The nation of Israel has ordered all offices of Qatar’s media news company, Al Jazeera, to be closed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ordered all the offices of Al Jazeera to leave their operations on Sunday.
Videos uploaded on X show Israeli authorities confiscating media equipment and escorting Al Jazeera employees from their offices.
Israel also has shut down Al Jazeera’s media broadcast and has blocked its website inside of Israel.
Take a look at some of the scenes:
🇵🇸🇮🇱 Israeli police raid and clear out Al Jazeera's office in Tel Aviv.
This comes after the Israeli government announced that they will be shutting down Al Jazeera's broadcasting.
Very democratic.
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) May 5, 2024
Israeli forces have raided Al Jazeera offices in Jerusalem.
They took away journalists' equipment.
Biden would've been on the lawn of the White House condemning and crying about this if it happened in Russia.
Israel has to stop killing and attacking journalists. pic.twitter.com/elnpbgQt90
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) May 5, 2024
Here’s what The Associated Press reported:
Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.
The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country.
Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable and satellite providers in the hours after the order. However, its website and multiple online streaming links still operated Sunday.
The network has reported the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack Oct. 7 and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its staff. While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups.
We regret cabinet decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel. A free & independent media is essential to ensuring transparency & accountability. Now, even more so given tight restrictions on reporting from Gaza. Freedom of expression is a key human right. We urge govt to overturn ban
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) May 5, 2024
Per CNN:
Israel has ordered the closure of Al Jazeera in the country, a move the Qatar-based news network called a “criminal act.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: “The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.”
Ofir Gendelman, the prime minister’s spokesperson to the Arab world, said Sunday that the decision would be “implemented immediately.”
In a post on X, Gendelman said that the network’s “broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel’s correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera’s websites will be blocked on the Internet.”
The Israeli Ministry of Communications said Sunday it had closed the network’s Jerusalem offices, and confiscated its communication equipment. “In addition, the network’s broadcasts on cable and satellite were stopped, and access to its websites was blocked,” the ministry said.
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