The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Sunday called on Israel to “stop harassing the Al Jazeera television network” and said the order to close its offices in the West Bank violates the public’s right to be informed.
For CPJ Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, Sunday’s operation, which follows the recent closure of the television channel in Israel, “seriously attacks the public’s right to information about the war, a war that claimed so many lives” in the region.
“Al Jazeera journalists must be able to report at this critical moment, and always,” De la Serna said in the statement released on Sunday, calling on Israel to stop harassing the television network.
Al-Jazeera reported that Israeli forces raided the offices of the Qatari television station in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and issued a 45-day closure order.
This closure is in addition to the restrictions that the Israeli army has imposed on media from around the world accessing Gaza. Only a few American media outlets have managed to enter the Gaza Strip, always integrated into the Israeli army and accepting its conditions.
The Qatari television channel described the raid as “criminal” and said that this act was “not only an attack” against it, “but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of journalism.”
In a statement, the Israeli army argued that the television station’s office in Ramallah was being “used to incite terrorism,” an accusation considered “unfounded” by Al-Jazeera, which continued to broadcast live from Amman, Jordan.
The government of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, strongly condemned the decision to close Al-Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah, calling it a “crime and a clear violation of international law.”
On September 12, the Israeli government announced the withdrawal of accreditations from Al-Jazeera journalists, whose broadcasts had already been banned in early May for allegedly violating state security.
Government press office director Nitzan Chen said Al-Jazeera has “crossed red lines” since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,194 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were kidnapped, served as a trigger for the war that has continued in the Gaza Strip ever since.
In late July, the Israeli court accepted a government request to ban Al-Jazeera from broadcasting, accusing it of committing a “genuine violation of state security.” The court ruling alleged that the channel’s content had incited terrorist attacks.
The Israeli government blocked Al-Jazeera’s website, confiscated its equipment and closed its Jerusalem headquarters in early May.
Founded and funded by the Qatari royal family, Al-Jazeera is one of the channels with the largest number of journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Source: Observadora
