EXPLAINER
The community has continued to report on the plight of Palestinians, regardless of intimidation.
Al Jazeera Media Community has strongly condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) ban on its operations within the occupied West Financial institution this week, calling it an motion that “aligns with Israeli occupation practises”.
Since its launch in 1996, Al Jazeera’s reporters have coated the Center East, from the Arab Spring to Israeli settler violence within the West Financial institution and the brutal war on Gaza, even when different information organisations pulled their journalists out.
From the beginning, Al Jazeera has confronted makes an attempt to silence its reporting by way of arrests, imprisonment and assaults on its journalists. And since Israel’s genocidal struggle on Gaza started in October 2023, the channel has confronted much more makes an attempt to stifle its reporting on Palestine.
Al Jazeera’s dedication to supply round the clock, firsthand reporting on the horrors in Gaza and the lethal raids within the occupied West Financial institution has come at a excessive price, with at the least six Al Jazeera journalists killed within the Palestinian territory since 2022.
The PA’s resolution to ban Al Jazeera mirrors Israel’s announcement final yr that the channel can be banned in Israel after which its closure of the bureau in Ramallah.
Right here’s a breakdown of how Al Jazeera has been focused by each the PA and Israel:
When did Al Jazeera begin reporting from the West Financial institution and Gaza?
Al Jazeera has been reporting in Palestine since 2000, marking Al Jazeera Arabic’s first try to launch a international bureau.
There are Al Jazeera bureaus in Ramallah and occupied East Jerusalem within the West Financial institution, though each have now been suspended by the Israeli authorities or the PA.
In 2021, Israeli forces bombed the Gaza bureau.
What number of occasions has the PA shut Al Jazeera down?
The PA controls components of the occupied West Financial institution and has suspended Al Jazeera’s operations there thrice:
- In March 2001, the PA, led on the time by President Yasser Arafat, invaded Al Jazeera’s Ramallah workplaces and prevented workers from accessing the constructing. No official causes had been supplied. Nevertheless, bureau chief Walid Al-Omari stated on the time {that a} safety official had known as the bureau and accused the community of airing footage “offensive” to Arafat, demanding that it’s eliminated.
- On July 15, 2009, PA safety officers stormed Al Jazeera’s Ramallah workplaces and banned its 35 staff from broadcasting. Officers alleged the community had broadcast “false data” as a result of late Palestinian politician Farouk Kaddoumi, in an interview, accused PA President Mahmoud Abbas of involvement in an Israeli plot to kill Arafat. The workplace was allowed to reopen 4 days later following an outcry from journalists’ rights teams.
- In December 2024, Fatah, the Palestinian get together that dominates the PA, banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the governorates of Jenin, Qalqilya and Tubas within the occupied West Financial institution, citing its protection of clashes between the Palestinian safety forces and Palestinian armed teams. Since mid-December, PA safety forces have cracked down on the armed teams in what analysts say is an try to endear the PA to the Israelis and the United States. The crackdown has led to the killing of a number of civilians in addition to the West Financial institution journalist Shatha Sabbagh, 22.
- On January 2, 2025, the PA suspended all Al Jazeera broadcasts from the West Financial institution and positioned restrictions on anybody working for the community.
What number of occasions has Israel shut Al Jazeera down?
Israeli authorities have repeatedly tried to muzzle Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lengthy accused the community’s protection of “inciting violence”. The community refutes these claims as “arbitrary and hostile”.
- In July 2017, Netanyahu threatened to shut Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem workplace in a Fb publish as a result of the community coated a fallout between Palestinians and Israeli authorities over Al-Aqsa Mosque.
- In Could 2021, Israel bombed Al Jazeera’s Gaza workplace. Israeli forces gave Al Jazeera and different media organisations in the identical constructing only one hour to evacuate the tower.
- In Could 2024, Al Jazeera’s occupied East Jerusalem bureau was raided and closed after the Israeli parliament handed a legislation permitting the federal government to droop the operations of international media that pose a “risk”, for 45 days at a time. The ban, together with a ban on Al Jazeera’s web site in Israel, has been renewed a number of occasions and stays in place. Al Jazeera now studies from Amman, Jordan.
- In September 2024, closely armed and masked Israeli safety forces raided Al Jazeera’s workplace in Ramallah at 3am and shuttered its operations because the bureau was broadcasting reside. Israeli officers alleged that the community supported “terrorism” and ordered operations to be closed for 45 days. Al Jazeera workers had been pressured to face on the road and had been threatened with a laser weapon through the raid.
What number of Al Jazeera journalists have been killed or injured within the West Financial institution and Gaza?
At the least six Al Jazeera journalists have been killed by Israeli authorities within the West Financial institution and Gaza whereas on obligation. Most often, the journalists had been sporting marked press vests or had been in clearly marked automobiles.
- Shireen Abu Akleh: Veteran journalist Abu Akleh was shot and killed by a bullet to the pinnacle on Could 11, 2022, whereas reporting on an Israeli raid on Jenin, within the occupied West Financial institution. Regardless of the very fact she was sporting a helmet and a vest clearly marked with “Press”, the bullet from an Israeli sniper penetrated just under her helmet. Israeli forces at first tried in charge “crossfire” from Palestinian fighters however had been pressured to backtrack when ample video proof proved no Palestinian fighters had been close by. No motion has been taken towards the sniper. Israeli forces attacked her funeral procession attended by hundreds of Palestinians paying their respects – at one level inflicting her coffin to slide and practically hit the bottom.
- Samer Abudaqa: On December 15, 2023, an Israeli air assault injured Al Jazeera cameraman Abudaqa in Khan Younis, Gaza. Israeli officers prevented emergency automobiles from reaching him regardless of worldwide pleas as he bled out over a number of hours.
- Wael Dahdouh: Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, whose spouse, son, daughter and grandson had been killed by Israeli bombs on Gaza, was filming with Abudaqa and was injured in the identical assault. On January 7, 2024, Dahdouh’s son, Hamza Dahdouh, who additionally labored as a journalist for Al Jazeera, was killed in an assault alongside his colleague, Mustafa Thuraya.
- Ismail Abu Omar: On February 13, 2024, an Israeli drone hit Abu Omar, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, and his cameraman, Ahmad Matar, in Rafah, southern Gaza. The 2 males had been critically injured.
- Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi: Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent al-Ghoul was reporting with cameraman al-Rifi on July 31, 2024, when an Israeli air raid hit their automotive within the Shati refugee space of Gaza Metropolis. Al-Ghoul had beforehand been detained and severely crushed by Israeli forces in March 2024 as he coated raids on the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis.
- Hossam Shabat: Shabat was injured on November 20, 2024, throughout a second Israeli raid on a home that had simply been hit, and that he was reporting on.
- Ahmed al-Louh: Israel killed Al Jazeera Arabic photojournalist al-Louh on December 15, 2024, whereas he was masking makes an attempt by the Palestinian Civil Defence to rescue an injured household in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. 5 others had been killed.
