As a heartly greeting of solidarity from the Lebanese University for Sciences and Arts (USAL), and with a mixture of pride and enthusiasm about the journalistic curiosity regarding the recent events in occupied Palestine and how they would be covered in media, the course of “Specialized Media”, under the supervision of Dr. Hawraa Houmani, hosted the head of al-Mayadeen TV’s office in occupied Palestine, and the editor-in-chief of Maan News Agency, Dr. Nasser al-Lahham. The guest share his experience with the students in the field of military/war journalism, political journalism, and foreign affairs journalism.

Quoting Palestinian poet Ibrahim Nasrallah’s words: “We stand by Palestine, neither because we are Palestinian nor Arab; we stand by Palestine because it is a daily test to the world’s conscience,” and “the worst that would happen to us is that the scene turns something usual,” Dr. Houmani welcomed the guest who contributes to conveying the true image from Palestine, to prevent the world’s conscience from being familiar with its daily scene of oppression, destruction, and killing.

From the occupied Palestinian territories, and after a year and a half willful absence from taking part in media gatherings and university lectures, Dr. al-Lahham offered Media students at USAL a chance for a meeting in which he summed up his experience with real stories. He also answered their questions regarding his assessment of the recent events in “the land of sad oranges’, his reading of differences between what happened recently and all the previous field events, on international and Arab media outlets, as well as on the world’s social media platforms.

Al-Lahham likened media and its impact to the “boiler” that relies on an incident or a decision, noting that the revolutionary capability in the field is the strongest and the most decisive when in a struggle.

He spoke of his feeling about victory, not only in the face of the ‘Israeli’ enemy, but also against “ourselves” in the first place, saying that the Palestinians now no longer fear raising the sound of revolutionary songs when passing on an ‘Israeli’ checkpoint. Such thing’s significance, al-Lahham says, is about getting rid of the previous state of defeat and surrender, while switching to the phase of brave challenge.

Al-Lahham offered the students a chance to view al-Quds from the window of his office. He talked about being banned since the 1980s from entering al-Quds although it is just a few minutes away from his place. He said that he always finds a way to reach it “when you want something you can do it,” no matter what are the restrictions that hinder my freedom. Al-Lahham also emphasized the importance of determination in the media and revolutionary journey away from hesitation and fear.

When asked about forming his network of relations and information in the presence of the ‘Israeli’ enemy and its ability of deception and manipulation, al-Lahham responded that every person can differentiate between the right and the wrong, the same as a cat that flees when stealing meat. This is based on the innate knowledge, the guest said, adding that “nobody doesn’t know, some, rather, don’t want to know.”

Also during the meeting, Dr. Nasser al-Lahham highlighted the necessity of preserving the humanitarian aspect within ourselves and not being dragged -as journalists and Arabs- towards the brutal capitalism’s dictations with its repulsive perfection.