Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet decided on Sunday to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel for as long as the war in Gaza continues, on the grounds the Qatari television network threatens national security.
“The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” Netanyahu posted on social media following the unanimous cabinet vote.
A government statement said Israel’s communications minister signed orders to “act immediately,” but at least one lawmaker who supported the closure said Al Jazeera could still try to block it in court.
The measure, the statement said, will include closing Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, confiscating broadcast equipment, cutting off the channel from cable and satellite companies and blocking its websites.
The network is funded by the Qatari government and has been fiercely critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock throughout the war. The Israeli statement did not mention Al Jazeera’s Gaza operations.
Israel’s parliament last month ratified a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security.
Israeli police raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its de facto office on Sunday following a government decision to shut down the Qatari-owned TV station’s local operations, an Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source told Reuters.
Video circulated online showed plainclothes officers dismantling camera equipment in a hotel room. The Al Jazeera source said the hotel was in East Jerusalem.
