Hezbollah wears NYPD?

byHabib Battah
Jul 18, 2011

The Daily Star has just posted a photo essay by its correspondent Mohammed Zaatari, who visits “the largest amusement park in the region,” funded by Iran and run by Hezbollah. Apparently the complex features a paintball attraction whereby rival teams face off as Hezbollah and the Israelis.

What The Star doesn’t discuss are the NYPD uniforms worn by players, which begs the question: In the surreal world of Iranian state-sponsored theme parks, are the NYPD considered Israeli, Hezbollah or both?

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.