The first Iranian Film Festival in Israel opened on Sunday in Sderot, a southern Israeli city attacked by Iran-backed Hamas militants on Oct. 7 2023, which organizers say will promote cultural dialogue between the peoples of the two nominal enemies.
The festival was conceived by Dana Sameah, an Israeli of Iranian heritage who said in an interview with Iran International on Sunday that she hoped to create a bridge between Iran and Israel by founding the festival.
The two-day event, titled “Nowruz Fest,” is being held at the Sderot Cinematheque, located less than a mile from the Gaza border, and streamed on Facebook to allow potential viewers in Iran to watch, although many social media platforms are blocked inside the country.
Listed among the festivals' backers on its official website is the Tkuma Directorate, an Israeli government body which supports the rehabilitation of communities astride the Gaza Strip which were attacked on Oct. 7.
Sameah, born in Beersheba to Iranian immigrant parents, told Israeli outlet Times of Israel earlier this month that she grew up between the two cultures and hoped the festival could help bridge divides between “governments and people.”
She added that she wanted to send “a message from love” at a time when many Iranians worry about the future following a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
She said she chose Sderot — a city still recovering from the Oct. 7 attack in which 72 residents were killed — to encourage Israelis to support cultural life in the western Negev.
“The festival is in Sderot because Israelis should go to the western Negev to support it after October 7,” Sameah was quoted as saying by Times of Israel.
“Things are calmer now, but when I would go to Sderot for meetings, there were the sounds of war in the background, and imagining that things would improve gave me hope,” she added.
The festival features five Iranian films, as well as performances of Persian music.
Screenings include two films by Tehran-based dissident director Asghar Farhadi — The Salesman, his Oscar-winning film, and A Hero.
The political thriller The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree by exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is also being shown, alongside Reading Lolita in Tehran by Israeli director Eran Riklis and the animated film Persepolis, based on the graphic novel by Iranian-French artist Marjane Satrapi.
Israeli singer Rita is set to receive a lifetime achievement award for her work promoting Iranian culture, and Middle East scholar David Menashri will also be honored.
Hamas-led militants breached security barriers and infiltrated Israeli communities, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians while taking over 250 hostages, both foreign and Israeli.
Israel responded by launching a full-scale war on Gaza, killing 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry data.
In comments sent to Iran International, residents described daily life under heavy haze in blunt, personal terms.
A resident of Urmia in northwest Iran said schools in Urmia and nearby Salmas were closed for two days because of dirty air. “They made us homebound and depressed,” the person wrote.
An Iran–Iraq war veteran with pulmonary injuries from Karaj said he had no choice but to keep working despite the smog. “Pollution is poison for me,” he wrote, “but if you miss one day of work, you fall behind for ten days.”
In Tehran, another resident said the air felt unbreathable. “They’ve turned Tehran into a gas chamber. You can’t catch your breath.”
Several other people echoed the same theme. “Breathing has become difficult,” one wrote, while another said, “There is a gray fog every morning. It feels like something is weighing on my chest.”
Parents and people with existing illnesses said they were hit hardest. One mother wrote: “My 17-year-old daughter has shortness of breath because of the pollution, and the doctor prescribed a spray.”
A marketing worker who said they have a lung condition wrote: “I have a lung problem and I can’t even speak up. Talking leaves me breathless.”
Another person reported persistent symptoms. “Long headaches and breathing trouble,” the message said, while another wrote: “My eyes burn so badly I can’t keep them open.”
People blame industrial pollutants
Many users blamed a mix of vehicle emissions, industrial smoke and heavy fuel burning.
One message cited “non-standard gasoline, high-consumption cars, and mazut and diesel used for power plants and factories,” saying they produce “thousands of tons of toxic pollutants every day.”
A resident of Zanjan province, a smaller industrial area, alleged that nearby metal workshops release smoke at night. “The smoke looks like thick mist,” the person wrote, warning that the health damage “will show itself later.”
Another contributor said the problem had spread beyond big cities: “Pollution has reached a stage where even small towns and villages are not spared.”
Psychological toll
Alongside physical complaints, the comments conveyed mounting psychological strain.
“People’s moods are tense and abnormal, and it is affecting work and daily life,” one person wrote.
Another said, “We’re terrified of getting sick and not being able to afford treatment.”
