Global news channel Al Jazeera reported on Sunday that armed and masked Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and ordered it closed for 45 days. This is the latest incident in a long-running feud between Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This has worsened during the ongoing war in Gaza.
Al Jazeera has been reporting live on the impact of Israel’s campaign since the war began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel. The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Qatar-based network journalists of having ties to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad. Al Jazeera has strongly denied Israel’s allegations. In addition, Al Jazeera says that Israel systematically targets its personnel in the Gaza Strip.
Four Al Jazeera journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza began. The network’s offices in Gaza were also bombed. Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army did not give a reason for the closure order.
“There is a court decision to close Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari in a conversation broadcast live on the network. According to the footage, the soldier said, “I request you to take all the cameras and leave the office right now.”
According to Al Jazeera, Omari said the order accused the network of ‘inciting and supporting terrorism’. “The purpose of targeting journalists in this way is always to suppress the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” Omari said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Sunday’s action as a “gross violation” of press freedom. “Closing the Al Jazeera office confirms the occupation’s efforts to block the media from reporting (Israeli) occupation violations against the Palestinian people,” said Mohammed Abu al-Rub, director of the Palestinian Authority’s government media office, which has partial administrative control over the West Bank.
In April, Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing it to ban foreign media broadcasts deemed harmful to state security. Based on the law, the Israeli government approved a decision on May 5 to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel and close its offices for an initial 45 days, and last week the Tel Aviv Court extended it for the fourth time. Al Jazeera condemned the court’s decision as ‘criminal’ and said it violates the human right to information.
The Israeli government announced last week that it would revoke the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country. The shutdown did not affect Al Jazeera’s broadcasts from the West Bank or Gaza Strip, where it still covers Israel’s war with Palestinian militants. Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim said the closure of the network’s West Bank office was not “surprising” following earlier restrictions on reporting from inside Israel. “We heard that the Israeli authorities threatened to close the bureau”, he said.
The media office of the Hamas-ruled government in Gaza condemned Sunday’s raid, saying in a statement that it was “a grave insult and a clear violation of press freedom.” Qatar, which partially finances Al Jazeera, was also the base of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas. Hania was killed in an attack in Tehran in July. Iran and Hamas accused Israel of being involved in Hania’s murder.
