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The Legendary Troll Kingdom
JERUSALEM — Israel’s government moved Sunday to shut down the Al Jazeera Media Network’s operations in Israel, clamping down on one of the few international broadcasters providing largely uninterrupted coverage of the Gaza war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision followed a unanimous vote by Israel’s war cabinet, posting on X that “the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.” In a separate statement, he accused Al Jazeera correspondents of having “harmed the security of Israel” and said “the time has come to eject Hamas’s mouthpiece from our country.”
Israel’s actions placed it in the company of several autocratic countries in the region that have tried to stifle the network — which has attracted praise and controversy since it was founded nearly 30 years ago and helped reshape the media landscape in the Arab world.
“This is a dark day for the media,” the board of Israel’s Foreign Press Association said in a statement. “This is a dark day for democracy.” The move also threatened to rankle Qatar, Al Jazeera’s sponsor, at a time when the country is playing a key role as mediator in cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and Israel. On Sunday afternoon, several uniformed and plainclothes Israeli officers were seen by a Washington Post reporter entering one of Al Jazeera’s offices in a hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The officers carted out camera equipment, cases and cardboard boxes as a group of photographers looked on. “They confiscated the equipment and closed the office, as per the order,” Stefanie Dekker, a senior foreign correspondent for Al Jazeera English, said as she left the office, referring to the government edict shutting down the channel.
In a statement Sunday, the network criticized what it called a “deceptive and slanderous move,” occurring less than a week after World Press Freedom Day.
“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information. Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences,” it said. It added that its news websites had been blocked and some transmissions halted in Israel, while its staff had accreditations withdrawn. The network said it “vehemently rejects the allegations presented by Israeli authorities suggesting professional media standards have been violated,” and accused Israel of attempting to “conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip.” It was not immediately clear whether the government order would affect the channel’s operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, or the ability of visiting correspondents for the channel to remain in Israel.
Imran Khan, another senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English, said in a post on Instagram that the ban “was only from Israel” and would not stop the channel from broadcasting from the West Bank or Gaza.
The network was created in 1996 and includes English- and Arabic-language news channels, as well as news websites and a large social media presence. Funded by the Qatari government, it quickly became known for hosting freewheeling debates on delicate topics, previously unheard of on state-run Arab media. Its audience grew as it covered the U.S.-led military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Arab Spring uprisings that began in late 2010. In recent years, the Arabic-language channels have earned the ire of regional governments for giving space to Islamist groups, including militant organizations like Hamas, which frequently provides the network with exclusives. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, Al Jazeera reporters across the enclave have provided intimate and highly critical coverage of Israel’s military operations. Other international outlets have been barred by Israel and Egypt from entering Gaza. The channel’s employees in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories have repeatedly come under fire over the years.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American correspondent for the network, was killed by Israeli gunfire while on assignment in the West Bank in May 2022.
Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, Walid Omary, told the network Sunday that there have been more than 50 attacks against Al Jazeera journalists since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people inside Israel.