Haaretz is appealing to the Israeli authorities to reverse the closure of Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank. It described what happened as a wake-up call for the Israeli press.
In its “Don’t Close Al Jazeera,” editorial, Haaretz wrote stopping Al Jazeera’s broadcast in the West Bank for 45 days by military order is “another attempt by the far-right government to control the consciousness of Israelis, under a law passed last May that was turned into a dangerous tool in the hands of Information Minister Shlomo Karhi after it gave him unlimited powers.”
Last May, the Knesset passed a bill that empowers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the broadcast of any foreign channel if he deems it harmful to security, and Al Jazeera – with its Arabic and English stations – was the first victim after its broadcast was stopped in Israel.
Haaretz described the closure of Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah as a wake-up call for the Israeli press itself, stating the government is trying to muzzle journalists and Israelis to prevent them from knowing the full picture of events.
It recalled the office is located in Area A, which is entirely under the control of the Palestinian Authority, but that did not prevent dozens of soldiers from storming it in a “shameful act” that warns the Israeli press of a bleak future and nominates Israel to join the club of authoritarian countries in the region, a number of which have suspended the network’s broadcasts for periods of time.
Propaganda bubble
Haaretz said the far-right government of Israel is exploiting the war to instill fear in journalists on both sides of the Green Line, and sees any journalist holding a microphone as an enemy if he refuses to become a propaganda mouthpiece and chooses to criticize the actions of the army in the occupied territories.
The newspaper described Al Jazeera as a major media outlet in the Arab world and the rest of the world, and said that its journalists in the occupied territories have been practicing their profession for nearly two decades.
It believed that the real reason for closing the office is that Al Jazeera documents what is happening daily in the occupied Palestinian territories, and said the channel has burst the bubble of Israeli propaganda, before concluding with an “urgent” appeal to the Israeli authorities to back down from closing the office.
It stated that in the final analysis it will not prevent viewers in the Arab world and the rest of the world from knowing what is happening in the occupied territories, and will not prevent Al Jazeera Network from continuing to broadcast.
Last Sunday, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, ordered its closure, and confiscated all equipment and documents with a military order to close it under the emergency law. They prevented the Al Jazeera crew in Ramallah and colleagues Walid Al-Omari and Guevara Al-Badri from working and stopped broadcasting.
The Israeli army sent trucks to confiscate and remove filming and broadcasting equipment and documents from the Al Jazeera office, despite the fact that the military order did not stipulate their confiscation.
This raid came four months after the occupation authorities closed the channel’s office in occupied Jerusalem.
Al Jazeera Network condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ storming and closing of its office in the city of Ramallah, and stressed that these repressive measures aim to prevent the world from seeing the reality of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the war on Gaza according to Al Jazeera.net.
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