The Israeli cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to shut down Al Jazeera, and Israeli police raided the Qatari media outlet’s office following the decision.
The broad order shuts down Al Jazeera broadcasts, allows the confiscation of its equipment, and blocks the outlet’s website. Israeli police confiscated cameras and other equipment from a hotel room that Al Jazeera has been using as an office.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Al Jazeera a “Hamas mouthpiece” and claimed the outlet’s coverage had put Israeli troops in danger. “Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers,” he said.
The US has also criticized Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Back in October, Axios reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had asked the Qataris to “turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement.”
Al Jazeera slammed the Israeli move and said it would “pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions” to fight the ban.
“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law,” the outlet said in a statement.
Al Jazeera also mentioned Israel’s targeting of journalists in Gaza, as over 100 have been killed in the bombing campaign. “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats will not deter Al Jazeera,” the statement said.
Israel took action against Al Jazeera under a new law that gives the government the power to shut down any foreign news outlet. The ban lasts for 45 days but can be extended for further 45 day periods.
I thought Israel was a Democracy? Does anyone in Congress, Biden Administration, Israel know what a Democracy is? Are we going to hear criticism from any Western Nation, about shutting down the “Press”? India isn’t allowing Al Jazeera to cover their election, because it to is a Democracy and Modi, like Netanyahu, is another self-made God in their eyes only. Sadly the word Democracy has lost it’s meaning, it is only used as a tool for brainwashing.
Any one that criticizes the Israeli government is a criminal in their eyes.
They simply abuse their mandate and trample on basic rights.
Can’t have legitimate journalism in a world of blood thirsty lunacy.
Not the first time this POS tried to kill off reporting:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/15/israeli-strikes-destroy-gaza-jalaa-tower-media-al-jazeera-associated-press
“Israel took action against Al Jazeera under a new law!” Wait!? wut. All they needed to do is make up “new laws?” Nice! Carry on! …What’s that? …Putin? No. Putin can’t. …He’s too stupid to make up “new laws” and make it look good.
I would not dare to call Putin stupid NA, certainly not.
I say that to keep our Polish neighbor happy and away. Compared to our so called “Leaders of the Free World,” Putin has more sense and more importantly, he cares deeply about the future of his country.
No witnesses.
If Israel does not have a free prress, then they are not a democracy.
If they are not a democracy, then why are we spending so much to defend them?
Freedom of the Press is one of the most important ideologies in our democratic system, here, in the US.
Maybe it is time for little baby Israel , to grow up and face the frigging Democratic values, that many of us still uphold n our own countries.
Another dog and pony show from the 2nd biggest asshole on the planet.
I see many people really think that Israel was maybe a democracy before this. It never was. It was an ethnocracy that pretended to have liberal values because that suits Western sensitivities better. What is different now is that said good bye to the pretenses.
Its appearances are now better in line with the nature of the Zionist state as it now unapolegetically presents itself as a brutal Apartheid regime that has gone full fascistic, hiding its shame with a fig leaf of theocracy and the most cynical exploitation of a faux victimhood culture that ever existed.
And so while the Zionist state is engaging in the atrocities it desires, is commiting genocide with the indispensible assistance of the world’s late sole superpower against a people half of which are children, it is answering to the evil that is at the core of the Zionist ideology.
And so it is at war with the consciences of students, it is at war with journalism to the precise extent that it is deserving of the title – as Goebbels would have his press too. It is at war with core democratic values, with human values, it is at war with anything that is worth preserving about the West, it is at war with the future of humanity.
Well said, brother.