Thousands of Iranians defied the regime’s call to join anti-Israel marches last Friday, Quds Day, and instead showed their support for Israel on social media, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

The campaign using the hashtag #WeStandWithIsrael is meant to bring people of the two nations together. Twitter users were encouraged to tweet the hashtag at 9 in the evening last Friday.

https://twitter.com/TaheriKaveh/status/1005131125029855233

According to a Foreign Ministry official earlier this week, there have been tens of thousands of tweets featuring #WeStandWithIsrael.

“The Foreign Ministry implements digital public diplomacy in social media networks in various languages, one of them being Persian,” Sharona Avginsaz, the ministry’s Persian language digital media manager, said.

“In the last six months our Twitter page ‘Israel in Persian,’ intended specifically for Iranian civilians, has been gaining steam,” Avginsaz told Hadashot news. “We have around 60 thousand followers, and our messages reach over 1.5 million people with that Twitter handle alone.”

She also explained that while Iran has officially banned Twitter, many Iranian users have been able to evade the restrictions and access the platform.

“During this week our Twitter page reached 2.5 million Iranians. There were tens of thousands of tweets with the hashtag #WeStandWithIsrael, each stating their individual positions on why they love Israel,” Avginsaz said.

It isn’t certain, however, how many of the tweets promoting closer ties with Israel came from Iran, and how many came from Iranians living abroad.

[Photo: Twitter ]