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Al Jazeera, one of the media leading outlets broadcasting from the Gaza Strip, can no longer be watched on TV in Israel after the cabinet voted unanimously shut down its operations in the country which triggers a dark day for free press and freedom of information.
Israel’s government has ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to shut down following the feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
This is coming as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.
This is the first time Israel has banned a foreign media outlet and marks a new low in relations between the station and the Israeli government.
The ban could strain peace talks hosted by Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera.
This development was disclosed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement on X (formerly twitter).
Recalled that the Israeli parliament had in April approved a law that allows the government to ban broadcast channels it considers a threat to national security, hence, the extraordinary order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government also allowed it raid the broadcasting station and confiscate Al Jazeera equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet.
Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable provider in the hours after the order. However, its website and multiple online streaming links still operated Sunday, according to Arise Tv.
The network has reported the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack Oct. 7 and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its own staff, CNN reports stated.
According to a statement by Netanyahu, “Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers. It’s time to remove the Hamas mouthpiece from our country.”
However, Al Jazeera issued a statement vowing it will “pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions in its quest to protect its rights and journalists, as well as the public’s right to information.”
“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law. Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats will not deter Al Jazeera,” the network source stressed.
Israeli media said the order allows Israel to block the channel from operating in the country for 45 days.
The Israeli government has taken action against individual reporters over the decades since its founding in 1948, but broadly allows for a rambunctious media scene that includes foreign bureaus from around the world, even from Arab nations. That changed with a law passed last month, which Netanyahu’s office says allows the government to take action against a foreign channel seen as “harming the country.”
Netanyahu’s government has been highly critical of Al Jazeera for years, and even more so since its war with the Hamas militant group began on Oct. 7 after the group’s atrocity in Israel. The images of human suffering in Gaza that Al Jazeera broadcasts have undermined Israel’s campaign against Hamas by eroding international support for its war, according to politico report.
Israeli Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi said, “We finally are able to stop Al Jazeera’s well-oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country.”
The ban did not appear to affect the channel’s operations in the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip, although the decision triggered heightened threats and tension with Qatar at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza, along with Egypt and the United States.
Various quarter criticism of Israeli Government ban
In a statement, Hamas condemned the Israeli government order, calling on international organizations to take measures against Israel.
Similarly, Foreign Press Association in Israel criticized the order.
According to the association in a statement, “This is a dark day for the media. With this decision, Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments to ban the station”
An Assault on Freedom of the press
Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, described the Israeli order as “an assault on freedom of the press.”
“Rather than trying to silence reporting on its atrocities in Gaza, the Israeli government should stop committing them,” he added.
Al Jazeera has remain the few international media outlets in Gaza that covered various wars, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and major critical events that had claimed lives.
