Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for a referendum between Israelis and Palestinians to decide the fate of the government that rules over them. Until such a referendum takes place, he said, the West Bank should be armed like Gaza.

“The issue of Gaza and the calamities that have befallen the people of Gaza — which has a history — needs attention from two perspectives,” Ayatollah Khamenei said July 23, during a speech to university students. A transcript was made available online at Khamenei.ir.

“The Zionist regime is a regime that from its illegitimate birth was built on overt violence, and they don’t deny it. It’s built on an iron fist. They say it everywhere; they take pride in it — this is their policy. From 1948, when this fraudulent regime came into existence, for 66 years, the policy of the Zionist regime is this. Of course, before this regime was officially recognized and was imposed on the region by the colonialists, the Zionists committed many crimes in Palestine.

"During these 66 years, as a government and a political system, they did whatever they wanted to do. Any violence that was contained in their mind, that one government can do toward a people, they did.