An Israeli court has confirmed and extended the government\u2019s shutdown of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera for an additional 35 days, according to a statement from the Israeli justice ministry on Friday, June 14.<\/p>\n
The Tel Aviv district court upheld the communications minister\u2019s instructions to halt Al Jazeera\u2019s broadcasts, close its bureaus in Israel, block access to its websites, and seize its equipment. This decision follows an initial 45-day order issued in early May, which took Al Jazeera off the air in Israel.<\/p>\n
The extension comes amid ongoing tensions between the Israeli government and Al Jazeera, which have escalated since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s administration has long been at odds with the news network.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to note that the shutdown does not affect Al Jazeera\u2019s broadcasts from the Israeli-occupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip, where the network continues to cover Israel\u2019s conflict with Hamas.<\/p>\n
The legal basis for this action stems from a security law passed by the Israeli parliament in April, which allows for the banning of foreign media broadcasts deemed to undermine security.<\/p>\n
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi defended the decision, describing Al Jazeera as a mouthpiece for terrorism in the service of Hamas. He stated that the government would continue to take necessary steps to cleanse the region of terrorism and incitement to violence.<\/p>\n
The court acknowledged the importance of freedom of expression, especially during wartime, but argued that when there is a significant threat to state security, priority is given to the latter consideration.<\/p>\n
This development raises concerns about press freedom in Israel, which is currently ranked 101 out of 180 countries in RSF\u2019s 2024 World Press Freedom Index. The situation continues to evolve, with potential implications for media coverage and international perceptions of the ongoing conflict in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The extension comes amid ongoing tensions between the Israeli government and Al Jazeera, which have escalated since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":19955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[11405,317,320,322,316,11727,11726,393,838,9733],"class_list":["post-19954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-al-jazeera","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-rsf","tag-shlomo-karhi","tag-tel-aviv","tag-west-bank","tag-world-press-freedom-day"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}