The Israeli parliament has approved the controversial ‘Al-Jazeera law’. This allows foreign TV channels to be closed if they are classified as a risk to state security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular campaigned for the drastic step.
This can be used to close a broadcaster’s offices in Israel, seize its equipment, remove the broadcaster from cable and satellite providers, and block its website. According to media reports, the Minister of Communications may order the closures.
Netanyahu’s campaign against the Arab TV giant
After the law was passed, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the Arab TV channel would be quickly closed. “Al-Jazeera has damaged Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre and incited against Israeli soldiers,” Netanyahu said on X. “Al-Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel.”
Israel accuses the Qatar-based broadcaster of biased reporting. Al-Jazeera’s broadcasts and reports constituted “incitement against Israel,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said last year after the Hamas massacre in the Israeli border area. The reporting helps terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
Struggle for image sovereignty in the Gaza war
Al-Jazeera has reported extensively on the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Gaza war, showing images of death and destruction rarely seen on Israeli TV channels. The channel also regularly shows videos from Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, often of attacks on Israeli soldiers.
Source: Krone
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