Several linked the crisis to rising medical costs with one Tehran resident saying the pollution had triggered asthma-like allergies and that a prescription now costs millions of rials.
While some submissions used strongly political language, the core grievance was consistent: residents said they feel unprotected against a recurring hazard that closures and short-term restrictions have not solved.
The platform’s transparency panels now show the cluster accessing X through Iran’s App Store while routing traffic via VPN servers in the Netherlands, UKDJ reported on Sunday.
The outlet said it had tracked a sample of the accounts for months, citing synchronized posting patterns, near-identical creation timelines and AI-generated profile images.
The accounts, analysts said, mimicked Scottish independence supporters but repeatedly boosted pro-Iran narratives.
All accounts tracked by UKDJ also went offline during Iran’s nationwide internet blackout in June, a synchronized silence that had previously been circumstantial but now aligns with the confirmed Iranian connection.
“The initial UKDJ investigation focused on a handful of accounts that appeared at first glance to be ordinary pro-independence users… and all of those under close observation fell silent at the exact moment Iran suffered a nationwide blackout in June,” the UK Defense Journal said.
The new data “provides the proof that was previously unavailable,” the report said, noting that creation dates, username changes and regimented posting rhythms matched across the cluster.
Coordinated inauthentic behavior
UKDJ said the accounts boosted one another within seconds and repeated the same slogans, creating a manufactured impression of a large grassroots movement.
It added that after connectivity in Iran was restored, many briefly resurfaced with pro-Iran or anti-Western messages before switching back to Scottish independence content.
The report said that the findings do not call Scotland’s genuine independence movement into question, but instead illustrate how fabricated personas can skew perceptions of public sentiment.
The findings show “Iran, as well as countries such as Russia and our other enemies, are actively seeking to subvert our democracy and discourse,” Scottish MP Graeme Downie told UKDJ.
Connection to Iran-focused concerns
The revelations emerged as Iranian users vented anger over X’s new location display, which has put a spotlight on tiered internet access and privileged “white SIM cards.”
Journalist Hossein Bastani said the change also exposed pro-government Iranian personas posing as foreign supporters, including an account named “Jessica” that presented itself as a Scottish activist before appearing to post from inside Iran.
UKDJ’s findings mirror similar cases involving Gaza-advocacy personas after X’s transparency data showed several accounts saying to be based in Gaza were in fact operating from Pakistan, London and other locations.
Like the Scottish-themed cluster, those accounts relied on localized imagery and political language until the location tags revealed their origins. Israel’s Persian-language foreign ministry account later branded one such operator a “deceiver.”
Wider pattern of foreign influence
UKDJ said Iranian information operations have repeatedly latched onto divisive political debates in Western democracies, making Scotland’s constitutional question “a suitable channel” for influence activity.
The report has also renewed calls for political actors to vet online material more carefully.
Downie urged parties to be “much more alive to this threat” and to push back against misinformation, including when it is “shared by their own elected officials.”
The feature, rolled out in recent days, appears to flag which accounts are connecting from inside Iran, sparking online claims that some prominent users are posting via so-called “white SIM cards” – privileged, unrestricted mobile lines widely believed to be reserved for senior officials or security-linked bodies.
“A new feature on the X platform that displays users’ approximate locations has revealed that many Islamic Republic officials, pro-government activists, and affiliated journalists have access to privileged internet,” political activist Hossein Ronaghi said in a post on X.
“This means they are using unrestricted, unfiltered internet despite the censorship, through so-called white SIM cards.”
White SIM cards are special lines exempt from state filtering policies, enabling uninterrupted access to platforms blocked for most of the population, including Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp.
Over the past year, officials have floated extending this kind of unrestricted access to tourists and some technical specialists, while political insiders and parts of the media are now widely understood to already use such lines.
Public anger quickly focused on high-profile figures whose X profiles showed Iran as their connection country, including former and current lawmakers, government’s spokeswoman and several media personalities – even as some of them had previously said online that they use VPNs.
Users argued that if those individuals were genuinely connecting through VPNs, their accounts would not still appear to be logged in from inside Iran.
They said the discrepancy undercut those figures’ past public frustration over internet filtering and raised fresh questions about whether they had access to privileged lines.
