When Israel ordered Al Jazeera to cease operations on the ground on Sunday, the station deployed a reporter to cover a government meeting in West Jerusalem, another in a hotel room in East Jerusalem and a third in northern Israel. reporters were deployed to cover the clashes on the border with Lebanon. In Tel Aviv.
But the cameras stopped rolling when Walid al-Omari, the network's West Bank bureau chief in Ramallah, ordered everyone to go home. Israeli authorities raided a room used by Al Jazeera at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem and seized broadcasting equipment. Israeli television and internet providers blocked channels and blocked websites, but people could still find the site online.
Al Jazeera, an influential Arab news network, announced it would continue reporting and broadcasting from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. But the departure from Israel marks a new low in a long history of tensions with a country that many Al Jazeera viewers in the Arab world and beyond view as an aggressor and occupier.
The closure order lasts for 45 days and can be renewed, but it has been suspended for a long time. Al-Omari said the network stopped using its West Jerusalem office shortly after the Israeli-Hamas war began in October, citing intimidation tactics used by far-right Israelis against staff there. Stated.
The network has played a major role in reporting on the killings and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, fueling global outrage over Israel's actions. Many Al Jazeera defenders argue that Al Jazeera's operations are so powerful that Israel wants to intimidate and censor Al Jazeera.
But its focus on bloodshed in the Gaza Strip has also been controversial, with some Arab analysts saying it supports what it portrays as legitimate armed resistance against Israel. Some said there was little criticism of the commentary by Hamas officials and fighters. The network is partially funded and controlled by the Qatari government, which allows Hamas political leaders to reside and operate in the country.
That makes the film an attractive target for critics in Israel and abroad who argue that, at best, it presents a one-sided view of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera of inciting violence against Israel and undermining Israel's security.
“We knew it was only a matter of time,” Al Omari said of the closure in an interview Tuesday. He said the Israeli government had been pursuing what he called a “war against Al Jazeera” for years.
emotional reporting
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the devastating Israeli military operation in Gaza that followed, Al Jazeera has relied on the strongest network of journalists in the region of any news organization to report on the terrible devastation. has been produced continuously. And news that stirs emotions.
Broadcasts about Gaza's worsening hunger crisis are on the screens of many Arab homes. Videos of distressed parents holding their dead children and bodies being dragged from the rubble have flooded social media.
With other foreign news organizations blocked from access to Gaza by Israel and Egypt, no other outlet can match Al Jazeera's reach, which has a global audience.
Editor-in-chief Mohamed Moawad said Al Jazeera has seven correspondents from north to south Gaza, as well as a large team of cameramen and producers. He said in an interview that Israel is “trying to delegitimize our reporting because we are the only organization reporting from within the country.”
“They want to cover up what is happening in Gaza,” he added.
Shulk Assad, spokesman for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, said that without Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, “we would never know anything. They paid this price with their lives.” Ta.
“Unfortunately, our badges, vests and helmets in Gaza gave us no protection,” Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent Hisham Zakout said in a WhatsApp message.
Israeli authorities did not give a reason for banning Al Jazeera, other than that it jeopardized Israel's security. However, many Israeli commentators see the move as symbolic at best, given that the network is able to continue broadcasting from Gaza and that a predominantly Arab audience can watch the channel using virtual private networks and YouTube. I only call it a target.
The Israel Civil Rights Association, which appealed the order to Israel's High Court, said the order's limited practical effect meant it would “silence critical voices and put Arab media and their audiences at risk.” This suggests that it was created to mark the fifth row.”
Condemnation by rights activists
Experts who track the network say the combination of searing footage from Gaza and on-air commentary that echoes many of Hamas's claims is not just about sympathy for Palestinians, but also about the group's actions. It is said that it will increase support for the This is especially true for Arabic channels. There are also channels in English and other languages.
“The fact that it's just giving a major platform to Hamas, Hamas officials, Hamas spokesmen, etc., the fact that it's blocking out all the voices that criticize Hamas, which is what Hamas really stands for on Al Jazeera. “They've made it seem like they're representing the Palestinian people,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a Palestinian affairs analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. he said.
Al Jazeera denies accusations that it speaks for Hamas and said in a statement that Israel's ban was a “criminal act” that violated “the fundamental right to access information.”
Al Jazeera's closure has fueled allegations that Israel is trying to cover up the devastation in the Gaza Strip, which Israel denies.
“Israel is trying to control the narrative and deny even Israeli audiences the opportunity to see the atrocities in Gaza,” said Jamil Dakwar, a law professor at New York University and founding attorney at the Arab Law Center Adalah. said. Minority rights in Israel.
Sunday's decision drew condemnation from advocacy groups. “We believe Al Jazeera should be able to operate in Israel just as it operates in other countries,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
Analysts who follow Al Jazeera's coverage say the network differentiates itself from other Arabic-language channels by broadcasting press conferences by Israeli officials and inviting Israeli analysts and officials to broadcast. It says that there are.
But in general, Al Jazeera tends to accept the views of many Arabs, with the paper broadcasting analysis that “glorifies acts of resistance” to “invasion by occupying settler forces,” or what it portrays as Israel. Media's Mahmoud Khalil said. Research Professor at Cairo University.
He added that Al Jazeera military analysts often exaggerate Palestinian battlefield successes and downplay Israeli interests.
The Washington Institute's Al-Omari said the network helped avert the worst of the October 7 attack on Israel, and that it helped prevent some of the bloodiest acts committed by Palestinian attackers in Israel. He said the move reinforced deep-rooted denial among Arabs. .
Early in the war, Al Jazeera posted videos released by Hamas on social media. The video purported to show the attackers caring for children at the Israeli kibbutz they attacked on October 7, but omitted the context of killing the children's mother. It received 1.4 million views on Facebook.
Asked about the video, Moawad said the network also aired live footage of an Israeli military spokesperson saying Hamas attackers took women and children from the kibbutz.
“In order to inform viewers of the latest developments and allow both sides to hear their opinions, we are broadcasting footage from both sides without editing,” he said in a statement.
Al Jazeera is also banned in other countries, including Arab countries, where the network is accused of biased reporting and the Islamist political movements these countries suppress, some of which are violent. including).
Cairo University's Khalil said Al Jazeera's amplification of Hamas's voice was offensive to many Arabs who are wary of Islamist groups.
Ms. Assad, from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, said that imbalances or omissions in reporting should not be grounds for a ban, and critics of the decision argue that other authoritarian regimes that have cracked down on news media unfriendly to Israel They argued that they should be placed in the same category as the government. .
“No one has the right to shut down Israeli television, to silence CNN, to silence anyone,” she said.
Report contributor: Adam Rathgon and Jonathan Rees From Jerusalem Emad Mekei from Cairo and Iyad Abuheweira From Istanbul.