The headquarters of the local TV station Al Jadeed targeted by a Molotov cocktail on Monday night. (Credit: Screenshot of a video broadcast by Al Jadeed)
BEIRUT — An unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail at the headquarters of the Al Jadeed television station in Moseitbeh, Beirut on Monday night, though the device did not explode, the station reported.
The attempted attack came after Al Jadeed broadcast a comedy sketch implying sexual relations between southern Lebanese women and foreign UNIFIL peacekeepers, though it was not immediately clear whether the attack was directly related to the sketch.
"The majority of children in the South have green or blue eyes and are blond" in the presence of "Italians" and "English," said comedian Joanna Karaki in a sketch that appeared on the program Fachet khele, implying relationships between local women and peacekeepers.
UNIFIL was established in 1978 and has maintained a significant presence since the end of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, with an average of more than 11,000 soldiers of different nationalities deployed in the South.
The broadcasting of the sketch caused an outcry on the local scene. The Shiite High Council on Monday denounced what it called a campaign of "slander, disinformation and defamation against the Shiite community." It also called on "the state and the regulatory authorities to take the necessary legal measures."
Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Moussawi, chairman of the parliamentary information committee, also denounced in a statement Sunday "an odious act" against women in the South. He called on the Minister of Information to take appropriate measures.
Reacting to his remarks, protest MP Paula Yacoubian tweeted Monday that Moussawi had issued a statement on behalf of the commission of which she is a member, and not in his own name. "We have different opinions as members of the commission," she said.
