Two days after the world commemorated Press Freedom day, Israel ordered the Al Jazeera media network to be shut down, calling it a “threat to national security” on Sunday, May 5.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations almost a month after the Israeli parliament had passed legislation which had given the government the right to shut down any foreign media channel in the country in the name of protecting national security.
Israel had earlier accused Al Jazeera of colluding with Hamas and had also claimed it participated in the October 7 attacks. The Qatar-based media network had denied the allegations calling them false and disgraceful. It had also said that it will hold the Israeli government responsible if any harm comes to its staff in the country following the incitement.
The Netanyahu government also seized all equipment used by the channel to broadcast news in the raids conducted on its office in the occupied East Jerusalem. Shlomo Karhi, Israel’s minister of communication, shared a video of the raid conducted at Al Jazeera’s office on his X page.
Al Jazeera claimed that the local cable operator took the channel off air in the evening.
Al Jazeera issued a statement calling the order of shutting it down a “criminal act” which “violates human rights and basic right to access of information.”
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