Israel is banning Al Jazeera and its ability to report on what’s happening in Gaza. Source: Wittylama, Wikimedia Commons.
The Israeli legislation passed a bill to ban Al Jazeera and other international news outlets perceived as a “security risk”.
Promptly after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to end all Al Jazeera operations, the parliament approved the bill to shut down foreign news networks within the country.
Netanyahu confirmed the bill on Monday via social media.
“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel,” he wrote in a post on X. “I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity.”
The ban will continue for 45 days and could be renewed any time after.
Al Jazeera news has been one of the only foreign news outlets able to broadcast the war in Gaza directly from the ground and has been very critical of Israel’s military operations since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
In January, Al Jazeera accused Israel of target killing two of its journalists in Gaza.
People on social media took to comparing Netanyahu’ s ban of Al Jazeera to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi propaganda ministry, which regulated and controlled the German press. Under the new editor laws of 1933, Hitler required editors to omit anything that incited against or weakened the nazi regime.
This sounds familiar…
“The Propaganda Ministry, through its Reich Press Chamber, assumed control over the Reich Association of the German Press, the guild which regulated entry into the profession. Under the new Editors Law of October 4, 1933 . . . ”https://t.co/fCNwDZOpLy
— Petre Solheim (@PetreSolheim) April 1, 2024
People have expressed that a similar propaganda is being echoed in Netanyahu’s statement: “Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against IDF soldiers. It is time to remove the shofar of Hamas from our country.”
Several press freedom organisations and the White House have criticised the ban to shut down Al Jazeera.
“We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important, and the United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world, and that includes those who are reporting on the conflict in Gaza,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman at the White House.
Al Jazeera has not responded to any comments.
