Israel extends ban on Al Jazeera’s operations by 90 days | Freedom of the Press News

Since May 2024, an Israeli law has banned the news network, citing a threat to national security, an allegation Al Jazeera denies.

Israel has extended its ban on Al Jazeera Media Network’s operations and the closure of its offices in the country by another 90 days.

The order, signed by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi and announced on Sunday, also prohibits broadcasting and internet companies, and YouTube from providing services to the network inside Israel.

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In May 2024, at the height of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet had voted to shut Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, weeks after the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a “threat to national security”.

In September that year, Israeli forces also stormed Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah city, confiscating equipment and documents and closing the network’s office.

In December last year, the Israeli parliament approved an extension of the 2024 law, also called the “Al Jazeera law”, for two more years.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief for Jerusalem and Ramallah, Walif al-Omari, said the latest Israeli decision came nine days after Israel’s Ministry of Communications said Israeli security services and military continued to believe the network’s broadcasts were “detrimental to the security” of Israel.

In May 2024, Al Jazeera had accused Netanyahu of making “slanderous accusations” against the network and had said Israel’s suppression of a free press stood “in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.

“Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue every legal step,” the Qatar-based network had said in a statement.

Israeli PM Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza.

Al Jazeera has been targeted by Israel for years. In 2017, Netanyahu threatened to shut down its Jerusalem office, and an Israeli missile destroyed the building housing its office in Gaza in 2021.

Many Al Jazeera journalists – and in several cases, their families – were among more than 200 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel during its genocidal war on Gaza.

In May 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Israel initially denied but later admitted there was a “high possibility” that one of its soldiers had killed the journalist, known for her ground reporting from the occupied Palestinian territories.