Three points to understand the ban on Al Jazeera in Israel

Over the weekend, the Israeli government banned Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country, a month after the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) passed a law temporarily banning any foreign media that “harms the security of the State”.

The closure is valid for 45 days, but this period can be renewed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government argues that Al Jazeera supports Hamas, against whom the Israelis have been waging war in the Gaza Strip since October 7 in response to the terrorist group’s attacks on Israeli territory.

“There will be no freedom of expression for Hamas trumpets in Israel. Al Jazeera will be closed immediately and its equipment will be confiscated,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said in a joint statement with Netanyahu.

Check out three points below to understand the subject:

Measures taken by Israel

The order from the Ministry of Communications determined the seizure of devices “used to broadcast the channel’s content”, including cameras, editing equipment, laptops and cell phones belonging to professionals at the Qatari broadcaster.

Agence France-Presse reported that Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem office was closed and images posted on social media showed Israeli authorities removing equipment from an East Jerusalem hotel used by the broadcaster.

Al Jazeera itself reported that its website is also banned in Israel.

The accusations

The Netanyahu government claims that Al Jazeera is the “mouthpiece of Hamas” in Israel. In addition to publishing images of civilians affected by the war in Gaza, the station also frequently broadcasts videos with statements from leaders of Hamas and other terrorist groups, highlighted the American magazine Time.

Furthermore, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) alleged that employees of the station are members of Hamas, according to reports in the Times of Israel newspaper.

Journalist Ismail Abu Omar, injured in Gaza in February, was accused by the IDF of being a deputy company commander in Hamas’s Khan Younis East Battalion.

According to Israeli forces, Abu Omar entered Israel during the October 7 attacks and took interior images of kibbutz Nir O, where dozens of residents were killed or kidnapped.

The IDF also reported that documents recovered from a laptop revealed that another Al Jazeera reporter, Mohamed Washah, was the commander of a Hamas anti-tank missile unit and also collaborated with the terrorist group’s air unit.

Two Al Jazeera journalists who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in January have also been accused of being terrorists: Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, both “actively involved in attacks against the IDF,” Israeli forces argued.

The IDF claimed that a document found by its troops in Gaza proved that Thuria was a member of Hamas’ Gaza City Brigade, as deputy squad commander in one of the battalions, while Dahdouh was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The IDF noted that documents revealed he had served in Islamic Jihad’s electronics engineering unit and was previously deputy commander of the Zeitoun Battalion’s rocket force.

Al Jazeera denied its professionals’ links to terrorism and accused Israel of deliberately targeting the broadcaster’s journalists, which was denied by the IDF.

Headquartered in Doha, Al Jazeera is financed in part by the government of Qatar, the country where the political arm of Hamas maintains its office.

Repercussion

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) considered that the decision to close Al Jazeera places Israel “in a dubious club of authoritarian governments”. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) considered that the measure “establishes an extremely alarming precedent for restricting international media outlets operating in Israel.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) filed a request to the Supreme Court for the ban to be lifted and argued that it serves “a politically motivated agenda aimed at silencing critical voices.”