The Israeli government outraged press freedom advocates Sunday when it occupied and forcibly shuttered news broadcaster Al Jazeera’s headquarters in the West Bank, representing the latest escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory that has often gone overlooked amid the country’s deadly campaign in Gaza.
“Israel said it carried out Saturday’s raid on Al Jazeera’s bureau in the West Bank after concluding that the news network’s offices there were ‘being used to incite terror,’” reported Bloomberg. “An ‘up-to-date intelligence assessment’ determined that ‘the channel’s broadcasts endanger the security and public order,’ the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.”Staffers at the Ramallah bureau broadcast the initial moments live of the tense confrontation with heavily armed Israeli forces, who ejected workers, confiscated cameras and other equipment and declared the office closed for 45 days. Security officials also reportedly tore down a banner celebrating the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American reporter who was shot and killed by the IDF in 2022.The move comes after the Israeli Knesset voted to close Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel proper four months ago, raiding the news outlet’s bureaus in Nazareth and East Jerusalem. Legislation passed in May provided Israeli authorities with significant latitude to shut down news outlets accused of threatening Israeli national security.Al Jazeera has devoted significant resources to documenting Israel’s military operation in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has killed over 41,400 according to the latest official figures, as well as escalating settler violence in the West Bank.
