Al Jazeera Threatens Legal Action Over Plans to Close Jerusalem Bureau
Al Jazeera has threatened to take legal action over Israel’s decision to close its bureau in Jerusalem, in a statement issued on Monday.
The pan-Arab news network based out of Qatar declared the move was “undemocratic” in its statement.
“Al Jazeera stresses that it will closely watch the developments that may result from the Israeli decision and will take the necessary legal measures towards it,” the statement said. “Al Jazeera will continue to cover the events of the occupied Palestinian territories professionally and accurately, according to the standards set by international agencies.”
Israel’s communications minister declared on Sunday, the country would shut down Al Jazeera’s offices as well as revoke the network’s press passes.
Ayoob Kara, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said is seeking legislation to prevent the pan-Arab network based out of Qatar from broadcasting TV signals and also revoke press passes issued to the network’s journalists. This would effectively silence the network, shutting down its operations.
Kara said Al Jazeera uses violence to “incite” militant organizations, however the communications minister offered no timetable for the measures he hopes to impose.
He continued by saying, “Lately, almost all countries in our region determined that Al-Jazeera supports terrorism, supports religious radicalization,” Kara said. “And when we see that all these countries have determined as fact that Al-Jazeera is a tool of the Islamic State (group), Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and we are the only one who have not determined that then something delusional is happening here.”
The move would place Israel in a group of other countries which have banned Al Jazeera, which include Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who have closed Al-Jazeera’s local offices. The network’s affiliate sites have also been blocked in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain.
It also adds fuel to a months long feud between Qatar and other Arab gulf states in the region. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have severed ties to Qatar over allegations its government has supported and funded terrorist organizations. The isolation of the gulf state has been called the “biggest diplomatic crisis in the Gulf since the 1991 war against Iraq.”
Kara believed it was “delusional” that Arab states in the region banned Al-Jazeera for that reason but Israel has not.
Israel has long accused Al Jazeera of being biased against the Jewish state.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the network’s reporting is similar to “Nazi Germany-style” propaganda from the second world war .