Al Manar survives air strikes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by MEB Journal Staff
|
|
“Even if Israel destroyed all of the Lebanese territories we would have still kept on broadcasting,” said Al Manar spokesman Ibrahim Farhat as he stood amid the rubble of the station’s former Beirut headquarters.
The Hezbollah-supported channel had set up an open air shooting space to showcase the destruction caused by seven separate air-strikes Israeli that injured three employees and eventually flattened the station’s five story building in the southern Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik.
But despite the severity of attacks, Al Manar had only two minutes of downtime during the third attack on July 27. Once its signals were restored the channel continued its coverage uninterrupted throughout the rest of the war.
Farhat said Al Manar was well aware of Israel’s plan to strike at their operations and had planned in advance on alternate ways to carry on broadcasting to the region and internationally. After all, the station was one of Israel’s initial targets, with the first strike coinciding with the beginning of Israel’s air campaign on July 13.
Farhat added that Al Manar, Arabic for the beacon or guiding light, resumed broadcasting from several separate locations across Lebanon, despite Israeli air-strikes that wiped out its transmission towers located in the North Lebanon district of Terboul.
Farhat refused to elaborate further on the details of contingency plans or the location of alternate studios, saying only that all broadcasting remained with in Lebanese borders.
“The real question is why they attacked us constantly,” Farhat said, adding that “Al Manar is an independent institution from Hezbollah.”
He insisted the satellite broadcaster, established in 1991, also included shareholders from the Lebanese Christian community in addition to members of Hezbollah.
“We are now more motivated and challenged than we were before,” he added, “we are more focused on showing the whole world the hostility of the Israeli army.”
|
