Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his cabinet had voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s Israeli operations. The suffering of civilians in Gaza during the military operation.
Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera, which has long had tense relations with Israel, of endangering Israel’s security and inciting violence against Israeli soldiers. Israeli officials did not immediately provide examples of Al Jazeera content they believed posed a threat.
Al Jazeera called the decision a “criminal act” in a statement in Arabic. “Israel’s suppression of press freedom to cover up its crimes does not stop us from fulfilling our responsibilities,” the network said.
A Department of Transportation official said the initial closure order is for 45 days, with the option to extend it for another 45 days. The order focuses on blocking Al Jazeera’s ability to broadcast messages from Israel and be seen inside Israel; it is unclear whether the shutdown will affect the network’s briefings in Gaza and the West Bank.
Netanyahu has previously called the network a “mouthpiece” for Hamas, the armed group that controls the Gaza Strip and led the Oct. 7 cross-border attack that sparked the war.
News organizations denounced the shutdown, which has been discussed for weeks in Israel, as a blow to press freedom. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement in Arabic that it strongly condemned the decision, calling it repressive. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club said Israel had joined “a club of dubiously authoritarian governments” that had banned the station.
The move is rare for the Israeli government, which also shut down Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen in November, more than a month after the Oct. 7 attack. Alma Aden is affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group, which has been involved in tit-for-tat attacks on Israel’s border with Lebanon since the war began. It was closed for two months.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Kahi said in a video statement that Al Jazeera’s “equipment will be confiscated.”
There were signs that Israeli officials were moving quickly: Israel’s main cable TV provider HOT said it had stopped operating the network, and Israeli police said they accompanied government officials in seizing equipment from Al Jazeera’s offices in a hotel in East Jerusalem and shutting it down. Israel captured mostly Palestinian East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it. Access to Al Jazeera’s website will also be blocked, although access will still be available on Sunday evening, the communications ministry said in a statement.
But the shutdown could have wider ramifications: Qatar, which funds the network, has been helping mediate ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and the United States. There was no immediate comment from the Qatari government on the Israeli action.
The National Unity Party, led by Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet and former military chief, said in a statement on Sunday that it supported ending the talks but that the timing was unfortunate because it could “undermine” the delicate talks. .
Gantz’s party said the timing was motivated by “political considerations” and could signal Netanyahu’s need to appease hardline members of his party and his right-wing ruling coalition.
Netanyahu said on social media that his government had unanimously decided to cease operations of the station. “Israel’s al-Jazeera incitement channel will be shut down,” he said.
The vote comes after Israeli lawmakers passed a bill last month that would allow the government to temporarily shut down foreign media outlets that Netanyahu deems harmful to national security.
Early in the war, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, said Al Jazeera’s content posed a threat to national security. Other Israeli security services, including the military, also support restrictions on the channel’s operations, according to an official government document outlining the legal opinion of Israel’s National Security Council. But the Shin Bet’s full assessment is confidential, the document said.
Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language reporting is regularly criticized by Israel, which accuses it of amplifying Hamas’s views and uncritically reporting on its calls for violence. On October 7, the day of the Gaza attack, Al Jazeera repeatedly reported statements by Hamas officials calling for a violent uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
By law, government actions must be approved by a district court judge. Within three days of a closure order taking effect, a court may rule to change the closure order or closure period.
The war in Gaza has taken a toll on the network’s employees and their families. In October, Wal Dadouh, the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera’s Arabic service, learned on a live broadcast that his wife, son, daughter and infant grandson had been killed in central Gaza where they had taken refuge. His eldest son was killed in an Israeli airstrike in January, according to Gaza authorities.
Liam Stark, Adam Rasgon and Jonathan Rice Contributed reporting.
