Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded January 29th, 2025
Last week Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Israel must have withdrawn all its military forces from the south of the country - as stipulated in the November ceasefire agreement signed by Hezbollah, and the Lebanese and Israeli governments - by January 26th. That deadline came and went over the weekend and the Israeli military remains. More than that, the IDF never ceased, destroying civilian infrastructure, bombing houses, businesses, and vehicles throughout the 60 day ceasefire implementation period, and is now targeting civilians returning to their homes directly; killing and maiming much in the manner we have witnessed it do in Gaza and the West Bank.
For its part Hezbollah has allowed the peace process continue, but warns the parties supposedly policing the ceasefire against "testing its patience". Monday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem rejected any prolonging of the ceasefire implementation period as Israel insists saying, "We do not accept an extension, not even for one day."
Laith Marouf is a Beirut-based multimedia consultant, producer, and now frontline war reporter. He's the founder and Executive Director of FreePalestine.Video whose purpose it says is to provide coverage of the region, “…in the absence of media supporting the resistance forces in the English language due to the ban in the West.”
Laith Marouf in the first half.
And; it's not just foreign media being disappeared from Western discourse. Those here at home opposing perpetual war, capitalist corruption, and authoritarianism well-used to being absented from corporate presses, are now being erased too from the social sphere. But there's a difference between being unable to breach legacy media gatekeeping to get ones squeaks in on its platform and the insidious tactics deployed by the likes of Youtube, Facebook, Spotify and Twitter X.
David Rovics knows more than most the heavy, sometimes arbitrary hand of the censor; and he's all too familiar with the invidious sting of the Cancel Crowd. Both have conspired to wreck his increasingly social media-dependent musical career, and stifle his persistently pointed criticism of their noisome activities.
The Demonetized, Deleted, but not Disappeared David Rovics in the second half.
But first, Laith Marouf from Lebanon, where Israel's fire never ceased.
Song: Riot Dog
Artist: David Rovics
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/ and on Telegram at: https://t.me/gorillaradio2024
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