‘Hero of the Arabs’: barrister Mahmoud Mando praises Hassan Nasrallah

A Sydney barrister who celebrated the slain Hezbollah leader for being ‘on the right side of history’ says he will continue to support anyone who fights ‘against Israeli oppression’.

Sydney human rights barrister Mahmoud Mando.

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A Sydney barrister who celebrated slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for being “on the right side of history” and a “hero of the Arabs” says he will continue to support anyone who fights “against Israeli oppression”.

Jewish leaders have condemned the comments by Lebanese-Australian human rights barrister Mahmoud Mando, who told The Australian on Tuesday that Hezbollah was created “because of the Israeli aggression and occupation of Lebanon”.

“Hezbollah basically arose out of civilians who wanted to defend themselves and their people,” he said. “In essence, history will say things about Hassan Nasrallah ... he was a leader of ... this resistance against the Israeli apartheid, Israeli oppression, Israeli aggression, Israeli murder”.

Mr Mando said Australia had “double standards” that favoured Israel and let down Lebanese and Palestinian people.

“The problem is we’ve got double standards here in Australia for some reason,” he said. “Israel’s allowed off the hook because Australia sees it as an ally. But then you’ve got, on the other side of the fence, civilian populations in Lebanon and Palestine who are being massacred, and there’s no one to defend them.”

While he refused to explicitly say whether he was a supporter of proscribed terror group Hezbollah, Mr Mando said: “I support whoever opposes Israeli aggression.”

“Hassan Nasrallah represented that sort of opposition, you know? History will say that he is who he is. I think he’s on the right side of history, not Israel, put it that way.”

His comments come after he made social media posts in which he said Nasrallah was “a historical leader, a great fighter ... who was martyred on the road to Jerusalem”.

In a now-deleted Facebook post written on the day Nasrallah was killed, Mr Mando said: “There is no power nor power except for Allah, and to Him we shall return. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful with greater pride and esteem, the Islamic Resistance, the Islamic Nation, the Arab Nation and all the free people of the world emerge a hero of the Arabs, Muslims and humanitarian heroes, a legendary mujahid, a historical leader, a great fighter, His Eminence Mr Hassan Nasrallah, who was martyred on the road of Jerusalem a few hours ago.”

In a separate post, he condemned Israel for killing “thousands upon thousands of innocent children in Gaza over the last 12 months without any moral trepidation”.

“Isra#!el wants to kill ALL the Arabs, regardless of whether they are civilians or those resisting its brutal and oppressive occupation. It is such a murderous, criminal terrorist enterprise – a vicious Western colonial outpost – that that is its actual, unashamed intention,” he wrote.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said Nasrallah was an “arch-terrorist whose hands dripped with blood”.

“Under his leadership, Hezbollah carried out terrorist attacks butchering innocent people not only in the Middle East but also in South America, Europe and Southeast Asia,” he said.

“To honour the memory of such a person is an obscenity. It is not what one would expect from any barrister.”

Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory said he would ask the NSW Bar Association to investigate Mr Mando’s comments. “Hezbollah is a proscribed terrorist organisation under Australian law,” he said.

“Anyone who supports it is showing great disrespect to the legal system of this country.”