Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Operations In The Country

Two days after the world commemorated Press Freedom Day, Israel ordered the shutdown of the Al Jazeera media network, calling it a “threat to national security” on May 5.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations almost a month after the Israeli parliament passed legislation giving 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 denied the allegations, calling them false and disgraceful. It also said that it would hold the Israeli government responsible if any harm came to its staff in the country following the incitement.

The Netanyahu government also seized all equipment used by the channel to broadcast news through 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 X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Al Jazeera claimed that the local cable operator took the channel off the air in the evening.

Al Jazeera issued a statement, writing that “Israel’s ongoing suppression of [the] free press, seen as an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza strip, stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law. Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation, and threats will not deter Al Jazeera from its commitment to cover.”