Al Jazeera’s Israel HQ Raided By Police After Netanyahu Called It ‘Hamas Mouthpiece’

On Sunday the offices of Al Jazeera in Jerusalem were raided by Israeli police, after the Knesset voted unanimously voted to ban the Qatar-based news network.

The Israeli order effectively Shuts down all Al Jazeera broadcasts in Israel and the West Bank. It implements the ban, authorizations confiscated equipment at the channel’s Jerusalem HQ inside the Ambassador Hotel.

Additional Israel will block Al Jazeera’s website after p.m. Netanyahu alleged that it is simply a ‘Hamas mouthpiece.’ He has further claimed that the outlet’s cover of Gaza has put Israel trolls in danger.

‘Al Jazeera reporters harped Israel’s safety and incised against soldiers,” Netanyahu said previously. He has for weeks been mounting a public run against it.

Al Jazeera has responded by calling the claim a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” and another said “pursue all legal step” to fight being shut down by Israel.

Interestingly, last year the Biden administration besides began complaining about the channel’s coverage, with an October Axios study saying that Secretary of State Antony Blinken requested that the Qataris «turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s cover due to the fact that it is full of anti-Israel incitement.’

The outlet has said in a statement, “Israel’s ongoing support of the free press, seen as an effort to undertake its actions in the Gaza Strip, stands in comparison of global and humanitarian law.”

According to a review by Axios:

Israel’s legislative body, the Knesset, passed a measurement last period that empowers Israel’s communications minister to take action against any abroad media network that it can prove poses a national safety risk.

The law gives elder government officials power to temporally shutter long news networks on national safety grounds for at least 45 days, but that period can be extended.

Almost 2 years ago, in May of 2022, a popular elder Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead while reporting on the scene of an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. As a Palestinian Christian, she was given a church burial attended by thousands, but the process with the coffin was later attacked by Israeli police, in an incidental that garnered global media attention.

Abu Akleh besides held American citizenship, and so her killing resulted in strong statements of condemnation from the White House. From there, passions between Al Jazeera and the Israeli government have only gotten bage.

Al Jazeera has long had offices in the West Bank and Gaza, and has provided 24-hour news coverage in English and Arabic of the Gaza war Going back to Oct.7. The network’s website besides carries frequent, round-the-clock updates of regional developments. Its camera crews have besides been capturing Israel air raids on the Gaza Strip in real time, sometimes with building coming down in the very moments live shots are rolling.