Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down news network Al\u00a0Jazeera following the passage Monday of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu said he intended \u201cto act immediately in accordance with the new law\u201d to stop the Qatari-based news outlet\u2019s activity in the country,\u00a0according to a post on social media platform X following the passage of the law. <\/p>\n
Al Jazeera Media Network, which has produced dogged, on the ground reporting of Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza, slammed the decision in a statement, vowing it would not stop the network from continuing its \u201cbold and professional coverage.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new law gives the prime minister and communications minister authority to order the temporary closure of foreign networks operating in Israel \u2013 powers that rights groups say could have far-reaching implications on international media coverage of the war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Its approval by Parliament Monday comes months into Israel\u2019s war against Hamas and as Netanyahu faces mounting public pressure \u2013 and large public protests \u2013 over his handling of operations in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s government has also long complained about Al Jazeera\u2019s operations, alleging anti-Israeli bias. <\/p>\n
In his statement on X Monday, the prime minister\u00a0accused the network of being a trumpet for Hamas and accused it of \u201cactively participating in the October 7 massacre and inciting against IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al Jazeera, which is funded in part by the Qatari government, said these were \u201cslanderous accusations\u201d that \u201cjeopardize\u201d not only the reputation of Al Jazeera but also the safety and rights of its employees worldwide. <\/p>\n
Rights groups condemned the move to shutter Al Jazeera and the law\u2019s potential implications. <\/p>\n
In a statement the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the new legislation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe law grants the government the power to close any foreign media outlets operating in Israel, posing a significant threat to international media within the country,\u201d program director Carlos Mart\u00ednez de la Serna said, adding it would \u201ccontribute to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.\u201d <\/p>\n
The White House also called reports of the move to shutter Al Jazeera \u201cconcerning.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do.\u00a0And that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza,\u201d White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during a press briefing. <\/p>\n
The move also comes during a critical period for relations between the Israeli and Qatari governments. The Gulf State has played a key role in ceasefire negotiations in the on-going war. <\/p>\n
Fighting between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 when Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israel. <\/p>\n
Israeli forces have since launched months of ongoing bombardment and ground operations in the Hamas-ruled enclave of Gaza, where the death toll stands higher than 32,000, according to the Ministry of Health in the strip. <\/p>\n
The new law places a raft of restrictions on Al Jazeera in Israel, giving the government authority to take action against offices operated by the network and confiscate equipment and reporters\u2019 press cards. It can also restrict its broadcasts and public access to its website. <\/p>\n
Al Jazeera has an office in Jerusalem, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza. <\/p>\n
Since the start of the war, it has\u00a0produced critical, on-the-ground coverage of Israeli military operations and their humanitarian impact on the embattled enclave. <\/p>\n
Last month, a United Nation\ufeffs spokesperson condemned the reported arrest and assault of Al\u00a0Jazeera\u00a0Arabic correspondent Ismail\u00a0Al-Ghoul while he was reporting from the\u00a0Al\u00a0Shifa Medical\u00a0Complex in Gaza City. <\/p>\n
Several Al Jazeera reporters and their family members have also been killed in Israeli air strikes, according to the network. <\/p>\n
On October 25, an air raid killed the family of Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, including his wife, son, daughter, grandson and at least eight other relatives, it said. <\/p>\n
Al Jazeera broadcast Dahdouh as he walked into the morgue to view the bodies of his family in a heart-wrenching moment that provided a window for the world into the grief and loss experienced by many Gaza residents as Israeli\u2019s military operations got underway. <\/p>\n
Israeli\u2019s passage of the law and move to ban the network comes amid mounting concerns from press freedom groups about causalities among journalists operating in war zones there and what they describe as obstruction of journalistic work by Israeli authorities. <\/p>\n
As of April 1, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists\u2019 preliminary investigations showed at least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began. <\/p>\n
Palestinian journalists, including those working for a handful of international news agencies still operating inside Gaza, are vital witnesses to what is happening there. Israel\u2019s military have taken some foreign reporters inside Gaza on a small number of escorted trips since October 7. But both Israel and Egypt, which control Gaza\u2019s borders, have so far refused to let international journalists have unfettered access. <\/p>\n\n
Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down news network Al\u00a0Jazeera following the passage Monday of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security. Netanyahu said he intended \u201cto act immediately in accordance with the new law\u201d to stop the Qatari-based news outlet\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}