Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera amid incitement claims
The Palestinian Authority has ordered the suspension of Al Jazeera broadcasts and claimed the company is responsible for incitement, as reported by Asharq Al-Awsat via Reuters on January 2nd.
The news organization Al Jazeera has been barred from broadcasting in Israel since September 2024, following an accusation that it was “used to incite terror.” Their office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah was raided by armed Israeli forces, who issued an initial 45-day closure order. AFP reported that the Palestinian foreign ministry had condemned this as “a flagrant violation” of press freedom at the time.
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On January 2nd, the PA announced that the network’s temporary suspension came after several complaints were filed by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
The syndicate, representing approximately 3,000 Palestinian journalists, criticized Al Jazeera for “biased media coverage on its platforms, including incitement, misleading reports, and content that stirs internal discord.”
The authority has emphasized that this is not a permanent decision, saying:
“These measures shall be applied until Al Jazeera chooses to act in accordance with basic media ethics, including its duty to prevent deliberate disinformation, ban the glorification of violence, and end the incitement to armed mutiny.”
The measures in question include “temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews, and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified,” as per Wafa – the official Palestinian news agency.
The PA’s decision has since been condemned by many parties.
Al Jazeera has said the suspension “aligns with Israeli occupation practices targeting its media teams” and further accused the PA of “attempting to deter Al Jazeera from covering escalating events in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in Jenin and its refugee camp.”
Several Jenin Battalion armed militant arrests in the northern West Bank have prompted deadly clashes between the gunmen and Palestinian Authority security forces since early December 2024. The violence in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of armed groups and a frequent target of Israeli military raids, has killed 11 people, including PA security personnel, militants, and civilians. Al Jazeera’s coverage of these violent conflicts in Jenin has increased the network’s tensions with the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Fatah’s rivals, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have accused PA forces of aiding Israel and called for the reversal of this decision.
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“This decision aligns with a series of recent arbitrary actions taken by the Authority to curtail public rights and freedoms, and to reinforce its security grip on the Palestinian people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Many of Jenin’s militants are associated with either Islamic Jihad or Hamas, whose October 7th attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
Asharq Al-Awsat via Reuters
