Hazem al-Amin

Can providing aid to a wounded person become a matter for political condemnation? Families from Akkar and the Bekaa were “accused” of welcoming wounded Syrian nationals and helping to provide them with treatment. These accusations were made by pro-Hezbollah press outlets, which imputed their information to official security sources.

According to these outlets, sources close to the March 14 coalition asked the administrator of a Bekaa hospital to facilitate the treatment of wounded Syrian nationals, but the latter refused to do so! This came within the framework of condemning the March 14 coalition and glorifying the “patriotism” of the hospital administrator. The journalist who conveyed this information was not appalled by the hospital’s failure to welcome the wounded, and neither professional conscience nor even his conscience as a human being compelled him to head to the hospital in question and investigate this event.

“A hospital refused to welcome wounded people.” A Lebanese journalist who received such information is not responsible for heading immediately to that hospital and inquiring about the truth behind the security information that reached him. Isn’t that a shame for the press, as shame we as journalists should all feel?

This same press was behind the campaign against ISF Director General Major General Achraf Rifi over statements imputed to him in the Lebanese Security and Defense Committee, whereby the security services attached to the Syrian Embassy in Beirut kidnapped four Syrian nationals and took them in an embassy vehicle to an unknown destination. How dare Rifi say something like that?

This press did not even bother to hide its condemnation behind some insinuation; rather, it came out loud and clear, unaware that it is condemning what is right at some point at a time when few are supporting it, much like the performance of March 14 forces were condemned at rare rightful stage.

In reality, Lebanon is experiencing an unprecedented stage of chaos with regard to standards and ethics. Many are blinded by their partiality to the Syrian regime. Their minds are blinded so they cannot see a bloody victim or a civilian kidnapped in broad daylight. Their minds are also blocking the fact that they are siding with the killer beyond the shadow of a doubt. Indeed, is there anything clearer than blood in the equation pitting the perpetrator against the victim?

The press, which should be more sensitive regarding the bloody scenes in Syria, is wholly insensitive today due to Lebanese division. Yes, this Lebanese division is preventing eyes from actually seeing the wounded Syrian national who found refuge in Lebanon. This same Lebanese division had already called on the press to picture itself as the defender of the rights of Syrian workers in Lebanon and of the injustice committed against them back when the perpetrators were the March 14 forces.

This article is a translation of the original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic site on Friday October 14, 2011