Iranian ‘Tehran’ actor says he got death threats after castigating Israeli forces

Sia Alipour, an Iranian actor in the hit Israeli TV show Tehran, has responded to an outcry sparked when he posted an Instagram story criticising Israeli forces’ actions during the funeral of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Alipour, who plays the character Vahid Nemati in the show’s second season, wrote on Instagram that after the post, he received a lot of “death threats, [very] very quickly.”

“Rejecting a country’s government/military/oppressive regime does not mean you hate all the citizens of that country, at all,” Alipour wrote. “I was born in Iran and I’m the first to yell at them.”

Hours earlier, the actor had posted a photo from the May 13 funeral of Al Jazeera reporter Abu Akleh, during which Israeli forces were seen beating funeral participants. Alipour wrote: “Also f*** these Israeli forces, who can do something so heinous with no repercussions.”

Alipour also posted an Instagram story criticising the Iranian government on Wednesday.

Alipour’s post about the funeral was criticised by some Israelis on social media and in the press.

In response to his comments on the Abu Akleh funeral, one of the show’s executive producers, Shula Spiegel, told The Times of Israel that the show worked with the Iranian actors with “full cooperation and mutual respect.”

“You can imagine what it is like for an Iranian actor to play in an Israeli series,” said Spiegel. “And in the case of Sia Alipour, he also condemned the Iranian government at the same time. It’s a good thing that [we] are not in Iran.”