New Delhi: Israel on Sunday shut down the operations of Qatari-owned media channel Al Jazeera and raided its premises in East Jerusalem after it accused the broadcaster of being a Hamas mouthpiece.
The move came after the country’s legislature Knesset passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered a threat to national security.
The decision to shut Al Jazeera was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet since they believe it to be a propagandist of Hamas, which controls Gaza.
“The government has unanimously decided that the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” said Netanyahu in a post on the social media platform X.
הממשלה בראשותי החליטה פה אחד: ערוץ ההסתה אל ג׳זירה ייסגר בישראל.
תודה לשר @shlomo_karhi
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 5, 2024
Minister of communications Shlomo Karhi branded the broadcaster as a “oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country”, complaining the government had passed “too many unnecessary legal hurdles” to reach this point.
Later in a post on X, Karhi shared a video of Israeli officials seizing communication equipment of the channel including video cameras, tripods and other apparatus required by the channel to continue broadcasting.
סוגרים את אלג׳זירה🇮🇱
פקחי משרד התקשורת בגיבוי משטרת ישראל פושטים בשעה זו על משרדי אלג׳זירה בירושלים ומחרימים את ציוד הערוץ. pic.twitter.com/BFWkOiniDH
— 🇮🇱שלמה קרעי – Shlomo Karhi (@shlomo_karhi) May 5, 2024
Al Jazeera Media Network, which has continued with a determined, on-the-ground coverage of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, denounced Tel Aviv’s decision, warning it contravened international and humanitarian law and termed the ban a “criminal act”.
“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information. Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences,” it said in a statement Sunday.
The decision to ban the Doha-based broadcaster comes as negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar reached an impasse. Tel Aviv has also asked for tens of thousands of Gazans to evacuate from Eastern Rafah, a sign that an operation was close to starting.
The United Nations Human Rights Office regretted Israel’s decision to close the broadcaster and called on Netanyahu to overturn the ban. “A free & independent media is essential to ensuring transparency & accountability. Now, even more so given tight restrictions on reporting from Gaza. Freedom of expression is a key human right. We urge the government to overturn the ban,” said the UN Human Rights Office in a post on X.
The decision was also condemned by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel. The FPA urged the government to “reverse this harmful step and uphold its commitment to the freedom of the press” and termed it a “dark day for democracy” in the country.
The FPA statement added: “With this decision, Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments to ban the station. And the government may not be done. The prime minister has the authority to target other foreign media that he deems to be ‘acting against the state’.”
The escalation of the feud between Netanyahu and Al Jazeera comes two years after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh – a Palestinian-American journalist who worked with the broadcaster for many years. Abu Akleh was killed on 11 May 2022, while covering an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Al Jazeera – from 9/11 to West Asia wars
Al Jazeera was launched on 1 November 1996 in Doha, the capital of Qatar and was founded by a loan from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, the then Emir of Qatar.
The channel quickly grew to become one of the most-watched Arab news channels across the region, covering the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and the various wars in West Asia. It is today available across 150 countries and 430 million homes, employing over 3,000, with 70 international bureaus, according to its website.
The channel has been in the cross hairs of Israel for years, with Tel Aviv believing its coverage has a strong anti-Israeli bias. The channel is one of the few in the world extensively televising the Israel-Hamas conflict from the Gaza strip, after Tel Aviv banned foreign journalists from entering the area. Netanyahu has alleged that employees of the channel participated in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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