A cartoon video clip broadcast by the Lebanese channel LBCI, showing Secretary-General of Hezbollah Naim Qassem and the party’s fighters similar to the characters of the game “Angry Birds” in their confrontation with Israel, sparked an unprecedented wave of sectarian controversy, after the party considered it “offensive” and “insulting.” The events developed into a widespread campaign of insults by party supporters against the Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, the highest Christian authority in the country, which required presidential intervention for fear of negative repercussions on national unity in a country exhausted by war with Israel.

Published on: 05/02/2026 - 22:44 Last updated: 05/03/2026 - 13:46

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The publication by a local television channel of a graphic video clip showing the Secretary-General of Hezbollah and his fighters with cartoon characters taken from the famous video game “Angry Birds” in their war with Israel sparked a controversy of a sectarian nature in Lebanon, after the party considered it “offensive.”

After the clip was circulated, Hezbollah supporters posted pictures on social media that included insults to Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, which they said was a response to attacks on “their symbols,” in reference to the party’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem. The campaign against Al-Rai, who is considered the highest Christian religious authority in Lebanon, sparked widespread condemnation.

Details of the controversial video

The video published by LBC International depicts Qasim as a leader heading to his fighters on the warfield, and their characters are all caricatures taken from “Angry Birds,” stressing that “there is no surrender” when facing the Israeli soldiers, who appear in the video as pigs, in characters also taken from the game. The clip shows Israeli helicopters bombing houses where Hezbollah fighters were taking shelter before a drone pursued three of them who took refuge in a hole.

The position of Hezbollah and the channel

Hezbollah considered in a statement that the video published by the channel included “in a humiliating and cheap way that reduces political expression to a disgusting level, and turns it into an intended tool for attacking the street,” calling on its supporters to “refrain from being drawn into what the enemies of the resistance are aiming for.”

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Musawi considered that the channel broadcast “insulting, provocative and inflammatory cartoon videos in which they attack a national religious symbol, our Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, as well as the sanctity of the resistance and its mujahideen.”

The LBCI channel, one of the most prominent media institutions in Lebanon, was founded in the mid-1980s by the Lebanese Forces, the Christian anti-Hezbollah party. But years ago, it distanced itself from the political line of the forces following sharp disagreements with its leadership, and presents itself as independent.

Insult campaigns on social media

On social media, Hezbollah supporters posted several pictures of Al-Rai in an insulting manner. One of them wrote, “In front of our sanctities and our sheikh, all sanctities fall.” As a result, Al-Rai received a series of condemning calls from officials and clerics.

In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun considered that “attacking the heads of Christian and Islamic sects and spiritual shrines in Lebanon is a condemnable and unacceptable act,” calling on “everyone to keep differences in viewpoints within their political context and refrain from personal insults, given the negative repercussions of such practices, especially in the current circumstances that the country is going through, which require broad national solidarity.”

A war that deepened divisions

The recent war between Hezbollah and Israel, which killed more than 2,600 people and displaced more than a million, has deepened divisions within Lebanon, with the Tehran-backed party accused of dragging the country in.

Despite the freedom of expression that characterizes Lebanon, television channels, artists, and comedians are exposed from time to time to campaigns, because their works include what some see as insults to religious or political authorities, in a country whose political system is based on fragile sectarian balances.

France 24/AFP

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