A writer for the official Palestinian Authority daily accused Israel of being behind the explosion in Beirut last week that cost the lives of at least 163 people and injured thousands, as well as left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Ignoring Lebanon’s announcement that improperly stored ammonium nitrate at the Port of Beirut caused the blast, regular columnist Bassem Barhoum was quick to blame the Jewish state, reported Palestinian Media Watch.
“We … do not rule out the possibility that Israel had a hand in this catastrophe since this is what it exists for—to destroy the [Arab] nation and any chance of its revival,” he wrote in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Aug. 6.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the P.A. routinely holds Israel responsible for all negative events, whether internecine conflicts in the Arab world, terrorist attacks in the world at large or problems specifically having to do with the P.A.