"The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed": Netanyahu govt shuts down Al Jazeera in Israel
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Jerusalem, May 7: In a significant development, Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office. This comes after his cabinet unanimously authorised the closure of Al Jazeera’s operations in line with a law passed by the Knesset in April.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet shut down the network for as long as the war in Gaza continues, saying it threatened national security.
Al Jazeera said the move was a "criminal action" and the accusation that the network threatened Israeli security was a "dangerous and ridiculous lie" that put its journalists at risk. It reserved the right to "pursue every legal step”.
The cabinet approved the decision in line with a law passed in April by the Knesset, allowing the government to temporarily shut down Al Jazeera in Israel. The so-called Al Jazeera law allowed the govt to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are deemed by the security services to be harming national security. After the law was passed, PM Netanyahu had said that Qatar-funded Al Jazeera will no longer be allowed to broadcast from Israel.
Also Read: Israel passes law to ban Qatari-funded Al Jazeera, PM Netanyahu calls it ‘terrorist channel’
Following the government decision, PM Netanyahu and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi released a joint press release. In the press release, Netanyahu described the Qatari-funded news channel as a mouthpiece of Hamas.
הממשלה בראשותי החליטה פה אחד: ערוץ ההסתה אל ג׳זירה ייסגר בישראל.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 5, 2024
תודה לשר @shlomo_karhi
He said, “Al Jazeera’s journalists have harmed Israeli security and incited against IDF soldiers. The time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.” Taking to X, he wrote in Hebrew, “The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.”