Israel: The Knesset passed a law banning the broadcasting of Al-Jazeera

Israeli lawmakers voted on Monday for a law banning foreign media that undermine state security from broadcasting in Israel. This text is directed against the Qatari channel Al Jazeera. The law, passed by a 70-10 vote, gives the prime minister the ability to ban the broadcast of a targeted channel’s content as well as close its offices in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu wanted the law to be passed at Monday’s plenary session of parliament (Knesset), according to a press release from his Likud party.

Following the passage of the law, the Prime Minister promised to “immediately take action to ban Al Jazeera.” The text gives the prime minister and communications minister the power to order the ban on foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if authorities believe they pose a “real threat to the security of the state.”

The Israeli military has repeatedly said Al Jazeera journalists are “terrorist agents” linked to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The law was submitted as part of a fast-track vote at the height of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The journalist was “hit” and then “arrested”

Qatari television channel Al Jazeera on March 18 accused the Israeli army of beating and arresting one of its journalists, Ismail Alghoul, during an operation launched by its soldiers against the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the Gaza city.

On January 7, a Qatari satellite channel accused the IDF of “targeting” Palestinian journalists in Gaza following the deaths of two reporters working for it. Hamza Wael Dadou, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdu, and Mustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with AFP, were killed while driving in Rafah. The third journalist was seriously injured. Israel then claimed that the slain Al Jazeera journalists were “agents of terrorists.” Relatives denied the accusation.