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Edited by: Fern Sidman
Israeli forces stormed the Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah on Sunday, presenting the Qatari-based news channel with an order to close its office in the West Bank city for 45 days. According to The Times of Israel, the raid was part of a broader effort by Israeli authorities to curb the network’s incitement and support for terrorism. The closure follows months of mounting tensions between Israel and the Qatar-based channel, which has faced accusations of propagating anti-Israel and pro-Hamas rhetoric.
Burnol moment for Liber@ls!
Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, West Bank, enforcing 45-day shutdown of bureau.
Heavily armed Israeli soldiers entered building & delivered closure order to network’s bureau chief Walid al-Omari, ordering removal of all cameras… pic.twitter.com/2uC6cIC7AL
— BhikuMhatre (@MumbaichaDon) September 22, 2024
Live footage aired by Al Jazeera showed heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers entering the Ramallah office, handing over a military closure order to the station’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari. According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli soldier who delivered the order cited a court ruling that mandated the closure of Al Jazeera’s office for 45 days. The soldier is seen telling al-Omari, “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” before the broadcast was cut off.
Enough! No More Al-Jizz!
Al-Jazeera broadcasted live the closure of its offices in Ramallah.
IDF forces raided the offices, confiscated documents and equipment, and shut down the location for 45 days pic.twitter.com/b9KsUTEiu1
— ((🆆3⃣🅱🆂🜃🅶3⃣)) 🇮🇱 I Stand with Israel! 🇮🇱 (@w3bsag3) September 22, 2024
Al Jazeera reported that the order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism,” charges that have frequently been levied against the channel by Israeli officials. As reported by The Times of Israel, Omari described the closure as part of a broader attempt to suppress the truth and prevent the public from understanding the realities of the conflict. “Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” Omari said.
The raid and subsequent closure follow previous actions by Israeli authorities to restrict Al Jazeera’s operations. In recent months, Israeli officials have voiced increasing criticism of the network’s coverage, which they argue fuels unrest and supports Hamas. Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim noted that this closure came as no surprise, given the network had already faced a ban on reporting from inside Israel. “We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau,” Ibrahim told The Times of Israel. “But we had not been expecting it to happen today.”
According to The Times of Israel, another Al Jazeera journalist confirmed that staff were prevented from filming the raid, and their equipment, including cameras, was confiscated during the operation. This further disrupted the network’s ability to document the actions of Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, an issue that has been a point of contention between Al Jazeera and the Israeli government.
🚫 Qatari news network #AlJazeera‘s Ramallah office was raided by the IDF today, who closed the bureau for the next 45 days.
▸Israeli courts have determined there exists a “close connection” between Al Jazeera and Hamas and the Knesset passed an emergency closure law in May. pic.twitter.com/8TBPhlxflM— Jewish News Syndicate (@JNS_org) September 22, 2024
In response to the closure, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the move, calling it an “arbitrary military decision” and a violation of press freedoms. The Syndicate’s statement, as reported by The Times of Israel, emphasized the critical role that journalists play in exposing what it described as the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people. The statement added that the closure of the bureau represented yet another attempt to silence media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The closure of Al Jazeera’s West Bank office marks a significant escalation in the Israeli government’s efforts to control media narratives in the region. Israeli officials have long accused Al Jazeera of stoking tensions through biased coverage that they claim favors Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups. The network, however, maintains that it provides comprehensive coverage of the conflict, including the experiences of Palestinians living under occupation.
As per the information provided in The Times of Israel report, Israeli forces raided a Jerusalem hotel room in May that was being used as Al Jazeera’s local office after the government ordered the network’s closure. The move followed the passage of an emergency law in April, which allowed Israel to suspend Al Jazeera’s broadcasts for an initial 45-day period, with the possibility of additional extensions subject to court approval.
The shutdown was justified on the grounds that Al Jazeera’s coverage posed a direct risk to Israeli security. The Times of Israel also reported that the Tel Aviv District Court has extended the network’s ban four times since its initial implementation, most recently last week. Under this law, the network has been taken off the air in Israel, and its ability to broadcast content from within the country has been blocked.
A key element of the legal ruling revolves around the court’s findings of a connection between Al Jazeera’s content and terrorist activity inside Israel. In a June decision, the court determined that there was a “direct and causal connection” between individuals who carried out terror attacks in Israel and their consumption of Al Jazeera’s broadcasts. According to the information contained in The Times of Israel report, the court further found that there was a “close connection” between Al Jazeera and Hamas, alleging that some of the network’s reporters in Gaza had aligned themselves with the Palestinian terror group. The report added that the court went so far as to accuse certain Al Jazeera journalists of becoming “assistants and partners” with Hamas, and that some had even participated in terror attacks themselves.
Despite the ban on its operations in Israel, Al Jazeera’s coverage of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas remains unaffected in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where the network continues to report. The Times of Israel report emphasized that Al Jazeera has maintained its presence in these territories, providing extensive coverage of the war that erupted on October 7, when Hamas launched a devastating cross-border assault on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The Israeli government’s moves to suppress Al Jazeera’s presence within its borders is based on the network’s agenda of fueling unrest and inciting violence. Israeli officials have long accused Al Jazeera of a pro-Hamas bias, a charge the network has consistently denied, asserting its commitment to objective journalism. However, the Knesset law passed in April gave Israeli authorities the legal framework to act decisively against the network, marking a significant development in the country’s approach to media regulation during times of conflict.
While Al Jazeera has faced criticism for its coverage from various Israeli officials, its reporting is widely followed across the Middle East, especially in territories under Palestinian control.
