TEHRAN — The Tehran International Book Fair’s 2024 edition offered an unexpected yet telling feature: a prominent Houthi exhibit, complete with a model missile draped in a kaffiyeh, symbolizing militant resistance. This display, remarkable in both its presence and presentation, reveals a crucial axis linking Iranian-backed forces through shared narratives of conflict and defiance.
The Houthi movement, formally known as Ansar Allah, has risen from internal strife in Yemen to become a linchpin of Iran’s proxy network. Since seizing Yemen’s capital Sana’a in 2014 and toppling its internationally recognized government, the Houthis have received extensive support from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian defense and intelligence services have supplied advanced weaponry, training, and strategic direction, quickly turning Yemen into a launchpad for attacks across the Arabian Peninsula and into the Red Sea—directly threatening global shipping and the interests of Israel and its Western allies.
The Houthis’ participation in the region’s largest book fair would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Their presence at this annual cultural event, long a showcase for Persian literature and political thought, demonstrates a new phase in Iranian strategy: the fusion of cultural, ideological, and military projection. No longer limited to clandestine weapon transfers and battlefield coordination, Iran now openly integrates its proxies into public diplomacy and propaganda efforts, offering them a platform in Tehran’s cultural heart.
The Houthi exhibit drew immediate attention not only for its inclusion, but for its symbolism. The scale-model missile, paired with the iconic kaffiyeh scarf, fuses armed violence with a visual reference favored by Arab nationalist and Islamist movements. The model closely resembles Iranian missile designs, emblematic of the technological pipeline linking Tehran to Sana’a. The kaffiyeh, omnipresent in imagery from similar groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, sanctifies the Houthi cause as part of a broader resistance.
Official statements from Iranian organizers validated this intent. Senior Iranian government and publishing officials praised the Houthis as embodying the spirit of ‘resistance’ and highlighted their cultural contributions to fighting ‘oppression.’ Iranian media and academic voices underscored literature’s role in arming the battlefield of ideas and justifying the axis’s military actions.
For the Houthis, cultural outreach serves a dual purpose. It helps build legitimacy at home and projects an image of unity with international allies who share their stance against Israel and the West. During the fair, Houthi literature lionized their movement, denigrated Israel’s legitimacy, and repeated conspiracy theories targeting Jews and Western governments. This amplified the group’s ideological ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and the broader web of Iranian-backed factions in Syria and Iraq.
The deeper context of this cultural alliance is Iran’s declared objective of encircling Israel with hostile forces. After the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel—the gravest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust, resulting in over 1,200 civilian deaths—Israel launched a major campaign, the Iron Swords War, to neutralize threats from its southern and northern fronts. Iranian-backed groups, coordinated from Tehran, escalated attacks not only on Israeli territory, but also on international shipping, particularly in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Houthis have claimed responsibility for multiple missile and drone attacks on civilian shipping since late 2023, using advanced technology supplied by Iran and violating several UN Security Council resolutions. These actions, justified by the Houthis as solidarity with Hamas and other ‘resistance’ groups, have encountered condemnation from global bodies but continue with open support from the Iranian establishment.
The Tehran book fair’s Houthi pavilion, therefore, is not merely symbolic. It is a direct extension of the military and ideological alliance between Iran and its network of proxies—demonstrating to both regional and global audiences that their campaign is comprehensive, blending soft and hard power. Exhibits at the fair promoted texts and narratives known to justify terrorist violence, offering visitors a sanitized but nonetheless potent defense of anti-Israel incitement and Iranian ambitions.
Israel has repeatedly warned of the dangers of this axis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir have all emphasized that the threat from Iranian-backed groups is not limited by borders or traditional battlefields. Iran’s public embrace of the Houthis at such a visible cultural venue underlines the regime’s unapologetic support for terror—and underscores Israel’s assertion that the war being waged against it is part of a regional, Iranian-imposed confrontation.
Security and intelligence analysts see Iran’s strategy as a multifaceted campaign designed to undermine Israel’s security, threaten Western interests, and destabilize moderate Arab states. The use of cultural events to promote and legitimize terrorist actors is seen as especially dangerous, as it normalizes their agenda and erodes the distinction between political discourse and incitement to violence.
Background investigations conducted by international monitoring bodies have verified the steady flow of Iranian military supplies, including ballistic and cruise missiles, to the Houthis in Yemen. These weapons have been used to deadly effect against civilian and military targets alike—both inside Yemen and across the region. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations agencies have documented repeated Houthi violations of the laws of war, including the targeting of noncombatants, the use of starvation as a weapon, and the repression of minority communities.
Meanwhile, Iran leverages such events to rally internal and external support, burnishing its image as the leader of anti-Western, anti-Israel resistance. Propaganda produced at the fair reverberates through a networked information ecosystem spanning state media, social media campaigns, and educational curricula in territories controlled by Iranian proxies.
This normalization of terror group representation at international cultural events is a new and dangerous phase in the region’s conflict dynamics. It blurs the line between civilian engagement and direct incitement, lending legitimacy to organizations responsible for some of the worst atrocities in recent memory. Observers warn that failing to counter these ideological campaigns risks conceding the battlefield of ideas to an aggressive, revisionist Iran and its proxies.
For Israel, the imperative is clear: expose the true nature of the Iranian-Houthi alliance, disrupt its efforts at legitimization, and remain vigilant both on the battlefield and in the realm of public diplomacy. The international community must recognize that the struggle against Iranian-backed terror is waged not only with missiles and drones, but through words, symbols, and the manipulation of cultural platforms. Only by holding these networks accountable—whether in the halls of the United Nations or at book fairs in Tehran—can the tide of incitement and violence be reversed.
The Houthi presence at the Tehran Book Fair stands as a stark testament to the intertwining of ideology and violence at the heart of Iran’s broader strategy. It is a warning to the world: the cultural war for hearts and minds is inseparable from the kinetic war waged in the region’s streets and skies. Unchecked, these efforts threaten not only Israel and its democratic allies, but the foundational principles of truth, peace, and liberty in the Middle East.
