Israel Attack Al Jazeera Bureau In West Bank, Order Closure
The Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) attacked Al Jazeera office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military raided and shuttered the bureau. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully entered the building where Al Jazeera’s bureau is and handed the 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari early on Sunday, said Al Jazeera.
The IOF accused Al Jazeera of “supporting terrorism”, a claim the network denies. Israel also forced Al Jazeera staff to leave the premises, destroyed equipment and tore down posters of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – who was killed by Israel in 2022 – from the building’s walls.
⭕ LIVE: Israeli forces have raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and ordered it to shut down for 45 days. https://t.co/ryqxiVUR65
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 22, 2024
The occupation force did not provide reason for the decision to shut the bureau. However, Al Jazeera’s reporters said the West Bank raid and closure order “comes as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside Israel.
“We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau. We’ve heard the government discussing this, asking the military ruler in the occupied West Bank to close down and shut down the channel. But we [had] not been expecting it to happen today”, said the outlet’s reporter Nida Ibrahim from West Bank.
Notably, the area in which the bureau situated is fully under the control of Palestinian Authority. However, the Israeli military comes and goes ‘as it pleases’, said Al Jazeera reporter. This shed some light on the power of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.
Also Read: Israel Votes To Shut Down Al Jazeera In The Country
In May this year, Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel. It was also a 45 days closure notice in the beginning, and has been renewed later. The media’s reporters are still unable to report from inside Israel.
The bureau chief, al-Omari raised concern over what the IOF might do to the office. “Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” he said.
The Government Media Office in Gaza called the Israeli move a “deafening scandal”. “We call on all media organisations and groups that deal with human rights in the world to condemn this heinous crime … that is a blatant violation of press and media freedom,” it said.
Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian journalists in Gaza, amidst the ongoing war. Israel did not allow any outside media to the battle ground.
Since the start of the war on October 7th, Israel has killed 173 journalists, as per the Gaza Government media office. Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul is the latest to be targeted by Israel.
The raid on Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah, indicates Israel’s tight control over the occupied West Bank, including areas purported to be under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction such as Ramallah.
It comes two days after the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for an end to the Israeli occupation.
