JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to “act immediately to stop” Al Jazeera’s operations in the country after the Israeli parliament approved a law that grants senior ministers powers to shut down foreign news networks deemed a security risk.
“Al Jazeera will no longer be broadcast from Israel,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X after the law was approved in its final readings on Monday. “I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity.”
Netanyahu has long sought to shutter broadcasts from the Qatari-based media outlet, alleging anti-Israel bias.
The law, which passed in a 70-10 vote in the Knesset, gives the prime minister and the communications minister the authority to order the closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if it is believed they pose “harm to the state’s security”.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday if reports are true that Israel is trying to shut down Al Jazeera, it would be “deeply concerning”.
Long campaign
The legislation’s passage comes nearly five months after Israel said it would block Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October, Israel’s government has passed wartime regulations allowing it to temporarily close foreign media deemed a threat to its national interests with the consent of the courts.
It refrained from shuttering Al Jazeera at the same time. However, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said at the time that he hoped the measures would be used against Qatar-owned Al Jazeera.
Karhi accused the outlet – one of the few international media channels to broadcast live from Gaza during the war in the besieged enclave – of pro-Hamas bias and incitement against Israel.
Israel has often lashed out at Al Jazeera, which has offices in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. In May 2022, Israeli forces shot dead senior Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin.
A United Nations-commissioned report concluded that Israeli forces used “lethal force without justification” in the killing, violating her “right to life”.
During the war in Gaza, several of the channel’s journalists and their family members have been killed by Israeli bombardments.
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.
The legislation was passed as Netanyahu faces huge protests against his handling of the war on Gaza and the security failures that did not detect the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
At least 1,1139 people were killed in those attacks and about 250 captives were taken to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of people gathered outside the Israeli parliament building in West Jerusalem in the largest antigovernment demonstration since the start of the war.
Protesters on Sunday demanded the government secure a ceasefire that would free the captives held by Hamas and called for early elections.
Courtesy: aljazeera
