New York Times Under Fire For Casting Hezbollah Leader as Champion of ‘Equality’

AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari

The New York Times sparked a bevy of criticism over the weekend over an article that claimed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader killed by an Israeli airstrike Friday, was a self-styled champion of “equality.”

On Saturday, the Times published an article titled, “Protesters Mourn Nasrallah’s Death Around the World.’ The piece was published without a byline and critics quickly slammed the article for its description of Nasrallah’s legacy.

“Over his 32 years leading the organization, and with the support of Iran, he built Hezbollah into a domestic political force and one of the most heavily armed nonstate forces in the world. Mr. Nasrallah was opposed to Israel, which he called “the Zionist entity,” and maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians,” wrote the Times, adding:

A powerful orator, he was beloved among many Shiite Muslims, a historically marginalized group in the Arab world, and created a state within a state in Lebanon that provided social services.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who has taken a staunchly pro-Israel stance since the devastating October 7th Hamas attack on the country, shared the Times article and wrote:

A quote from The NY Times: “Mr. Nasrallah…maintained that there should be…equality for Muslims, Jews, and Christians.” Reading The NY Times, one would think that Nasrallah was not a terrorist doing the bidding of theocrats in Tehran but a civil rights leader, marching for the equality of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Attempting the mass murder of Jews in Israel, as Hezbollah has done, is a strange way of fighting for equality.

Hezbollah, labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries around the world, has long targeted civilians with brutal tactics. President Joe Biden reacted to Israel’s killing of the Hezbollah leader, saying, “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror.”

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called Nasrallah’s death “justice.” Harris wrote in a statement that Nasrallah was “a terrorist with American blood on his hands” whose leadership “destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world. Today, Hezbollah’s victims have a measure of justice.”

Below are some additional reactions to the Times article on Nasrallah:

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