Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in the country, calling it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement, after parliament passed a law clearing the way for its closure.
Netanyahu’s pledge intensifies Israel’s long-standing feud with Al Jazeera but is also likely to heighten tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, at a time when the government in Doha plays a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza.
Neither Qatar nor the broadcaster immediately commented.
Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing the network of being unfairly biased against Israel.
Relations between the two countries took a serious downturn nearly two years ago after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in an Israeli military attack in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian-American journalist is known in the Arab world for her critical coverage of Israel, which the channel accused of deliberately killing her.
Israel has denied the accusation, saying she was likely killed by Israeli fire in what appeared to be an accidental shooting.
These relations further deteriorated after Israel’s war against Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when the militant group launched cross-border attacks in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
In December 2023, an Al Jazeera cameraman was killed in an Israeli attack while covering the war in southern Gaza. Wael Dahdouh, the channel’s bureau chief in Gaza, was wounded in the same attack.
The network also accused Israel of killing Dadouh’s son in an attack in January. Hamza Dahdouh was reportedly working for Al Jazeera when the attack hit the car he was traveling in.
The military later said Hamza Dadouh was a member of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that had participated in the October 7, 2023 attack with Hamas.
Last October, Wael Dadouh’s wife, daughter and another son were killed in another Israeli attack, as well as his grandson.
The channel showed footage of Dadouh entering the hospital and sinking into grief as he stared at the body of his dead son. Israel has not yet revealed who was targeted in the attack.
Al Jazeera was one of the few international outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres.
Israel accuses Al Jazeera of collaborating with Hamas.
Al Jazeera endangered Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited attacks against Israeli soldiers. It’s time to remove Hamas’s megaphone from our country,” Netanyahu said on X (formerly Twitter).
He said he planned to take immediate action based on the newly passed law. “The terror channel Al Jazeera will no longer be broadcast in Israel,” he said.
Al Jazeera has been shut down or blocked by other Middle Eastern governments, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Egypt has banned Al Jazeera since 2013. Egypt launched a crackdown in 2013 after the military overthrew an elected but divisive government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt considers the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and accuses Qatar and Al Jazeera of supporting the group.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States did not always agree with Al Jazeera’s reporting but respected its work.
“We support independent and free media around the world,” he said. “Much of what we know about what’s going on in Gaza is because of the reporters there, including those from Al Jazeera.”
Israel has threatened to shut down Al Jazeera in the past but has never done so. Monday’s law did not immediately close the station but authorized officials to do so after consulting with legal and safety officials and receiving approval.
Any order would only be valid until July 31 or the end of the war in Gaza.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said he intended to move forward with the closure. He said Al Jazeera has been acting as a “propaganda weapon for Hamas” and “encouraging armed struggle against Israel.”
“It is impossible to tolerate media outlets with press credentials from the government press office and the Israel office taking action against us from within, especially in wartime,” he said.
His office said the order would seek to block the channel from broadcasting in Israel and prevent it from operating in the country. The order does not apply to the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief Walid Omari said late Monday that the station had not yet heard from Israeli authorities.
“But obviously it’s a matter of timing and they will make a decision in a few days,” he told Associated Press.
But punishing the channel could be risky. Qatar has been acting as the chief mediator between Israel and Hamas. It helped broker and sponsor a week-long ceasefire in November 2023 and has been hosting weeks of on-again, off-again talks aimed at brokering another moratorium on fighting.
By targeting Al Jazeera, Israel may be trying to force Qatar to put additional pressure on Hamas to make concessions. Netanyahu has accused Qatar in the past of not doing enough. But it also risks alienating Qatar, a wealthy, energy-rich Gulf state and one of the few countries with influence over Hamas.
Israel was heavily criticized by press freedom groups during the war.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that in addition to the two Israeli journalists, 90 Palestinian journalists were killed in the war.
Israel also bars international journalists from independently entering Gaza to cover the war. The army allowed a small group of journalists, escorted by the army, into Gaza for brief, highly controlled visits.
Hajar Schechter, a lawyer with the Israel Civil Rights Association, said the law violated “the right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of the profession and undermines the separation of powers.”
She added that the group planned to file a petition against the law with Israel’s Supreme Court.
Oren Persico, a staff writer at Seventh Eye, an independent Israeli media watchdog website, said the law is a watered-down version of legislation sought by the country’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gver, because met with opposition from Israel. Legal expert.
Closing the network required expert opinions from senior security officials that the network “compromised Israel’s security.”
The order also requires cabinet or parliamentary approval, as well as further court approval.
Most worryingly, Persico said, other media outlets, including Israeli media, could also be targeted.
“What’s important here is not Al Jazeera but the government’s power to shut down the media, which is a slippery slope,” he said.
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