Israel extends the closure of Al Jazeera offices in the occupied West Bank News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The move follows an attack by Israeli forces last September that closed Al Jazeera’s Ramallah office for 45 days.
Israeli authorities have renewed an order to close Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank, days after the Palestinian Authority suspended the network’s broadcasts for four months.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli soldiers placed an extension order at the entrance to the building that houses Al Jazeera’s offices in central Ramallah, a city in the occupied West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA). The document renews the shutdown that began on December 22 for 45 days.
According to the Arabic channel Al Jazeera, the commander of the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, Avi Balut, said that the order was justified because the office was used to “encourage and support terrorist acts”.
Last September, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah and issued an initial closure order for 45 days.
Staff were instructed to leave the premises and take their personal belongings with them. Later, the Israeli government announced that it was also revoking the journalistic accreditations of Al Jazeera journalists in the country.
The move follows a decision in May to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel. The network’s offices were also closed for 45 days; order that has been extended several times.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long been at odds with Al Jazeera. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, the network has faced repeated attempts to silence its reporting through arrests, detentions and attacks on its journalists.
Al Jazeera has denounced and denounced Israeli orders on its Ramallah bureau.
In a statement in September, the network he said: “The raid on the office and the confiscation of our equipment is not only an attack on Al Jazeera, but also an insult to the freedom of the press and the very principles of journalism.”
“These repressive measures are clearly aimed at preventing the world from witnessing the reality of the situation in the occupied territories and the ongoing war in Gaza and the devastating impact on innocent civilians.”
The PA has also suspended all Al Jazeera broadcasts from the occupied West Bank and placed restrictions on anyone working for the network, it says, on the grounds that the channel violates Palestinian law and that Al Jazeera tampers and interferes in Palestinian internal affairs.
Al Jazeera has slammed the decision, calling it a move “in accordance with [Israeli] occupying actions against their staff”.