Critics also pointed to the accounts of former TV host Reza Rashidpour and news presenter Elmira Sharifi-Moghaddam, whose profiles displayed Iran as the country of connection.
Many accounts linked to pro-government figures, however, changed their region settings shortly after the controversy escalated.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani, who had previously been asked whether she used an unrestricted line, said she relied on VPNs.
“I use filters like everyone else, and my son and daughter-in-law help me with the setups,” she said in response.
After screenshots circulated showing her apparent connection country as Iran, users accused her of being dishonest.
One user pointed to the location on the account of Amirhossein Sabeti, a lawmaker and a staunch supporter of internet filtering, and – mocking his use of an iPhone – wrote: “An American phone, an American app, white internet. What he prescribes for the public: ‘resistance economy.’”
Another user on X wrote: “These days the truth doesn’t stay hidden. It pops out through locations and exposes who is breathing under the shelter of a white SIM card and who is choking in the cage of filters.”
Technical doubts complicate the debate
Other users pushed back, posting screenshots showing X still listed Iran as their connection country even while they said they were using VPNs.
The digital-rights group IRCF echoed that point, warning that some widely used circumvention tools can leak signals that leave a user’s underlying Iranian connection partly visible.
“If you are using popular protocols like Warp or Mask, or serverless configurations, the Iran country tag can still appear because the underlying IP originates from Iran,” IRCF wrote in a post.
“This does not necessarily mean the person has white internet, though it can still be one factor in a broader assessment.”
An Iranian trainer at X called Shayan, identified by users as working on the platform’s infrastructure, also described “exceptions and bugs” that can affect the region display.
“If the location shows Iran without an alert icon, it usually means the user is reaching X with an Iranian IP.”
“I’ve seen people say that if someone uses Warp, Mask, serverless services or similar tools, their IP still shows as being in Iran and it’s not considered a white line. However, I don’t have precise information about this,” he said in a short exchange.
X itself has said that the Country/Region indicator may be imprecise and can be influenced by VPNs, proxies or default settings of local internet providers.
Politicized arguments escalate
The controversy quickly swept through Iran’s polarized social media sphere. Former government adviser Abdolreza Davari said that some anti-government accounts posting from inside Iran were themselves using white SIM cards.
Journalist Hossein Bastani, meanwhile, pointed to pro-government personas whose profiles appeared to connect from Iran despite presenting themselves as overseas supporters.
“One of these self-described Scottish independence activists turns out to be posting from Iran with public funds,” Bastani wrote.
Government-aligned users who dismissed critics as “bots” were met by others noting that many ordinary Iranians mask their IP addresses for safety.
Some also cited cases in which prominent officials’ connection locations later shifted to Middle East or West Asia after the backlash, suggesting changes to account settings rather than definitive proof of privileged access.
Broader frustration over filtering
The intensity of the reaction reflects a deeper public grievance with longstanding filtering policies.
President Masoud Pezeshkian promised relief during his campaign, but aside from the recent unblocking of WhatsApp and Google Play, wider restrictions remain.
Critics said the uproar has thrown a spotlight on the structural inequalities built into Iran’s digital system. Many argue that public anger is less about a single setting on X than about a long-running double standard.
One user, reacting to screenshots that seemed to show Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi connecting from Iran, wrote that people are furious because they are forced to live with filters, and officials step around them effortlessly.
Some activists used the moment to demand universal access rather than selective privileges. “Make all 90 million lines white,” one user wrote.
Forecasters said pollution could intensify through the end of the week in densely populated and industrial areas, warning that stagnant weather and temperature inversions could push air-quality readings in some places into the “very unhealthy” range.
The alert follows days of red readings in cities such as Tehran and Isfahan, highlighting a winter pattern in which vehicle exhaust, industrial output and heavy-fuel use combine with stagnant weather to drive smog spikes.
Tehran has recorded only six clean-air days so far this Iranian year (started on March 21), according to the capital’s Air Quality Control Company, and more than half of days have been unhealthy for sensitive groups – children, older adults, pregnant women and people with heart or lung disease.
With seniors making up about 8.4% of Tehran province’s population – roughly 1.2 million people – health experts warn that prolonged exposure during repeated pollution waves is elevating risks of respiratory and cardiovascular complications, adding to a crisis authorities have struggled to contain beyond temporary closures and driving restrictions.
