Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his cabinet had voted to close the Israeli operations of Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based network that is a major news source in the Arab world and has often highlighted the suffering civilians in Gaza during the Israeli war. war with Hamas.
Mr. Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera, which has long had tense relations with Israel, of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers. Israeli officials did not immediately provide examples of Al Jazeera content that they said posed a threat.
In a statement in Arabic, Al Jazeera called the decision a “criminal act.” “Israel’s crackdown on the free press to cover up its crimes has not deterred us from our duty,” the channel said.
The initial closure order is for 45 days, with an option to extend for another 45 days, according to a Communications Ministry official. The order focuses on shutting down Al Jazeera’s ability to transmit and be seen in Israel; It was not immediately clear whether the shutdown could affect the network’s reporting in Gaza and the West Bank.
Mr. Netanyahu has previously called the network a “mouthpiece” for Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza and carried out the October 7 cross-border attacks that sparked the war.
Journalistic organizations have denounced this closure, under discussion for weeks in Israel, as an attack on press freedom. Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned this decision, which it describes as repressive. The Foreign Press Association said Israel had joined “a dubious club of authoritarian governments” that banned the station.
This decision is rare on the part of the Israeli government, although it also closed a Lebanese channel, Al Mayadeen, in November, a little more than a month after the October 7 attacks. Al Mayadeen is affiliated with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese organization that has been involved in retaliatory strikes across the Israel-Lebanon border since the start of the war. It was closed for two months.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said in a video statement that “Al Jazeera’s equipment would be confiscated.”
There are signs that Israeli officials are acting quickly: HOT, Israel’s main cable operator, said it had stopped broadcasting the network, and Israeli police said they accompanied government officials who confiscated equipment at an office of Al Jazeera, in a hotel in East Jerusalem and closed it. Israel occupied majority-Palestinian east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and then annexed it. The Communications Ministry said in a statement that access to Al Jazeera’s websites would also be blocked, although they were still accessible Sunday evening.
But this closure could have broader consequences: Qatar, which helps finance the network, helped mediate ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, alongside Egypt and the United States. . The Qatari government did not immediately comment on Israel’s action.
The National Unity Party led by Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet and former military chief, said in a statement Sunday that it supported the fence, but that the timing was unfortunate because it could “sabotage” the delicate negotiations.
Mr. Gantz’s party said the timing stemmed from “political considerations,” perhaps alluding to Mr. Netanyahu’s need to appease the more radical members of his party and his right-wing governing coalition.
Mr Netanyahu said on social media that the government under his leadership had unanimously decided to suspend the channel’s operations. “The hate-mongering channel Al Jazeera will be shut down in Israel,” he said.
The vote came after Israeli legislation last month passed a bill allowing the government to temporarily shut down foreign media outlets that Mr. Netanyahu said undermined national security.
At the start of the war, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, declared that Al Jazeera’s content posed a danger to national security. Other Israeli security services, including the military, have also supported limitations on the channel’s operations, according to an official government document outlining the legal opinion of the Israeli National Security Council. But the Shin Bet’s full assessment was classified, the document said.
Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language coverage has often been criticized by Israel, which accuses it of amplifying Hamas’s point of view and uncritically reporting its calls for violence. On October 7, the day of the attacks from Gaza, Al Jazeera repeatedly covered statements by Hamas officials calling for a violent uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
By law, government action must be approved by a district court judge. Within three days after the closure order comes into force, the court may decide to modify it or to modify the duration of the closure.
The war in Gaza has taken a toll on network employees and their families. In October, Wael al-Dahdouh, Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language service, was informed live that his wife, son, daughter and infant grandson had been killed in the center of Gaza, where they had taken refuge. In January, his eldest son was killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to Gaza authorities.
Liam Pile, Adam Rasgon And John Reiss reports contributed.
