardening attitudes and reducing empathy for the targets of hate. “When a child is encouraged to throw darts at a flag, the symbolic violence makes later real-world violence easier to justify,” notes Dr. Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the IDF’s research division. Western studies have consistently shown that early exposure to hateful propaganda increases the risk of radicalization and lays the groundwork for later acts of violence.
By contrast, Israel mandates Holocaust education, supports joint Jewish-Arab coexistence initiatives, and promotes dialogue despite ongoing threats. This asymmetry highlights key moral distinction: while Israel seeks peace and upholds democratic norms, Iran fosters regional instability and perpetuates antisemitic incitement.
Global Implications and International Response
The Iranian state’s campaign of hatred has repercussions far beyond its borders. Proxy groups, armed and trained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have perpetrated attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets on five continents. International human rights and monitoring organizations have issued warnings about the cultural roots of incitement but often fall short of specific condemnation or effective counter-measures.
Israeli leaders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have repeatedly urged international actors to confront the core of the conflict: the spread of hatred at the societal level in Iran and across the ‘axis of resistance’ it leads. Despite these calls, Western responses have largely focused on nuclear negotiations and sanctions, not on addressing state-sponsored antisemitism in Iranian culture and education.
No Symmetry: The Broader Moral Issue
Attempts at drawing equivalence between Israel and Iran, or between Israeli defense policies and the ideology of Iran’s proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, misapprehend the reality. Israel’s military actions are defensive, aimed at protecting civilians in the face of terror attacks, rocket fire, and cross-border incursions. Iranian policy, by contrast, is steeped in a doctrine that seeks Israel’s destruction, celebrated not only in political rhetoric but in the playrooms and classrooms of its youngest citizens.
The symbolic children’s dartboard from Qom is a window into the heart of Iran’s campaign: ensuring each new generation is taught that Israel is not just a rival but an illegitimate target. The military struggle is mirrored and reinforced by a cultural battle, in which hatred becomes a daily norm and peace a distant possibility.
Conclusion
What begins as a game becomes statecraft. The dartboard discovered in a Qom city street is not an isolated incident, but a visible sign of decades-long efforts by Iran’s theocratic regime to ingrain antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility into society’s very foundation. Peace will remain elusive as long as the destruction of Israel is not just a policy for adults, but a lesson taught—and practiced—by children.
Israel, in defending itself against the Iranian-led axis of terror organizations, stands not merely for its own sake, but in defense of fundamental moral values that reject hatred and glorify life and coexistence. The international community’s challenge is to recognize, confront, and ultimately dismantle the machinery of indoctrination that begins with something as innocuous as a child’s game—but which, unchecked, assures that the cycle of animosity and violence continues.
