Waleed Aly and his pals at The Project have reached a new low, last night broadcasting a segment blaming the Beruit blast on Israel.
Beirut-based photographer João Sousa was asked by Aly if the Lebanese government’s explanation the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate was “widely accepted by people there”.
His response was pure conspiracy theorising: “Ninety-nine per cent of the people I’ve spoken with …feel that that’s not necessarily the correct explanation. People are more likely to believe that this was an attack, a military attack, possibly by Israel than an accident.”
Sousa continued in this vein, alleging a “historical aspect here that cannot be ignored … Lebanon and Israel are never on good terms, so there’s always this tension going on, and people are always expecting something like this to happen.”
Video of the segment was posted to Facebook last night by the Australian Jewish News, which has reported today:
On Thursday morning, The Project deleted the segment from their social media channels, but stopped short of an apology.
In a statement, a spokesperson from The Project said, “The Project rejects the suggestion there is any evidence the explosion in Beirut was a military attack.
“As our report last night clearly stated, this is a tragic accident resulting from the mishandling of dangerous chemicals.”
Read the article by Charles Pier in The Spectator.