Australia is seeking to block a radical anti-Israel satellite TV channel ‘al-Manar’ which is linked to Hezbollah and broadcasts from via Indonesia, the Australian government's broadcast watchdog has announced. The ‘al-Manar’ channel, owned by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is very popular with Arabs living in Australia. It broadcasts program including "The Spider's House", a talk show targeted at uncovering weaknesses in the ‘Zionist Entity’ (i.e.Israel).
"The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has strong concerns about the broadcast in Australia of programs that contain terrorist-related content," ACMA spokesman Donald Robertson told the ‘Reuters’ news agency. Al-Manar was banned in the United States in 2004. It describes itself as the "station of the Resistance" against Israel and American foreign policy and boasts around 15 million viewers around the world. Launched in 1991 with backing from Iran, the station has just resumed broadcasting into Asia and the Pacific using the Indosat telecoms service partly which is owned by the Indonesian government. Other controversial programs carried by the channel include "My Blood and the Rifle", which idolizes Hezbollah fighters and encourages viewers to join the anti-Israel movement.