The move escalates a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.

Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance.

The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet.

Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable and satellite providers in the hours after the order. However, its website and multiple online streaming links still operated Sunday.

The network has reported the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack Oct. 7 and has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its own staff. While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region

UPDATED – Israeli authorities raid Al Jazeera after shutdown order

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    33·
    7 months ago

    Hiding things from the press is a hell of a lot harder when everyone has an internet-connected photo and video camera in their pocket.

    • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
      302·
      7 months ago

      True; but it’s made much easier when you’ve destroyed all the infrastructure that keeps those phones/cameras charged and transmits the photos and video.

      Batteries only last so long, and you’ve still gotta be able to send the data somehow.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        9·
        7 months ago

        Batteries can be charged via solar panels and internet can be reached via satellite. I agree, it’s not as easy, but it is still very doable by a lot of people if they have the equipment. If I were Al Jazeera, I would be doing what I could to smuggle that equipment into Gaza.

      • WamGams@lemmy.caEnglish
        52·
        7 months ago

        Which is why we need to find a way to get radios and mesh networks to the Palestinian people.

        All this money being spent as if its an ad campaign, we could do a lot more if we could safely get the supplies in and keep them out of Israeli and Hamas hands.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          6·
          7 months ago

          I don’t know if a mesh network would be as good an idea as using satellite internet since all the routers in the mesh network would need to be powered.

          And I don’t necessarily mean Starlink. There are other options, they just have higher latency because they’re in a higher orbit.

        • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
          51·
          7 months ago

          Something like Briar could be used to exchange messages between devices over Bluetooth, but it still end up using a fair amount of battery which is a problem when you don’t have access to a reliable power grid, and it’s Android-only…

          • WamGams@lemmy.caEnglish
            52·
            7 months ago

            I would imagine the people of Palestine with phones are overwhelmingly on android.

            I would imagine most of their internet infrastructure is down though.

            • m-p{3}@lemmy.caEnglish
              4·
              7 months ago

              Yeah… at least you can share the app installer without Internet, and communications done on the mesh can be transmitted online as long as one single node can get Internet access.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    92·
    7 months ago

    Alas, all those with eyes to see had no power to stop the beast. As the blind only fed it, ensuring it good and just.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    An Al Jazeera correspondent on its Arabic service said the order would affect the broadcaster’s operations in Israel and in east Jerusalem, where it has been doing live shots for months since the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

    The decision threatens to heighten tensions with Qatar at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza, along with Egypt and the United States.

    Relations took a major downturn nearly two years ago when Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.

    Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets to remain in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting bloody scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres.

    While Al Jazeera’s English operation often resembles the programming found on other major broadcast networks, its Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region.

    Sunday’s development immediately recalled Egypt’s shutdown of Al Jazeera after the country’s 2013 military takeover following mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group.

    The original article contains 927 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!