richard metters, journalist and commentator out of vienna. and jamal wakim, professor of international relations, lebanese university out of beirot. welcome both of you to the program, good to have you. richard, what's your assessment of the move that iran made 45 years ago as newly revolutionary nation, and taking the stance that it did regarding palestine? thank you for having me on the program, and uh, congratulations of course to all. iranians um on this day for for the anniversary of the revolution, thank you. um, the step that iran took that day uh has had reverberations and um uh after effects and consequences for the entire region to to this moment to this day um and it has benefited the region greatly because this war that we're seeing in gaza uh you know it it it's a part of the palestinian struggle uh which which other countries have turned their backs. and iran has been really the the the truest and most steadfast supporter of the palestinians and this was actually a one of the pillars, one of the core beliefs of that revolution, and and and i was smiling when you just brou

now to discuss that more, we're joined by jamal wakim, professor of international relations from the lebanese university. thank you very much sir for joining us on press tv. the first question i'd like to ask you as at mata's latest move is seen as another proof of the west hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to a freedom of speech. what is your take on that? well, of course, this is no news for us, because the west has always been biased towards israel and against our right to express ourselves. and our freedom of speech, so they set standards for example, that are biased, and they try to see objective, however, when it comes to reality, they allow, for example, themselves to express any hate speech, also they allow the israelis to to express racist comments towards the palestinian people, however when it comes to... to our freedom of speech based on the the international norms for for this freedom of speech set by the west, they would infringe it, they would violate it and would forbid us from expressing ourselves, so this is no news and we are used to this, i believe that

lebanese university professor jamal wakim believes that new platforms are needed to be created for free speech in the wake of censorship by pro israel media organizations in the west, because the west has always been biased towards israel and against our right to express ourselves and our freedom of speech, so they set standards for example that are biased and they try to see objective, however when it's comes to reality, they allow for example, themselves - to express any hate speech, also they allow the israelis to to express racist commands towards the palestinian people, however when it comes to our freedom of speech based on the the international norms for for this freedom of speech set by the west, they would infringe it, they would... violated and they would forbid us from expressing ourselves, we should build our own platforms and our own norms in the arab islamic world and in the non-western world, well the the media in the west has always been under the control of the israeli lobby even before the establishment of israel, designist entity in palestine and this is due to the fa