Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, decided to shut Al Jazeera , Qatar’s Al Jazeera office in Israel.
Al Jazeera, Shut Down in Israel
This move came after the Parliament of Israel gave consent to a law which gives power to the senior ministers in the government to close down those international news agencies and networks that might cause a potential threat to the security of the country.
Israel has put allegations on Al Jazeera for provoking their Arab viewers against their country. After this, Prime Minister Netanyahu, has decided to take action to close down the news station as per the procedure laid down in the law. He said that Al Jazeera is a “ terror channel” and it will not be shown in Israel from now on, he wrote on the X platform. He will soon be taking action to shut down all the activities of Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera Criticizes Actions of Israel Against their News Network
As mentioned in a news article in The Hindu, said that it is a well thought strategy of Israel to quiet Al Jazeera. The news network further said that this included the journalist who was killed before Hamas attacked Israel on 7th October. Also, this included bombing their office and 2 more killings of Al Jazeera’s correspondents since the time the war began with Gaza.
However, the news article by Al Jazeera said that Israel said that a freelancer and an employee on Al Jzeera were killed during the airstrike, but they were “ terror operatives.”
As per Al Jazeera the move planned against them is extremely “ disgraceful manners.” They said that the Prime Minister of Israel,was unable to provide any good reason for the attacks on the news network hence he chose to come up with false explanations and slanders. Now, Al Jazeera has said that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be held accountable for the security and safety of the employees working in the news network.
The news network did not resist boldly asserting that despite all these accusations they will continue to do coverage fearlessly.
What did the United States say?
As mentioned in a news article of Al Jazeera, the spokesperson from White House of US Karine Jean-Pierre said that the decision of Netanyahu to shutdown the news network is concerning. She also said that the US encourages and supports journalists and they also support those journalists who are boldly doing their jobs of reporting in Gaza.
Legislation to Shut Foreign Networks for Security Purpose
Before this legislation was approved , Israel announced that Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen would be blocked while they held back from doing the same with Al Jazeera during that time.
There have been instances when Israel has attacked Al Jazeera. Senior journalist of this news network , Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while she was doing the news coverage of an Israeli military raid. This incident took place in May,2022 as reported by Al Jazeera.
Conclusion
According to a report commissioned by the United Nations, it said that the forces of Israel have violated the right to life and have used fatal forces without providing any acceptable reasoning for the same.
The ongoing war has resulted in over 32,782 people being killed, and as per Palestine’s authority these numbers majorly include children and women.
