Israel bans Al Jazeera
JVL Introduction
After many threats to do so, Israel has finally responded to Al Jazeera’s fearless reporting of the war on Gaza by shooting the messenger – raiding and closing its Jerusalem office and taking the station off-air.
This was after the Knesset passed a law allowing the government to halt the broadcasts of a foreign channel broadcasting in Israel if the prime minister is convinced that its content directly threatens the country’s security.
Netanyahu immediately welcomed the law’s passing, saying that “Al Jazeera has harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against IDF soldiers. It’s time to remove Hamas’ mouthpiece from our country.”
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel was clear: “its real purpose is not security-related but political: to allow the government to impose sanctions on foreign broadcasting tools whose broadcasts are not to its liking.”
RK
This article was originally published by Democracy Now! on Mon 6 May 2024. Read the original here.
“Criminal Act”: Israel Bans Al Jazeera, Largest Int’l News Org. in Gaza, Ahead of Rafah Invasion
Loading article text…
Al Jazeera is still available on you tube, just transmitted from outside Israel. Content is still accurate and current
President Joe (genocide) Biden, wringing his hands at the fate of ‘democracy’ in the face of the incessant slaughter of journalists failed to lift a finger to call for Israeli accountability for the murder of Palestinian/American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, or for Ukrainian accountability for the murder of American journalist Gonzalo Lira, and he refuses to free the Australian journalist and highly award winning Julian Assange. Of course he follows in the footsteps of the silence President Johnson decreed after Israel attacked and torpedoed a US spy ship working in the eastern Mediterranean during the 1967 war. Many US citizens died and were injured in that outrage by a supposed ally, but no word of it came out at the time, because of Johnson’s Israeli supporting billionaire sponsors. So much for their love of democracy!