Secretary-General of Hezbollah Naim Qassem during his televised address on April 13, 2026. (Credit: Screenshot from Al-Manar)
After an uproar over the weekend caused by a cartoon of Hezbollah inspired by the video game "Angry Birds" and broadcast by the Lebanese channel LBCI, the network announced Sunday that it had removed the cartoon in question, following an order from the new public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Ahmad Rami Hajj.
The incident sparked an online smear campaign targeting Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, who is generally critical of Hezbollah and its war against Israel.
"Following a directive from the public prosecutor, Judge Ahmad Rami Hajj, and after appearing before the Cybercrime Bureau, we have deleted the digital content that featured a cartoon of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem in a video inspired by characters from the game 'Angry Birds'," LBCI announced Sunday on its website.
The channel, whose editorial line is critical of Hezbollah, had posted a video showing Qassem and his fighters as caricatures, in a parody mocking the lack of balance in their military actions compared to Israel’s capabilities.
In the wake of the controversy, images of Rai circulated online, with the religious leader’s head replaced by a shoe — a Ranger boot similar to those shown in other social media posts by Hezbollah supporters — a pig, or a bird’s head from the famous 'Angry Birds' mobile game series.
Another montage showed a smiling Rai next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Images of the head of the Maronite Church were shared by several accounts, some apparently belonging to users living in southern Lebanon, while others appeared to be fake accounts or bots, with no followers and very generic profile photos.
In a statement Saturday, Hezbollah described the LBCI videos as "attacks that debase political expression to a repulsive level and turn it into a deliberate tool to inflame the streets and create societal tension ... aiming to spark uncontrollable discord among Lebanese."
The pro-Iranian party called on its supporters "to realize the seriousness of what is being plotted against all Lebanese, and urges them not to get drawn into what the enemies of the 'resistance' — and thus the enemies of Lebanon — are seeking," indirectly referring to what it describes as an attempt by Israel and its American ally to provoke a civil war in the country.
President Joseph Aoun, for his part, condemned attacks against Christian and Muslim religious leaders and called for "keeping differences of opinion within a political framework," without explicitly addressing the party. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also condemned the cartoons and warned against such actions.
