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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised “immediate action” to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel, after the Israeli parliament passed a law giving him the power to shut down foreign television networks deemed a “security risk.”
The law exacerbates a long-standing dispute between the Israeli government and the satellite channel, which Netanyahu’s allies say has close ties to Hamas in Gaza – a claim Al Jazeera denies.
In a post about XNetanyahu said Al Jazeera “harmed Israel’s security, took part in the October 7 massacre, incited against Israeli soldiers.”
“The time has come to remove the Hamas spokesperson from our country,” he wrote. “The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel.”
In response, Al Jazeera said Netanyahu’s statements “are inciting lies against the safety of our journalists around the world.”
“The network emphasizes that this latest measure is part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera,” the media group said in a statement.
“Al Jazeera reiterates that such defamatory allegations will not prevent us from continuing our bold and professional coverage and reserves the right to pursue any legal steps.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the move was “concerning.” “The United States supports the critically important work of journalists around the world, and that includes those reporting on the conflict in Gaza,” she told reporters.
The law allows the government to close Al Jazeera’s local offices and confiscate its equipment, while banning local cable and satellite TV companies from broadcasting the channel and blocking its website in Israel. The closure would last 45 days, extendable by another 45 days, and the law would remain in force until the end of July or the end of major military operations in Gaza.
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the organization was “deeply concerned” by the law, saying it would “also jeopardize other foreign media outlets operating in Israel.”
He said the move “helps[d] to a climate of self-censorship and hostility towards the press, a trend that has intensified since the Israel-Gaza war.”
Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s expert on Israel-Palestine, said the law represents an “alarming escalation” of Israel’s efforts to “suppress voices critical of human rights abuses against Palestinians.”
Founded in Doha in 1996 and funded in part by the Qatari government, Al Jazeera says it broadcasts in more than 150 countries and is available in more than 430 million homes. It is one of the few media outlets with journalists on the ground in Gaza.
Israeli criticism of Al Jazeera has intensified following the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that, according to Israeli officials, killed 1,200 people and sparked war in Gaza.
Ministers said after the attack that they would seek to shut down Al Jazeera’s local operations, accusing the channel of inciting Hamas and exposing Israeli soldiers to attacks.
But the following month Israel temporarily abandoned these plans, fearing that it would undermine Qatar’s mediation efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s relationship with Al Jazeera has long been difficult. In 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian-American journalist working for the network, was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin. The Israeli army later acknowledged that there was a “high possibility” that one of her soldiers had killed her unintentionally.
Since the war broke out in Gaza in October, Israel has accused journalists working for the broadcaster of assisting or even commanding Hamas units in their fight against Israel – a suggestion the channel has vehemently denied.
In February, one of the network’s reporters Ismail Abu Omar and cameraman Ahmad Matar were injured in a drone attack near Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. The broadcaster condemned what it called “deliberate targeting” of journalists by Israeli forces.
At the time, an Israeli army spokesperson said Abu Omar served as a deputy company commander in Hamas’ Eastern Khan Younis Battalion, in addition to working for Al Jazeera. He also said that on the morning of October 7 he infiltrated Israel and filmed inside Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the sites attacked by Hamas.
Shortly thereafter, Al Jazeera released a statement “condemning[ing] the charges against its journalists and recalls the long history of lies and falsification of evidence with which Israel seeks to hide its atrocious crimes.” Al Jazeera said its employment policies “state that employees must not engage in any political affiliation that may affect their professionalism.”
Abu Omar was not the only victim of Al Jazeera’s war. In December, Arab journalist Samer Abudaqa was killed and his colleague Wael Dahdouh, the network’s Gaza bureau chief, was injured in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
CPJ said at least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Gaza health officials estimate the overall death toll to be more than 32,000.
The Qatari government declined to comment.