The Palestinian National Authority announced Wednesday evening the decision to suspend the broadcasting and activities of the Al Jazeera channel in the Palestinian Territories. This denounces “an attempt to hide reality”.
“This decision comes in response to Al Jazeera’s insistence on broadcasting content and reporting characterized by disinformation, incitement to sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs,” reports the agency. official Wafa press.
The Qatari channel broadcast images on Wednesday evening showing Palestinian Authority police officers bringing its journalists in Ramallah an official judicial document, dated January 1, 2025.
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The Qatari channel claims that the decision comes at a time “when the Palestinian Authority is trying to dissuade Al Jazeera from covering the worsening events in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” and after “a campaign of intimidation” carried out against its journalists.
The Palestinian Authority, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, holds partial administrative authority in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Palestinian security forces have been involved for several weeks in clashes in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, with armed men mainly belonging to Hamas. The clashes have already left around ten dead.
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-Al Jazeera, which defends the neutrality of its work, said Thursday that the suspension of its activities constituted “an attempt to mask the reality on the ground in the occupied territories, particularly in cities like Jenin and its refugee camp.”
Hamas, the great rival of Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah, called the suspension of Al Jazeera a “blatant violation of press freedom” and a “repressive act intended to silence dissonant voices.”
“This decision is in line with a recent series of arbitrary measures taken by the Authority to hinder public rights and freedoms, and strengthen its security hold over the Palestinian people,” added the movement, calling on the Authority Palestinian to “immediately reverse its decision”.
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Israel had already decided last May to ban the broadcast of Al Jazeera in the country and to close its offices there. The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera journalists of being “terrorist agents” in Gaza affiliated with Hamas, author of an unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel which sparked the war.
Challenge (With AFP)
