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By: Hellen Zaboulani
The NY Times has been facing criticism after publishing an article describing slain Hezbollah founder Hassan Nasrallah as a champion of “equality” for all religious groups in the region. The terror leader, who advocated for the annihilation of Israel, was assassinated by the Israeli Defense Forces on Friday, with an air force strike on the terror group’s headquarters in Beirut.
On Saturday, in an article entitled “Protesters Mourn Nasrallah’s Death Around the World”, the NY Times had praised the slain terrorist as a “gifted orator” who “maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians.” The article also described Nasrallah as “beloved” by Shiite Muslims, in part for providing “social services” in Lebanon.
Nasrallah, 64, the Lebanese cleric and politician had since 1992 been the primary leader and secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and Iranian backed terror group. Under his leadership, the organization carried out numerous deadly and heinous attacks on Jews around the world over the last 40 years. Under his tenure, the Hezbollah organization, co-founded by him in 1982 for the sole purpose of fighting Israel, was named as a terrorist organization, either wholly or in part, by the United States, European Union and other countries.
Even the Arab League had designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2016, though they changed their mind in later years. As reported by the NY Post, the powerful radical Iran-backed group was responsible for the bombing a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 85 people, and causing a plane crash the following day killing another 21 civilians. In the 2000s, Hezbollah undertook countless suicide bombings inside Israel, specifically targeting crowded civilian areas including restaurants, buses and other public places.
Last May, Nasrallah was quoted saying: ‘If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide’. This summer, Hezbollah had launched a rocket strike at a soccer field in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights murdering at least 12 children and teens between the ages of 10 and 20.
Per the Daily Mail of the UK, the Times got backlash on social media for its article. “The Times readership is now down to liberal elites, politicians, Communists and Islamists,” one X user wrote in response to the article, which was viewed only roughly 250,000 times.
“This is so embarrassing. How does anyone take the NYT seriously anymore?” another user wrote. Another poster accused the article of “attempting to turn explicit calls for genocide into something positive.”
The New York Times did not respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, three senior Israeli defense officials, who remain anonymous, told the NYT that over 80 bombs were dropped over several minutes in the bid to kill Nasrallah. They added that Israeli leaders had been tracking his location for months, and the operation was planned earlier in the week.
On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, and vowed to keep fighting against Israel. They said: ‘The leadership of Hezbollah pledges… to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy, supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.’
