The Israeli government has “decided unanimously” to “close in Israel” the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a message on X, without further details on the measures taken. Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said on X that he “immediately signed the injunction against Al-Jazeera” which “comes into force immediately.” He added that he had ensured that Al-Jazeera “could no longer operate from Israel” and accused the channel of “threatening the security” of the country.
An order to seize the channel’s equipment, signed by Shlomo Karhi, was immediately published. According to this document, instructions are given to enter “equipment used to broadcast the channel’s content”, detailed in a list which includes cameras, microphones, editing tables, computer servers, computers, transmission equipment and mobile phones. .
The director of Al-Jazeera’s bureau in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Walid al-Omari, told the channel that the Israeli decision included “stopping the broadcast of Al-Jazeera in Israel, in Arabic and in English and the closure of Al-Jazeera offices within Israel’s borders”, as well as “the seizure of materials” and the cutting off of access to the channel’s websites from Israel. “This decision comes after a campaign (…) by far-right ministers” in the Israeli government, he said.
“Propaganda”
The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed that Al-Jazeera journalists are “terrorist agents” affiliated with the Hamas movement and its ally Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The channel denies these accusations and accuses Israel of systematically targeting its employees in the Gaza Strip. At least two Al-Jazeera journalists have been killed there since the war began on October 7 and its Gaza bureau chief was injured.
The Israeli Parliament passed a law in early April to prohibit the broadcast in Israel of foreign media that undermine state security, a text targeting the Qatari channel. This text, approved according to an accelerated procedure and by a very large majority (70 for, 10 against), allows the Prime Minister to prohibit the broadcast of the media in question and to close its offices.
Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past accused Al-Jazeera of being “a propaganda organ of Hamas and of having actively participated” in the bloody attack carried out on October 7 in southern Israel. This attack resulted in the death of more than 1,170 people, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. The vast military operation carried out in retaliation by Israel in the Gaza Strip left 34,683 dead, mainly civilians, according to a latest report from Hamas.