When Activists Exploit Easter for Propaganda Purposes
Disinformation and the distortion of historical facts clearly have no limits for certain circles. On the occasion of Catholic Easter, last April 5, a Hezbollah official, Hassan Dorr, published the following message on X (formerly Twitter):
https://x.com/HasanDorr/status/2040735419952718037?s=20
« At the call of O Holy Mary:
The « Resistance » sends its greetings to our Christian brothers on the occasion of #Easter by targeting the « Stella Maris » base, belonging to the murderers of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), in occupied #Palestine » .
The Hezbollah activist accompanied his message with a video of the operation. According to the visual elements displayed on screen, the video appears to be a recording of a live broadcast from Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite news channel aligned with Hezbollah, with a banner indicating: «Images of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon». The video of the operation also bears the logo of «Hezbollah's media war apparatus» .
While Mr. Dorr linked the operation to Easter Sunday, Hezbollah's television channel, Al-Manar, had published the following on its English-language website on March 31, 2026, at 8:59 PM Beirut time:
«The Islamic Resistance targeted the Stella Maris base (a strategic maritime surveillance and control base along Israel's northern coast) at 8:00 PM on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, with a volley of advanced rockets: Communiqué No. 22.» (Diplomatic translation)
Furthermore, the full video of the operation to which DORR refers on X can be found at the following address, dated March 31, 2026: https://x.com/OSINTWarfare/status/2040856427963494574?s=20, and on the Al-Manar website: https://www.almanartv.com.lb/article/724772/, still marked with the date of March 31, 2026.
This shows that the operation had no connection to Easter, except in Dorr's staging, which instrumentalizes Christian celebrations to fuel religious tensions between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Decryption
Dorr revives the ancient and discredited allegation of deicide attributed to the Jews. This thesis argues that the Jewish people bear collective responsibility for the death of Jesus, including through the generations that followed his crucifixion.
However, the Catholic Church has rejected the accusation of deicide since the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century. In the catechism resulting from this council, the Catholic Church taught that sinful humanity as a whole bore responsibility for the death of Jesus, with Christians having a particular responsibility in this regard.
During the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), Pope Paul VI promulgated the Nostra Aetate declaration, which rejected the idea of collective and transgenerational Jewish guilt in the crucifixion of Jesus. The declaration specified that «what was committed during his Passion cannot be imputed indiscriminately to all Jews then living, nor to Jews of our time.»
Pope Benedict XVI also rejected the accusation of deicide against Jews in his book Jesus of Nazareth, published in 2011, emphasizing that it had no scriptural basis.
In summary, the Council of Trent extended responsibility to sinful humanity as a whole, Vatican II explicitly rejected any collective Jewish guilt, and contemporary Catholic and Christian sources commonly present the accusation of deicide as an antisemitic or anti-Jewish trope based on collective guilt, while recently warning against its use during Holy Week.
Manipulation
Dorr's manipulative message has several dimensions
Firstly, it is an unfounded allegation, dismissed liturgically by Christian authorities.
Secondly, it instrumentalizes the Crucifixion, a fundamental commemoration of Christianity. His statement seeks to fuel religious tensions among some Christians, who would then be inclined to support Hezbollah's actions against Israel (understood here as Jews) in order to «avenge the death of Jesus,» even though «vengeance» goes against the most basic Christian teachings.
This attempt to rally trans-confessional support for the Hezbollah camp allows propagandists to argue that Hezbollah's actions serve all of Lebanon, with a support base that extends beyond the Shiite community alone. A community that has, moreover, ended up joining other Lebanese denominations in publicly and loudly denouncing and rejecting Hezbollah's actions.
Today, Shiite dissent has reached its highest level ever observed, due to the displacement of Shiite populations and the destruction of their homes caused by Hezbollah's military activities and Israeli retaliations.
By presenting Hezbollah, a group defining itself as an Islamic resistance, as the muscle that strikes Jews to bring justice to Christians and Jesus himself, Dorr involves both Islam and Muslims in religious wars.
Thirdly, and most importantly, Dorr misses the point: Easter is the passage from death to life; it is a celebration of resurrection, of eternal life.
Dorr's inflammatory message arrives three days, five centuries, and two thousand years late, and it is erroneous.