
The Israeli prime minister has announced his government’s decision to shut down Al Jazeera TV.
“The government headed by me unanimously decided: The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu posted on X.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday voted unanimously to close down Al Jazeera’s operations in the country, according to a government statement. The communications minister said the orders against Al Jazeera ‘will go into effect immediately’.
The Reuters news agency now reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted unanimously to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, according to a government statement that did not stipulate when the decision might take effect.
The cabinet vote came after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security during its war on Gaza.
Source: Al Jazeera
UPDATE
Orders against Al Jazeera ‘will go into effect immediately’: Israeli communications minister
In a post on X, Israel’s minister of communications, Shlomo Karhi, said he has signed the orders against Al Jazeera, which will go into effect immediately.
Israel’s Army Radio reports that Karhi’s orders are valid for 45 days, and they must be brought before a district judge.
More details on the move to shut down Al Jazeera
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the government has authorised Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to order the cessation of the channel’s broadcasts in Israel, both in Arabic and English language; to close its offices in Israel; to confiscate equipment used by its personnel with the exception of telephones and computers.
The communications minister has also been asked to limit access from Israel to the network’s website.
According to the Israeli government decision, Karhi has the authority to ban the channel from operating for 45 days, relying on the recently adopted law regulating the closure of media institutions.
Palestinians in Gaza see Israel’s ban of Al Jazeera as a ‘desperate move’
This is the last episode in what seems to be the suppression of any criticism of what’s going on on the ground across the Gaza Strip.
- ‘We’ve documented the atrocities, the genocidal acts, the spread of famine and acts that go against international human rights law and against all the international norms in terms of conducting war or warfare, and that is something that did not really sit well with the Israeli government.
- The ban is largely perceived by people here as a way to suppress this voice that has amplified the voices of the oppressed and amplified the voices of people under occupation to the outside world’
People see it as a desperate move to prevent fair coverage of what’s going on on the ground.
Source: Hani Mahmoud – Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera’s pre-recorded final report from Israel as ban enacted
If you’re watching this… then Al Jazeera has been banned in Israel’. Correspondent Imran Khan recorded his last report from occupied East Jerusalem pre-empting the Netanyahu government’s unanimous decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel.
Watch video
Source: Al Jazeera
UPDATE
UN condemns Israeli decision to shut down Al Jazeera
We regret cabinet decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel. 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 govt to overturn ban
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) May 5, 2024
Source: Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera calls Israeli closure ‘criminal act that violates human rights’
Here is the full statement from the Al Jazeera Media Network:
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.
“Targeting journalists is a crime.”
Source: Al Jazeera
Israeli minister says Al Jazeera equipment seized
The equipment was taken during a raid on Al Jazeera’s office in occupied East Jerusalem, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said.
Source: Al Jazeera
Police seize Al Jazeera broadcast equipment as channel pulled off air in Israel
Orders given to cease broadcasting the channel, close its offices in Jerusalem, confiscate equipment, block website; National Unity boycotts vote, saying timing may harm hostage talks.
- Police seized Al Jazeera’s broadcasting equipment from its Jerusalem offices on Sunday afternoon and the Qatari news channel was pulled off the air in Israel, after the government earlier approved a decision to temporarily shutter the outlet on the grounds that it has harmed national security.
- The channel was unavailable on Israel’s two biggest TV providers Yes and Hot by later Sunday afternoon, just hours after the cabinet approved the decision to ban its operations.
Al Jazeera’s English-language and Arabic websites were still online as of Sunday evening through some but not all internet providers.
- In parallel, police officers and Communications Ministry inspectors arrived at Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem offices to confiscate the channel’s broadcast equipment and lock the premises.
Video footage sent out by the office of hardline Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi who led the charge to ban the channel showed the Israeli officials entering the office and beginning to document the equipment inside.
- Earlier on Sunday, the government authorized Karhi to shut Al Jazeera down for a 45-day period, in line with a law passed by the Knesset in April allowing the temporary closure of foreign media outlets deemed to be harming national security.
Immediately after the cabinet decision, Karhi signed four orders instructing Israel’s television providers to cease broadcasting the Al Jazeera channel, as well as instructions to close the network’s two offices in Israel, both in Jerusalem, confiscate the channel’s broadcast equipment, including cellphones; and block access to the Al Jazeera website in Israel.
