Al-Jazeera employees in Ramallah were instructed to evacuate the office within ten minutes, according to the television news website. According to the website of Al-Jazeera, masked armed Israeli soldiers broke into the office, while they did not give a more comprehensive reason for the decision to close the building.
“The court has decided to close Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Walid Umari, the head of Al Jazeera’s Ramallah branch, during a live broadcast. “I ask you to take your cameras and leave the office immediately,” he added. Umarí later said that Israeli soldiers then began confiscating equipment and documents on the spot. The television also broadcast footage of Israeli soldiers tearing down a banner on the balcony of the office, which, according to the station, showed a picture of Al-Jazeera reporter Shirin Abu Aklah, who was shot by Israeli forces in May 2022 while filming a report on a raid by Israeli soldiers in the city of Janin.
In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the Israeli raid, saying that “this is an arbitrary military decision” and “a new crackdown on the work of journalists and media that expose the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people.”
In May, the Israeli government unanimously approved the termination of the Al Jazeera television network in the country. Israel’s main satellite and cable television provider shut down the news station’s broadcasts shortly thereafter, and Israeli police raided the Jerusalem hotel room the station used as its office.
According to The Times of Israel (ToI) server, the ban originally valid for 45 days was extended by court four times. In mid-September, the press department of the Israeli government announced that it had withdrawn the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists who worked in Israel. However, Al Jazeera continued to broadcast from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, that is, from the territory that the Palestinians want for their state. Now the station continues its live broadcast from neighboring Jordan.
Israel has long had problematic relations with the television station Al Jazeera and accuses it of being biased against Israel. Al Jazeera is headquartered in Doha and is funded by the Qatari government. Television is also one of the few foreign media that has remained in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. According to the AP agency, it is not clear whether the Israeli army is going to stop the broadcasting of Al-Jazeera in the Gaza Strip as well.
While the English broadcast of the television often resembles the programs of other major stations, the Arabic branch often publishes verbatim video statements of the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas and other militant groups in the region. Al Jazeera also heard similar criticism from Israel during the occupation of Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
