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Foreign Policy: Closing Al Jazeera’s offices in Jerusalem suppresses press freedom

Doha - May 18, 2024:

A report by the American magazine Foreign Policy confirmed that the closure of the Al Jazeera News Network offices in Jerusalem is part of a larger campaign to suppress press freedom and target media outlets that report the truth from inside Gaza. She noted that Israel's decision to close Al Jazeera's offices comes amid other steps taken by the Netanyahu government, which raised concerns about freedom of expression in Israel, including the far-right coalition's push to amend the 2016 anti-terrorism law; To suppress those protesting the Israeli war on Gaza. According to the Haifa-based Adalah human rights organization, more than 150 Palestinians in Gaza and East Jerusalem have been indicted on charges of incitement since the start of the war, including a large number of students. Prominent human rights lawyer Michael Sfard confirmed that the social media posts that prompted law enforcement authorities to take punitive action ranged from “benign statements of support” for Gazans to support for Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel. The report noted the arrest of Nadra Shalhoub Kevorkian, an academic at the Hebrew University, last month after broadcasting a “podcast” episode in which she described Israeli operations in Gaza as “genocide,” and after she spent a night in prison under what her lawyers said were “horrific conditions.” The judges found In two sessions, they found that there was no reason to arrest her, and they released her, only for the police to announce that “the case is still open.” The Foreign Policy report said: Al Jazeera can still be reached in Israel via YouTube and private satellites, and it will continue to report on Gaza. Workers at the Seventh Eye media oversight body in Israel say: The ban does not appear to be motivated by security, but rather its real goal appears to be to serve the political interests of Netanyahu and his allies in the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history. Oren Persico (a staffer at The Seventh Eye) confirmed that the government is using the new law as a “signal of intent” to act not only against foreign networks, but against Israeli journalists and media as well. “This is the first step in something that could snowball,” he said. He pointed out that during the drafting of the law, some lawmakers from Netanyahu's Likud Party and his far-right allies called for expanding the draft law to include Israeli media outlets that are considered harmful to state security. In response to a question about the Israeli accusations, Walid Al-Omari, director of Al-Jazeera’s bureau in Jerusalem, said: “I leave the lies to the liars and incitement to the instigators.” Matti Steinberg, an independent researcher on Palestinian politics and a former senior advisor to the Israeli security service Shin Bet, confirmed to Foreign Policy magazine: The closure of Al Jazeera is unjustified. The goal is to hide what is happening in Gaza from people in Israel and the world. He said: “They have their own point of view, but when it comes to factual accuracy, they are more accurate than the Israeli media.”