- “Al Jazeera’s journalists have harmed Israeli security and incited against IDF soldiers,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a joint press release issued together with Karhi’s office following the government decision.
A vote on closing Al Jazeera was postponed on Thursday due to concerns expressed by the heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet that closing the Qatari-backed channel could harm negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, said the National Unity party after the decision was approved. Qatar, which hosts some of the Hamas leadership, plays a central role in the negotiations. National Unity ministers boycotted the Sunday vote.
But Karhi wasted no time in issuing the orders following the cabinet decision, and said that “megaphones for Hamas” would not have freedom of expression in Israel.
- “Too much time has passed and there have been too many unnecessary legal hurdles in order to finally stop the well-oiled incitement machine of Al Jazeera, which harms the security of the state,” said Karhi after signing the orders.
- “We will act immediately against those who use freedom of the press to harm Israeli security and IDF troops, and incite to terrorism at a time of war.”
- In a statement to the press, the minister said that the decision was made “after supporting position papers were received and the prime minister was convinced, in accordance with the law” in reference to the law’s requirements that the security services issue professional opinions that the outlet in question poses a threat to national security.
Netanyahu and Karhi have both claimed that Al Jazeera has caused harm to Israeli national security, but the government has not publicly released evidence of this claim.
- Karhi thanked Netanyahu for his “determination and support against all the odds.”
- Speaking to Reuters, Walid Omary, the head of Al Jazeera in Israel and the Palestinian territories, described the government decision as “dangerous” and motivated by political rather than professional considerations, adding that the network’s legal team was preparing a response.
The channel issued a statement following the decision, condemning it as a “criminal” move by the Israeli government.
- “We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information,” the channel said, adding that it would “pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions” and claiming that “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.”
- The Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign media in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, also condemned the decision to shutter the Al Jazeera news network’s operations in Israel, saying that Israel had joined “a dubious club of authoritarian governments” to ban the station.
“We urge the government to reverse this harmful step and uphold its commitment to freedom of the press — including outlets whose coverage it may not like… This is a dark day for the media. This is a dark day for democracy.”
Under the orders issued by the communications minister, a hard-right member of the Likud party, Al Jazeera’s offices in West and East Jerusalem will now be closed down.
Karhi also ordered that cellphones, except those for personal use, be confiscated along with workstations, cameras, microphones, servers, laptops, external hard drives, video compression equipment and wireless broadcast equipment.
- A separate order instructed television providers to stop broadcasting the Al Jazeera channel, and a fourth order instructed television, cellphone and internet providers to block access to Al Jazeera’s English and Arabic language websites.
- An order to shut down a foreign news channel must be brought within 24 hours for judicial review by the president of a district court, who then has three days to decide whether it will go into effect as issued.
The temporary law passed in April allows foreign media networks to be shuttered for a 45-day period, which can then be renewed.
- The law itself was passed as a temporary law and will expire on July 31 or earlier, if the declaration of an emergency situation is lifted by the government.
The law gives the prime minister and the communications minister the authority to order the temporary closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if it is believed that they are “doing actual harm to state security.”
It is the communications minister who is empowered to issue such orders, but only after receiving the approval of the prime minister and the security cabinet, and after a professional position paper has been presented to the prime minister and the communications minister by the security services detailing the “factual foundations” of allegations that the channel is causing damage to Israel’s national security.
- When the law allowing for foreign news outlets to be shut down was passed in April, Al Jazeera described the allegations against it as “slanderous” and said it held Netanyahu “responsible for the safety of its staff and network premises around the world, following his incitement and this false accusation.”
Although the vote in cabinet was unanimous, the National Unity party led by war cabinet minister Benny Gantz had boycotted the vote, stating afterwards that it supported the measure but that it believed the timing could harm the hostage negotiations, in reference to the position of the Mossad and Shin Bet heads.
- In a statement to the press, the party alleged that Sunday’s vote “stems from political considerations.”
- Economy Minister Nir Barkat described the Qatari network as “the biggest engine of antisemitism in the world,” and welcomed the decision.
- “On the eve of Holocaust Day, the government is sending a strong message against the propaganda arm of the terrorist state of Qatar,” he tweeted.
- “We will not allow Israel’s enemies to broadcast antisemitic propaganda and blood plots from our territory.”
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
Source: TOI