Israel bans Al Jazeera in 'attack on press freedom'

Al Jazeera's offices in Jerusalem were raided on Sunday after Israel's far-right cabinet banned the Qatar-based satellite news network, the only international media outlet providing live coverage 24/7 from Gaza, to operate in the country.

“If you look at that, then Al Jazeera has been banned in Israel,” correspondent Imran Khan said in a pre-recorded report from occupied East Jerusalem, anticipating the Israeli cabinet's unanimous vote to shut down the channel.

The order, which does not affect Al Jazeera's ability to operate in Gaza or the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, is believed to be the first of its kind targeting a foreign media outlet operating in Israel. This comes after the Knesset, Israel's parliament, recently voted 71-10 in favor of a law authorizing Israel's communications minister to ban foreign news agencies from working in Israel and confiscate their equipment.

“The time has come to exclude the spokesperson of Hamas from our country,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech.

Ofir Gendelman, Netanyahu's spokesman for Arab media, said Sunday that the shutdown would be “implemented immediately.”

Gendelman said that “the network's broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel's correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera's websites will be blocked from the Internet.” .

In a statement, Al Jazeera pledged to “use all legal avenues available through international legal institutions in its quest to protect both its rights and those of journalists, as well as the public's right to information.” .

“Israel's current crackdown on the free press, seen as an attempt to cover up its actions in the Gaza Strip, constitutes a violation of international and humanitarian law,” the channel added. “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats will not deter Al Jazeera.”

The New York-based Foreign Press Association issued a statement condemning the decision and saying it “should be a source of concern to all supporters of a free press.”

“With this decision, Israel joins a dubious club of authoritarian governments seeking to ban the station,” the group said. “It's a dark day for the media. It's a dark day for democracy.”

Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir called the order “an attack on press freedom.”

“Rather than trying to silence reporting of its atrocities in Gaza, the Israeli government should stop committing them,” he added.

Al Jazeera is the only international news network to provide ongoing on-the-ground coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, often being the first to report Israeli atrocities in what many experts around the world consider a genocidal campaign in this besieged and starving band.

Its correspondents and other media professionals work under constant risk to their lives and physical integrity. More than 100 journalists, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, in what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and others say is often intentional targeting. not only media professionals but also their families.

In December, Israeli forces killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa while he was covering the war in southern Gaza, an attack that also injured Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, whose the wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in another Israeli strike.

Previous investigations, such as that into the 2022 killing by Israeli troops of prominent Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, have confirmed that Israel deliberately targeted journalists.

Last May, CPJ published Deadly Pattern, a report revealing that Israeli troops had killed at least 20 journalists over the past 22 years with impunity. Although some of the murdered journalists were foreigners, including Italian Associated Press journalist Simone Camilli and British cameraman and filmmaker James Miller, the vast majority of victims were Palestinian.

Israeli forces have also attacked newsrooms in every major attack on Gaza, including in May 2021, when the 11-story al-Jalaa Tower, which housed the offices of Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and other media, was completely destroyed during an airstrike.

On Friday, on World Press Freedom Day, Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza received this year's UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, after being recommended by an international jury made up of media professionals.

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