Qatar’s broadcast Al Jazeera has condemned the new Israeli law that could block its journalistic activities in Israel, saying the “lies” spread by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endanger the safety of the network’s journalists around the world. “The Israeli parliament has just overwhelmingly approved a law,” the broadcast said in a release, “that will allow the government to order the closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if their content is deemed ‘detrimental to state security”. According to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Al Jazeera’s activities in Israel must be stopped because it allegedly “actively participated” in the 7 October Hamas attack and poses a threat to Israeli troops operating in the Palestinian territories. According to the broadcast, this is nothing more than a campaign by the Israeli prime minister that contains “dangerous” and “ridiculous” lies.
On the contrary, Al Jazeera recalls several episodes in which its reporters have been targeted, and not just now: it cites, for example, the killing of correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 while she was following an Israeli military raid in Jenin, in the West Bank, and the killing of its journalists Samer Abudaqa and Hamza Dahdouh during the invasion of Gaza, among other intimidating episodes for the families of reporters working for the channel.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the passing of the law “an incredibly worrying step” and recalled that it has documented the killing of at least 95 journalists since the start of a war that has already killed nearly 33,000 people in less than six months.
On the cover photo, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu © Roman Yanushevsky/Shutterstock.com
