Video: Lebanese Anchor Vents Her Anger at Those Who Criticized Istanbul Victims

Rabat – Fixing the camera with a strong glare, a Lebanese TV presenter for an LBCI newscast addressed the cyber bullying suffered by the Istanbul attack victims with a grave tone.

“Since when did joy became a crime? Since when has traveling been considered a terrorist act?” the anchor asked. With her strong and resonant voice, the young presenter went on to accuse those who continue to criticize and insult the three Lebanese victims, killed during the Istanbul nightclub slaughter, of being the real terrorists.

 “He who attacks a martyr, a victim, a murdered person, no matter their denomination, is recognized to be in the ranks of terrorists and murderers, period,” she pointed out. The anchor went on to emphasize how unquestionable and undeniably obvious this subject is. “The killer remains a killer, and the victim remains a victim,” she said, adding that it is up to the living to choose their camp, “either with the killer or with the victim.”“They have chosen to live their lives as they see fit, no one has the right to prevent them,” she said, “… neither the terrorist who put an end to their lives, nor the terrorists who attack them after their death.”

In this anchor’s opinion, the comments, posted on social media networks and directed at the Lebanese victims who were celebrating New Year’s festivities in Istanbul, have been so cruel that they have had the same effect as the bullets that shattered their bodies. “Those bullets were implements of terrorism and these comments are the tools of terrorism as well, and the terrorist’s punishment is known, whether it is physical terrorism or intellectual terrorism,” she asserted.

Lebanon, like several other countries such as Morocco, Tunisia or Jordan lost three of its young citizens in Istanbul this New Year.

The Moroccan victims were also subjected to derogatory criticism, marked by the weight of intolerance. Several distasteful comments can be found on social media attacking the two Moroccan girls.

Edited by Constance Guindon