Addressing a gathering of the officials of the Islamic Republic and ambassadors of Islamic countries November 15, Iran's Supreme Leader said: "We support Palestine and its liberation and independence, but elimination of Israel does not mean the elimination of the Jewish people."

"Eliminating Israel" means eliminating the "imposed Zionist regime" and "allowing the people of Israel who are the real owners of the land, whether Moslem, Christian or Jewish, to choose their own government, expel outsiders and hooligans such as Netanyahu and manage their country on their own. This will definitely happen," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Ayatollah Khamenei has on several occasions predicted that the State of Israel will be annihilated in less than twenty-five years. In 2016 Khamenei's website reported that site visitors had chosen "The Zionist Regime Shall Not Be in Existence in Twenty-Five Years" as the Supreme Leader's most memorable remark in the previous year.

In his speech on Friday Khamenei said Iran will always help Palestinians and considers this the duty of the Islamic world but alleged that the enemies of Iran have distorted the meaning of "elimination of Israel" to say the Islamic Republic is anti-Semitic. Iran "does not want the Jewish people harm" and "the Jewish community in Iran lives in complete security," he said.

in 2010 Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff and close confidante who Khamenei refused to accept as vice president for advocating some unconventional views on Islam, suggested that Iranians could be friends with the people of Israel but Khamenei reacted harshly to Mashaei's remarks and said: "Jewish settlements are filled with these people, the same people who are called the Israeli people."

To dispel any possibility of friendship with the people of Israel as suggested by Mashaei Ayatollah Khamenei also described them as "auxiliaries of the Zionist elements" and said: "Who do you think the people of Israel are? The same people who are usurping homes, lands, farms and businesses." In the same speech the Iranian Leader had stressed that Iran had a problem with the "usurpers of Palestine, not with the Jews" but called the people of Israel "usurpers".(Link)

The gathering of Iranian officials and Islamic ambassadors which the Supreme Leader of Iran addressed was held at the Islamic Unity Conference Hall of Tehran on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed and the Islamic Unity Week. In his speech Ayatollah Khamenei also told the audience that unity among Moslems is not to be considered as a mere "political and tactical move". "Unity is a heartfelt belief and faith in necessity of unity of the Islamic umma (community)," he said and added that the United State and Israel are not only enemies of the Islamic Republic but all Islamic countries.