TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday condemned US authorities for violently cracking down on students protesting against the Israeli relentless war on the Gaza Strip, saying the “mask of hypocrisy” has been removed “from the faces of the false defenders of freedom of speech and human rights”.

Writing on X, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, “The move of the US government authorities to distort the truth and describe genuine student and academic anger and protests as anti-Semitism, in order to justify and use of violent suppression tools to silence the peaceful protests and gatherings of pro-Palestine students, does not diminish the ugliness of their actions.”

Kanaani went on to say that a considerable number of Jews have expressed their revulsion of Israel’s crimes in Gaza with the support of the United States.

“A significant number of Jewish people, including Jewish students, have declared their disgust with the hateful crimes of the Zionist regime and the US government’s shameful support for the regime,” Kanaani said.

More than 2,300 people have been arrested across the US in crackdowns on university protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Police also entered Paris' Sciences Po university on Friday to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists said.