Israel shuts down Al Jazeera operations, seizes equipment

Israel shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in the country and seized its communication equipment on Sunday afternoon. The Qatari news channel was then taken off the air in Israel as soon as the government decided to temporarily ban it due to concerns that it had compromised national security.

Soon after the cabinet decided to forbid the channel’s operations, it was no longer available on Yes and Hot, the two largest TV providers in Israel.

As of Sunday night, several internet providers were no longer offering access to Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English websites.

Simultaneously, the Jerusalem offices of Al Jazeera were visited by police officers and inspectors from the Communications Ministry who came to seize the broadcast equipment of the channel and secure the area.

Video of Israeli officials entering the building and starting to document the equipment within was distributed by the office of hardline Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who spearheaded the effort to abolish the station.

In line with a rule approved by the Knesset in April for the temporary shutdown of international media stations judged to be endangering national security, the cabinet voted overwhelmingly earlier on Sunday to give Karhi permission to shut down Al Jazeera for 45 days.

Karhi issued four orders shortly after the cabinet decision, telling Israel’s television providers to stop airing the Al Jazeera channel. He also directed them to close the network’s two offices in Israel, both of which were in Jerusalem, seize the channel’s broadcasting equipment, including cellphones, and prevent Israelis from accessing the Al Jazeera website.

“Al Jazeera’s journalists have harmed Israeli security and incited against IDF soldiers,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a joint press release issued together with Karhi’s office following the government decision.

The heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet expressed concern that the closure of the Qatari-backed channel could jeopardise negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, which is why the vote on closing Al Jazeera was postponed on Thursday. The National Unity party announced this decision after it was approved. A key player in the talks is Qatar, which is home to members of the Hamas leadership. Ministers of National Unity abstained from the Sunday voting.

However, Karhi did not wait to issue the directives after the cabinet vote, declaring that Israel would not allow “megaphones for Hamas” to freely express themselves.

“Too much time has passed and there have been too many unnecessary legal hurdles in order to finally stop the well-oiled incitement machine of Al Jazeera, which harms national security,” said Karhi after signing the orders.

“We will act immediately against those who use freedom of the press to harm Israeli security and IDF troops, and incite to terrorism at a time of war.”

The minister took the decision “after supporting position papers were received and the prime minister was convinced, in accordance with the law,” according to a news release. According to the law, the security services must provide expert assessments indicating that the particular channel is a threat to national security.

Both Netanyahu and Karhi have asserted that Al Jazeera has compromised Israeli national security; however, the government has not made the supporting documentation available to the public.

Al Jazeera’s head in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Walid Omary, told Reuters that the network’s legal staff was drafting a response and called the government decision “dangerous” and driven more by political than by professional concerns.

Following the decision, the channel released a statement denouncing it as a “criminal” action on the part of the Israeli government.

“We condemn and denounce this criminal act by Israel that violates the human right to access information,” the channel said, adding that it would “pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions” and claiming that “Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law.”

On the other hand, Al Jazeera is no stranger to controversy. They have always targeted non-Islamic nations. Al Jazeera has a decades-old strategy of tainting impartial media. It is inappropriate for any Islam-based media outlet to write disparagingly about non-Islamic nations or to divulge their confidential information.

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