Israel attempted to assassinate Canadian journalist in Lebanon
White Phosphorous was dropped by Israel on the edge of this house in South Lebanon, just 200 meters away from Canadian and Lebanese journalists who were doing a report for Free Palestine TV. Credit: 'X'/@HadiHtt
Written by: Aidan Jonah
Canadian citizen and journalist, Laith Marouf, was reporting for Free Palestine TV along with Hadi Hotait in Marjaayoun, South Lebanon, to report on Zionist revenge attacks in the region, when they both faced an assassination attempt.
Marouf and Hotait were only 200 meters away from where White Phosphorous was dropped by Israel, and soon afterwards an Israeli guided missile landed in the same area. Only a cement fence protected Marouf and Hotait from death. And given that White Phosphorous causes your skin to melt (if you’re lucky) and burn your lungs (fatal), this was the second time in short moments where they’d both narrowly escaped death.
Hotait said publicly that an open field beside a house Marouf and him had lined up to take pictures had been hit directly, while the shell landed at the edge of a house on the side of the road right near them. This simply can not be a fluke, given there were no weapons or military installations in the area. And given Israel’s relentless killing of journalists in occupied Palestine, there should be no pretentions about any Israeli concern for journalists (they’ve already killed 158 journalists from October 7, 2023 to present.)
Concerningly, no Canadian journalists’ institution nor journalism school at a Canadian higher education institution has condemned the assassination attempt against Marouf and Hotait, as of this article’s release.
Free Palestine TV, who are they
After getting unfairly run out of Canada for his anti-colonial principals, expressed in an imprecise manner occasionally, which was taken advantage of by Zionists, Marouf came to Lebanon.
When Free Palestine TV began, Marouf says the hope was for it to be an anti-imperialist, pro-Axis of Resistance outlet where volunteer students from Lebanese universities were trained and would produce content. But in November 2023, after FPTV began to criticize Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas’ (‘Palestinian Authority’ leader) collaboration with Israel, ‘Fatah goons’ came crashing into FPTV’s studio in Lebanon, pulled guns on people and stole the equipment they couldn’t destroy. Over $20 000 USD in equipment was stolen.
Afterwards, FPTV was reorganized and professionalized, to avoid putting students’ lives at risk. There are still volunteers, but they aren’t put in front of the camera and aren’t put in credits, to safeguard them. FPTV now does reports from the field on the border between South Lebanon and Israel/occupied Palestine and a weekly show called Wartime Café where Lebanese pro-resistance activists, artists and thinkers are interviewed, and translation of all the resistance videos coming out from Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, around the whole of the Axis of Resistance.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine are very active with videos, while even Fatah and ex-Fatah fighting groups are resisting Israeli occupation, with 8 to 12 videos coming out per day. The Fatah and ex-Fatah fighting groups actions show that the actions of ‘Fatah goons’ against FPTV and those of Abbas are disconnected from Fatah membership and other Palestinians in occupied Palestine, says Marouf.
Meanwhile, The Canada Files’ Editor-in-Chief, this author, and Marouf, co-host a weekly show called Canada and Palestine: The War on Zionism. Marouf appears on other shows regularly every week, and regularly is interviewed by prominent Canadian lawyer and journalist Dimitri Lascaris.
Despite hostility in Canada, from collaborators with Zionism, and even the Israeli state itself, Marouf and Free Palestine TV are carrying on their work with a reach that grows every day.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
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