Netanyahu Government Orders Al Jazeera Shut Down in Israel

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:29 pm

The Israeli government has ordered the shutdown of Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera’s operations within Israel, deeming the broadcaster to be a national security threat.

The closure comes just over a month after the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, giving Israel’s prime minister the authority to shut down any foreign broadcaster he deems harmful to national security. Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi made clear at the time of the law’s passage, that would see the legislation applied to Al Jazeera, which he called a “mouthpiece” of Hamas.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he and his cabinet had indeed applied their newfound authority against Al Jazeera.

“Al Jazeera correspondents have harmed the security of Israel and incited against IDF soldiers. The time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country,” Netanyahu announced.

Following Netanyahu’s remarks, Karhi announced Israeli authorities were clearing out Al Jazeera office spaces in Israel and seizing their equipment.

“The government approved and I immediately signed the orders against Al Jazeera. Our orders will go into effect immediately,” Karhi announced on Sunday. “Too much time has passed and too many unnecessary legal hurdles for us to finally be able to stop Al Jazeera’s oiled incitement machine that harms the security of the country.”

Within hours of the announcement, Karhi shared a video on X, indicating Israeli authorities had entered an Al Jazeera office space in Jerusalem and began confiscating their equipment.

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

Contentious Relations Between Israel, Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera has had a contentious relationship with both the United States and Israeli government authorities since its inception in 1996.

Al Jazeera’s Baghdad bureau was struck by U.S. bombs on April 8, 2003, during the early weeks of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in the blast. The broadcaster insisted it had provided U.S. forces the coordinates of its Baghdad office space weeks before the strike.

Dual Palestinian-American citizen and Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed during a gun battle between Israeli forces and armed suspects near the Jenin Refugee camp in the West Bank on May 11, 2022. The Qatari broadcaster concluded Israeli forces fired the shots that killed Akleh. Israeli military investigators concluded it is “not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire” that killed Akleh, but that there’s a “high possibility” she was struck by Israeli gunfire.

Several other Al Jazeera journalists have been killed amid the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 between Israeli forces and Hamas.

The Israeli military accused Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Abu Omar of moonlighting as a Hamas commander after he was wounded in an Israeli airstrike near the southern Gazan city of Rafah in February. Omar was reportedly wearing a blue flak jacket with press markings at the time of the strike.

Israeli officials have circulated a video clip purporting to show Omar near the sight of a gun battle at the Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. In it, a man speaks into a camera to describe an ongoing gunfight at Neir Oz.

In March, Al Jazeera reported on allegations raised by a woman named Jamila al-Hissi, who claimed Israeli forces kidnapped, raped, and executed women during a raid on Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. Former Al Jazeera Managing Director Yasser Abu Hilalah later wrote that the claims were fabricated, and Al Jazeera appeared to remove references to al-Hissi’s account.

Qatari Network Denounces Israeli Shutdown

In a Sunday press statement, Al Jazeera leadership denounced the Netanyahu government’s decision to stifle its operations:

In a deceptive and slanderous move, the Israeli Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel. They also chose to withdraw crew accreditations, as well as banning media service providers from transmitting its broadcasts and blocking Al Jazeera Media Network websites.
Ironically as the world marked World Press Freedom Day; the Israeli government closed Al Jazeera’s offices, preventing the public from accessing its content, disregarding the universally recognised fundamentals of freedom of expression.
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.
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 from its commitment to cover, whilst more than 140 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war on Gaza.
The Network vehemently rejects the allegations presented by Israeli authorities suggesting professional media standards have been violated. It reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the values embodied by its Code of Ethics.
Al Jazeera urges all media freedom, human rights, and other concerned organisations, to condemn the repeated attacks on journalists and the press by Israel, and to hold those responsible to account. The Network will pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions in its quest to protect both its rights and journalists, as well as the public’s right to information.