Hezbollah’s smartphone application, launched at the end of July but promptly removed by Apple and Google, has been rereleased for the Android operating system and is “back on Ipad and Iphone,” according to Al-Manar, the Lebanese terrorist organization’s satellite television station.
Al-Manar’s English statement
In a statement issued today, Al-Manar says it is “back on Ipad and Iphone applications via alternative ways, following the campaign carried out by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League to deactivate Al-Manar applications on smart phones at Google Play and apple store.”
Al-Manar announced its new release for Android this past weekend and similarly blamed “the Jewish Anti-Defamation League” for launching a “campaign” to remove the original application from iTunes and Google Play. “Al Manar is back again. As we promised our audience, we found alternative ways to make our application available to be downloaded on Android phones,” the statement reads.
Following the removal of the initial application by Apple and Google last month, Al-Manar issued a statement describing ADL as “US based Jewish organization” that “monitors Israel related media especially in Arab and Muslim countries” and sends publications “to American politicians and Congress members.”
In an interview with Al Intiqad, a Lebanese news site, Mohamed Salah, director of Al-Manar’s website, said that Al-Manar “will spare no effort to respond strongly to this targeting.”
In an effort to avoid distributor policies and control, the new applications are downloadable directly from Al-Manar’s website, which is hosted British server. The website also provides instructions, along with screen shots, on configuring Android phones to accept applications “not sourced in Android Market.”
The application directs users to various station content, including speeches by Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Al-Manar broadcasts the terrorist group’s messages of hate and violence, disseminates anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda and glorifies suicide bombings to millions of viewers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Hezbollah is a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and Al-Manar was listed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the Department of the Treasury in 2006.