Israel’s government bans Al Jazeera in Israel

The Israeli government has voted unanimously to shut down the Qatar-based media station Al Jazeera in Israel.

– The government, led by me, decided unanimously: the channel Al Jazeera will be banned in Israel, writes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X/Twitter.

The government has not determined when the decision will come into force.

The reason is that the news organization, which is funded by the authorities in Qatar, allegedly spreads disinformation and anti-semitic propaganda, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli government has authorized Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to ban the channel’s broadcasts in Israel, both in Arabic and English, reports the newspaper Haaretz.

Shortly afterwards, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced that the government had ordered the equipment of the TV channel to be seized. This applies to cameras, editing equipment, microphones, computers, as well as wireless equipment and some mobile phones.

Karhi has the authority to ban the channel from broadcasting news for 45 days, based on the recent law regulating the shutdown of media organizations.

The Israeli National Assembly passed a new law which allows for foreign national broadcasters to be closed temporarily, if they are considered a threat to national security in connection with Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

Important role in the coverage of the war

According to Reuters, Al Jazeera is preparing a possible legal appeal against the decision.

Al Jazeera has played an important role in the press coverage of the war in the Gaza Strip as it is one of the few media that still has its own journalists and photographers inside the Palestinian area.

Several of the channel’s journalists have been killed and wounded in Israeli attacks.

Israel has long accused Al Jazeera of being one-sided and biased. Already ten years ago, then Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman advocated banning the channel from operating in Israel.

The TV channel is headquartered in Qatar, the country that also houses Hamas’ leadership in exile, which is a mediator in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The channel is publicly funded, and the closure of Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel could also lead to a more tense relationship between Israel and Qatar.

Attack on freedom of the press

– I am very concerned about news reports that the Israeli authorities will ban Al Jazeera in Israel.

This is what Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) says to TV 2 on Sunday. The media station is used by many in other parts of the world, who want to keep up to date with what is happening in the region.

– The world community is completely dependent on the media to get reliable information about the situation. Banning a news medium like Al Jazeera is a direct attack on press freedom, he says further.

No longer considered a liberal democracy

Israel has long considered itself the only democracy in the Middle East.

But in a report by the renowned V-Dem Institute, which came out in March, Israel lost its status as a liberal democracy.

The fall was primarily due to a decline in areas such as transparency and predictability.