2024-05-05 12:13:28
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday decided to temporarily shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in the Jewish state. The Israeli cabinet asserted that the Qatari television network “threatened national security”, news agency Reuters reported.
“The incitement channel, Al Jazeera, will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu said after the cabinet decision.
Israel’s communications minister signed a decree to “act immediately”, a government statement said. But one lawmaker who backed the move said Al Jazeera could challenge the decision in court.
According to the order, Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel will be shut, its broadcast equipment will be confiscated and its channel will be cut off from cable and satellite companies. Also, the company’s websites will be blocked as per the measure.
Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government, which has been critical of Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza. The network has reported extensively on the war in Gaza, although Israel’s government statement did not mention the company’s Gaza operations.
Last month, the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, ratified a law that allowed the temporary closure of foreign news networks in Israel considered to be a national security threat.
The law allows Netanyahu and his powerful security cabinet to shut down Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel for 45 days and it can be extended further to any period or after the end of military operations in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s head in Israel and the Palestinian territories called the Israeli cabinet’s decision to shut down its offices “dangerous”. The company said the decision was politically driven rather than professional considerations.
Al Jazeera’s legal team was preparing a lawsuit, Walid Omary told Reuters, in what could be a plea challenging the Israeli government’s decision.
Significantly, the move came even as Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders, was making attempts to chalk out a ceasefire and hostage release deal that could stop the fighting in Gaza.
The war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s sudden all-out attack on Israel on October 7 last year, has claimed more than 34,000 lives and injured thousands of others.
(with inputs from Reuters)
