Ontario Arabic Newspaper Blames Israel for Beirut Blast

According to their website, B’nai Brith Canada has filed a complaint with the City of Toronto’s Bylaw Enforcement Division after an Arabic-language newspaper distributed in Toronto suggested Israel was responsible for the recent deadly blast in Beirut.

In an August edition of al-Meshwar, editor-in-chief Nazih Khatatba wrote an editorial entitled “Who Is Responsible for the Beirut Port Disaster?” In this piece, Khatatba suggests that “the Beirut disaster cannot be anything but the result of a planned Israeli-American act by direct implementation or via their local proxies.”

The article gives no sources or evidence except a suggestion that Israel acted against the Hezbollah terrorist group which is based in Lebanon. This contrasts with even reports from Hezbollah and it’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who admitted to Lebanese media that Israel was not responsible.

In response to the blast, Israel offered various forms of humanitarian aid to Lebanon, and the city hall of Tel Aviv was lit up with the Lebanese flag last week in an act of solidarity with the people of Beirut.

In a similar incident in Toronto, a van has been driving around the northern part of the city with an electric sign falsely claiming that the Beirut explosion was an Israeli nuclear attack.

“The obsessive need to blame Israel for every catastrophe in the Middle East highlights the anti-Semitism at the heart of the anti-Israel movement,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada.

“For centuries, anti-Semites have blamed Jews for every evil – and now some feel the need to do the same to the Jewish state. Evidence and facts must always supplant paranoid conspiracy theories.”

Source: https://www.bnaibrith.ca/newspaper_blames_israel_for_beirut_disaster