An Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source, yesterday told Reuters that Israeli authorities have raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office after the government decided to shut down the Qatari-owned TV station’s local operations.
A video circulated online showed plainclothes officers dismantling camera equipment in a hotel room, which the Al Jazeera source said was in East Jerusalem.
Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, shut down the network for as long as the war in Gaza continues, saying it threatened national security.
Al Jazeera said the move was a ‘criminal action’ and the accusation that the network threatened Israeli security was a ‘dangerous and ridiculous lie’ that put its journalists at risk. It reserved the right to ‘pursue every legal step’.
The network has criticised Israel’s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported throughout the war.
“The incitement channel, Al Jazeera, will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu posted on social media following a unanimous cabinet vote.
A government statement said Israel’s communications minister signed orders to ‘act immediately’, but, at least, one lawmaker, who supported the closure’, said Al Jazeera could still try to block it in court.
The measure, the statement said, includes closing Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, confiscating broadcast equipment, cutting off the channel from cable and satellite companies and blocking its websites. It did not mention Al Jazeera’s Gaza operations.
Israeli satellite and cable television providers suspended Al Jazeera broadcasts following the government’s decision. There was no official comment from the Qatari government, which deferred to Al Jazeera.
The network, last month, complained of “a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera.”
It said Israel deliberately targeted and killed several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza AlDahdooh, both killed in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has said it does not target journalists.
