20 minutes agoIsrael raides and shuts down Al Jazeera's Western Coast office
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)Israeli troops raided the Al Jazeera Canal offices in Ramallah in the Western Coast occupied by Israel in the early hours of the morning of 22 September, ordering the office's closure. This is the latest action in an extensive Israeli campaign against Qatar-funded broadcaster, while the latter reports on [...]
Israeli troops raided the Al Jazeera Canal offices in Ramallah in the Western Coast occupied by Israel in the early hours of the morning of 22 September, ordering the office's closure. This is the latest action in an expanded Israeli campaign against Qatar-funded broadcaster, while the latter reports the Israeli-Haams war in the Gaza Strip.
In its Arabic channel, Al Jazeera broadcast live pictures as Israeli troops ordered the office's closure for 45 days. This comes after an order issued in May, when Israeli police raided Al Jazeera's transmission site in eastern Jerusalem, confiscated equipment and banned broadcasts in Israel, as well as blocking its websites.
This was the first time Israel closed a foreign media operating in the country. However, Al Jazeera continued to operate on Israel's occupied West Coast and Gaza Strip, territories that Palestinians hope to have in their next country.
The Israeli army did not respond to the demand for a comment by the Associated Press. Al Jazeera condemned the move as she continued live broadcasts from Amman to neighboring Jordans.
Armed Israeli troops entered the office and told a journalist, live on air, that the office would be closed, saying the staff should leave immediately. Later, the network broadcast images of Israeli troops destroying a banner on the balcony from Al Jazeera's office. According to Al Jazeeras, the banner contained an image of Shireen Abu Akle, a Palestinian-American journalist killed by Israeli forces in May 2022.
“There is a court ruling for the closure of Al Jazeera for 45 days”, an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera's local office chief, Walid al-Omar, on broadcasting live. “I ask you to take all cameras and leave the office at this moment”.
Al-Omar later said Israeli troops began confiscated documents and equipment in the office, while tear gas and shooting could be seen and heard in that area.
The Palestinians secured limited autonomy in Gaza and parts of the West Coast through the 1993 Oslo accords. While Israel covers and controls vast areas of the West Coast, Ramallah is under the full political and security control of Palestinians, making the Israeli raid on the office of unexpected Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian Journalists' union condemned the Israeli raid and order.
This arbitrary military decision is a new aggression against journalistic work and media”, the union said.
The Palestinian authority manages parts of the West Coast. His forces were expelled from Gaza when Hamas took power in 2007 and now there is no power there.
Later, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi described the raid as an act on Hamas and Hezbollah <x0nd).
“We will continue to fight enemy channels and ensure the protection of our heroic fighters”, Karhi wrote on the social platform X. He did not address on what legal basis Israel ordered the closure of the office.
New York's Committee for Journalists Protection said it was “deeply concerned” from the Israeli raid.
“Gasers must be protected and allowed to work freely”, the committee said.
The network has repeatedly reported on the Israeli-Hamas war since the first attack by the Palestinian group declared terrorist organisations by the US and the EU on 7 October and has held 24-hour broadcasts from Gaza between Israel's air and land offensive, which has caused casualties in its staff ranks. It remains unclear whether the Israeli Army will also target Al Jazeera operations in Gaza.
Supporting domestic reports of war victims, Al Jazeera's Arab wing often publishes video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups.
This has led to charges by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the network has “damaged Israel's security and pushed against soldiers”. These charges are strongly denied by Al Jazeera, which is financed mainly by Qatar, which has played a key role in negotiations between Israel and Hamas for achieving a ceasefire to end the war.
An order to close Al Jazeera in Israel has been repeated repeatedly since then, but had not yet been ordered to close its offices in Ramallah.
The Israeli government has taken measures against particular journalists over the decades since its founding in 1948, but generally allows a varied media scene involving foreign offices from around the world, even Arab countries. It also blocked foreign broadcasts of the Beyru-based Al Mayadeen news channel, linked to Hezbollah at the beginning of the war.
Critical Al Jazeeras are not new. The US government singled out the broadcaster during the invasion of Iraq by America after its 2003 invasion that overturned dictator Saddam Hussein and for broadcasting videos of the former head of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
Al Jazeera has been shut down or blocked by other Middle Eastern governments.
In 2013, Egyptian authorities raided a luxury hotel used by Al Jazeera as an operational base after the military took power that followed mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi. Three members of Al Jazeera's staff received prison sentences of 10 years, but were released in 2015 following widespread international criticism.
Israel-Haams war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, in an October 7th attack south of Israel. They kidnapped about 250 other people and still hold about 100 hostages. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The closure of Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah also occurs as tensions continue to rise for a possible expansion of the war in Lebanon, where electronic devices erupted last week in a possible sabotage campaign by Israel against Hezbollah.
The blasts Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people, including two children, and injured about 3,000 others in Lebanon. /rel
