U.K.-based writer Frank Wright expounded on this in a May 23 op-ed for LifeSiteNews. He cited the ban on Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera and the confiscation of equipment owned by the Associated Press (AP) as examples of Tel Aviv’s suppression.
According to Wright, the Doha-funded Al Jazeerawas officially banned from reporting in Israel on May 5. Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has been seeking to shut it down since October, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Karhi has described the channel as a “propaganda mouthpiece” for Hamas, formally the Islamic Resistance Movement.
On April 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed Al Jazeera a “terror” channel. More than a month later, the Israeli government officially banned the channel – to the delight of Karhi. Under the ban, Al Jazeera‘s websites were blocked in Israel and its television broadcasts were prohibited. (Related: Al Jazeera condemns Israeli government decision to shut down local offices.)
“Police seized Al Jazeera‘s broadcasting equipment from its Jerusalem offices … and the Qatari news channel was pulled of the air in Israel,” the Times of Israel reported. It added that the raid came “immediately after the government approved a decision to temporarily shutter the outlet on the grounds that it has harmed national security.”
Tel Aviv had earlier set its sights on Wael Al-Dahdouh, chief of Al Jazeera‘s Gaza bureau, last October. Several of his family members – including his wife, his two children and his infant grandson – were killed during Israeli airstrikes on the Strip. Al-Dahdouh received news of his family members’ deaths while reporting on Israeli missile strikes in Gaza.
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Less than two months later, Al-Dahdouh himself became a target of Israeli attacks – with the journalist being caught in a Dec. 15 drone strike on a school in Khan Younis. Al-Dahdouhf was hospitalized while his cameraman died in the incident.
Even AP isn’t exempt from Israeli censorship
Even AP isn’t exempted from Karhi’s censorship demands, according to Wright. At the communication minister’s behest, the AP‘s equipment was seized on May 21. The news agency’s live feeds from Gaza are widely used throughout world media.
AP Vice President of Corporate Communications Lauren Easton denounced the move, calling it “an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law. But following “concern” expressed by the White House, Karhi reversed the decision to shut down the agency’s live news feed in Gaza.
Wright noted that the actions against the AP and Al Jazeera followed new regulations Tel Aviv introduced on Oct. 20 to “allow for the temporary shutdown of news channels which ‘damage national security.'” But Anthony Bellanger, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, denounced the regulations upon their announcement.
“This is a clear attack on media pluralism and the public’s right to know,” he said. “The whole world must be allowed to see what is happening in the ongoing conflict, and we urge Israel to review its decision.”
Bellanger stressed that the move as about suppressing media “critical” of the Israeli “narrative.” He added: “We are deeply concerned at Israel’s attempt to censor media coverage of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict using national security as an excuse to restrict critical media that do not confirm its narrative of the ongoing war.”
Meanwhile, Wright also mentioned a report by the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) about the dire state of journalism in Israel. According to the group’s preliminary investigations as of May 22, “at least 105 journalists and media workers” have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since Oct. 7. These include Israeli, Palestinian and foreign reporters.
A separate report by the CPJ documented the obstruction, censorship, death threats, assaults and shootings of journalists covering the Palestinian situation. It mentioned that journalists from the German public broadcaster ARD and the United Kingdom’s BBC and Sky News were targeted by IDF members. Moreover, it disclosed that the IDF had killed some journalists’ relatives.
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