Al Jazeera news network banned in Israel: 'threat to Israeli security'
Israel has, with the approval of Netanyahu, ordered a temporary closure of Al Jazeera News Network activities in the country.
Responding to the Israeli government’s decision, the Qatar-based news network, Al Jazeera, described the action as a “criminal act.”.
However, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his latest on X, claimed Al Jazeera News Network’s presence harms the country’s security.
“The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister’s spokesperson, Ofir Gendelman, stated on Sunday that the country’s decision to ban Al Jazeera network would be “carried out quickly”
Writing in a post on X, Gendelman that Al jazeera network’s “broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel’s correspondents will be prevented from working.”
Adding that “The channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera’s websites will be blocked on the Internet.”
Israeli cable providers ceased carrying the Al Jazeera networks by late Sunday afternoon, CNN reported.
Also in one of his recent speeches, Netanyahu had made claims of Al Jazeera News Network posing threat Israel’s security.
“Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited IDF soldiers. It is time to expel the mouthpiece of Hamas from our country,” Gendelman quoted Netanyahu.
Video obtained by CNN showed Israeli police accompanied by agents of the Israel Security Agency entering Al Jazeera’s broadcasting position in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Meanwhile, further reacting to the decision by Israeli cabinets, Al Jazeera condemned the Israeli cabinet’s decision, saying, “Israel’s suppression of the free press to cover up its crimes by killing and arresting journalists did not deter us from performing our duty. More than 140 Palestinian journalists have been martyred for the sake of the truth since the beginning of the war on Gaza.”
Several of the network’s journalists working in Gaza have been injured or killed since October 7, according to sources.
In its defense, Al Jazeera deemed Israel’s claims “false allegations” and “violation of the professional frameworks governing media work.”
It called on the media and World’s human rights groups “to condemn the Israeli authorities’ repeated attacks on the press and journalists.”
The move comes a month after Netanyahu vowed to shut down the television channel in the country following the passage of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security, according CNN’s report.
Earlier April Netanyahu wrote on his X social media handle that Israel must “act immediately in accordance with the new law” to end all activities of Al Jazeera News Network in the country.
Before the raid Israel’s government had made complaints about spotting some elements of ‘slanted’ or rather anti-Israeli method of reporting by the News outlet – hinting that it would close its operations in the country.
But, responding to this, Al Jazeera trashed the Israeli government’s threat to ban it, and maintained that it must continue its “bold and professional coverage.”
The law made by the government of Israel empowered the Israeli Prime Minister and the minister of communications with the ability to issue an order that will temporarily close foreign News Networks in Israel.
Please, follow us on X @Epicstoriannews for more World News and politics and Africa News exclusive News updates
A move which does not sit well with human rights organizations, noting that it could hamper free flow of information, especially reports from Gaza and other potentially war-raging zones within the middle East.
