BEIRUT (PIC)– Tuesday will witness the official launch of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) satellite TV channel in the Lebanese capital Beirut after months of trial broadcasting giving the viewers a taste of what to expect from the channel.
According to its management the channel is concerned with the Palestinian cause and adopts a comprehensive and uniting discourse which is very important especially during the current political and national rift among the Palestinian factions.
“Tuesday witnesses the birth of a new Palestinian satellite TV channel that would be for all Palestinians and for those concerned about Palestine and the issue of Jerusalem” said Nabil Al-Otaibi the director-general of the channel in press statement distributed to media outlets.
He added that the channel will have a variety of programmes that include news debates drama documentaries and interactive programmes and will tackle political historical geographical social cultural economic and scientific issues as well as arts and sports.
Otaibi expressed hope that the channel will become the “first choice” for the Palestinian and the Arab viewer stressing that the channel would highlight the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem and to correct misconceptions relating to the Palestinian issue both on the popular and official levels in the Arab world and the international community.
For its part the PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners welcomed the launch of the new channel urging its management to give the issue of the more than 11500 Palestinian captives in Israeli jails the attention they deserve.
Reyadh al-Ashkar the spokesman of the ministry said that the Palestinian captives sacrificed the best part of their lives to serve all the Palestinians and the least that could be done out of loyalty to them is to bring their issue to the fore. He expressed hope that the new channel unlike other channels will deal with the issue of captives as a serious humanitarian issue rather than an issue of mere numbers.
In this regard Ashkar cited the influential role taken by Al-Jazeera TV channel in supporting its cameraman Sami Al-Haj who was jailed for seven years in the infamous Guantanamu concentration camp without being charged or brought to court and succeeded in highlighting his issue and in rallying the international legal and human rights organizations behind him till he was freed.
