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The Israeli parliament approved a bill Tuseday allowing Israeli ministers to ban the operations of Al Jazeera Qatari media company in the occupied territories.
Under this bill, the communications ministers can propose to the government to block the television broadcast of any media in the occupied territories, close its offices, confiscate broadcasting equipment, and restrict its website access under specific conditions if the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu determines that its content poses a threat to Israel’s national security.
71 lawmakers supported the bill while ten opposed it, according to Haaretz.
Netanyahu welcomed the law’s passing, claiming that Al Jazeera is Hamas’ mouthpiece.
Israeli communications Minister, Shlomo Karhi, said there won’t be freedom of expression for Hamas mouthpieces in ‘Israel’, accusing the broadcast of harming Israel’s security, for it has been actively covering genocidal war om Gaza since October 7.
Concerning Step
Despite that, the US condemned the legislation, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre describing the move as “concerning.”
“We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important, and the United States supports the critically important work journalists do around the world, and that includes those who are reporting on the conflict in Gaza,” she added.
In response to the inciting law, Al Jazeera said it holds Netanyahu responsible for the safety of its staff and offices, slamming his incitement claim as a “dangerous ludicrous lie.” The network added that it would continue what it described as its bold and professional coverage, and that it “reserves the right to pursue every legal step.”
Israel’s War on AlJazeera
Since the start of the current genocidal war on Gaza, at least 103 journalists have been killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes, including at least 22 in the course of their work. Three of them worked for Al Jazeera.
The journalist Hamza al-Dahdouh – the son of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza – and his colleague Moustafa Thuraya, were killed by an Israeli strike at the start of January.
“They are taking revenge on us [the Gazan journalists] by killing our children, but that will not stop us,” Wael al-Dahdouh said after ‘Israel” killed his family.
A month later, Al-Dahdouh was himself injured by an Israeli strike that killed AlJazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa. In South Lebanon, Al Jazeera correspondent Carmen Joukhadar was one of the six journalists injured in an Israeli strike on 13 October that killed Reurters reporter Issam Abdallah.
Israel’s war on Al-Jazeera didn’t start on October 7. Its internationally renowned West Bank correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead in the neck by an Israeli sniper while reporting in Jenin on 11 May 2022.
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