The Knesset has allowed the government to suspend the broadcast of foreign TV channels on security grounds.
The Israeli government will ban Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, labeling the Qatar-based pan-Arab network a mouthpiece of Hamas. The statement came almost six months into Israel’s war in Gaza.
On Monday, the Knesset passed a temporary law allowing the prime minister to ban a foreign channel and shut down its offices if it is deemed a threat to national security. Netanyahu, who is recovering from hernia surgery, said he plans to use the law against Al Jazeera.
“Al Jazeera has harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against Israeli soldiers. It is time to remove the bullhorn of Hamas from our country,” Netanyahu wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said the channel will be blocked “in the coming days,” adding that “there won’t be freedom of expression for Hamas mouthpieces,” according to the Times of Israel. The legislation will remain in force until July 31, 2024, or until the end of “significant military actions” in the war with Hamas, the Knesset said.
Al Jazeera released a statement, saying that it “holds the Israeli prime minister responsible for the safety of its staff and network premises around the world, following his incitement and this false accusation. The channel said that “such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage,” and threatened legal action.
Some Israeli legislators have opposed the law. MK Mansour Abbas argued that Al Jazeera should be allowed to broadcast because it “gives a platform to speakers from Israel, even to military spokespersons.”
The US also voiced concerns about the new law. “We believe in the freedom of the press … and that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza. So we believe that work is important,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank in 2022. In December, Samer Abudaqa, a cameraman working for the channel, was killed during the IDF operation in Gaza. Al Jazeera blamed the Israeli army for both deaths.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian militants carried out a surprise cross-border raid on October 7, killing some 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Dozens of captives were subsequently released through prisoner swaps during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to the Hamas-run Health Service in Gaza.
Netanyahu only manages to hold on to powere (and stay out of gaol) by aligning with the lunatic Kahanists…..yet every news report on Russia I read refers to Vlad (who just won an election by an overwhelming majority) as “dictator”. The cracks in the Judeo-fascist edifice are obvious to all.
Wipe these abominations off the face of the planet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-b8PyJ3N_0
No hiding the truth, Israel is committing genocide, that’s a fact that wont be going away anytime soon……
The Zionist J*** certainly don’t want their atrocities broadcasted live or just ‘hours old’ for the world to see, thus confirming their unobstructive Genocide, Human Rights violations, violations to the Articles of War, violations to the Geneva Convention, as after all, such footage has now confirmed the murderous slaughter of non-combatant women, children & the elderly.
The fact that the ICJ issued a ‘Cease-Fire’ order will continued to be ignored, as the AshkeNAZI and Khazarian Chabad J*** only answer to the Talmud and Torah, and are thus instructed by the Talmud to IGNORE THE LAWS of the Gentiles and the Goyim.
Look for a nuke to go off in Tel Aviv, post the assassination of an Iranian on Iranian territory (the Iranian Embassy / Consulate in Syria).
As Scott Ritter remarked, Israel will cease to exist if the warring-factions of psychopaths (Nutanyahu, Gallant, etc.) are not removed from power.
Scott Ritter BTW, has had several J**Tube videos removed for ‘anti-Israeli sentiment’.
The Yanks are calling their Senate and Congressional ‘members’ and are heavily complaining about more taxpayer money being spent on sending more weapons to Israel. Many no longer are donating to the campaigns of the incumbents.
With more arms being sent in to Israel, this is indicative of a plan to wipe-out Rafah.
We wonder how many in the US Congress have been blackmailed, bribed, bought, had their stock options increased by the Mossad and promised oceanfront land in what seems to be the ‘former Palestinian Gaza Strip’ ?
After al,l Jared Kushner and his buddies were selling plots of land there Gaza via land sales back in the U.S..
Israel isn’t going to stop with Gaza and the West Bank; the phrase ‘From the river to the sea’ encompasses many other Moslem / Arab lands that are supposed to make-up a future ‘Greater Israel’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf_M79t7bio
Al Jazeera is pro-Hamas propaganda.
Israel is right to ban it.
Umm, okaaay, now that you say it…..
Truth is pro-Hamas. Blaming the messenger does not have a good track record.
Yeah bollocks….Israel is committing a crime against humanity….
Hi there Cam…
The war’s first victim is the Truth.
Of course criminal israhell does not want the truth to be broadcast. We are now very well used to its lies
Never mind, we know israhell IDF have been killing and thieving palestinians ( not only murderers, but also thieves) spreading historial lies and playing ” victims” to achieve positions of power.
But you cannot fool people for ever.
There will come a worldwide backlash, and it will be bloody.
Here’s are samples of actual truth as noted by CHRISTIAN PALESTINIAN Marwan Bishara of Al-Jazeera;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipNnOWkzi6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVvnK05xbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9t4OzYXddg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22v4hWB5BXk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv5FeCGqB70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfLVunCUFh4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVX0DyeJzEU
It’s documentation and the reporting via live streaming /videos that are embarrassing to illegal and criminal ‘State of Israel’.