The Netanyahu cabinet on Monday approved shutting down the operations of the Qatari channel Al Jazeera channel in Israel. The move began at the beginning of the Gaza War, but the PM and other ministers were reluctant to lower the boom on the pro-Hamas news operation while Qatar was involved in the negotiations for the release of the hostages.
The cabinet’s decision is still pending the approval of the war cabinet, which for the time being continues to be reluctant.
Meanwhile, the Knesset on Monday approved in a first reading a bill to “Prevent a Foreign Broadcasting Organization’s Harm to the State’s Security.” This bill gives the Minister of Communications the authority to order the closing of offices of a foreign media channel located in Israel and to order the restriction of access to the website of a foreign channel found to be likely to harm the security of the state.
However, the bill conditions exercising the authority of the Minister of Communications on the determination by the Minister of Defense, following consultations with security professionals, that the broadcasts of the foreign channel do indeed harm the security of the state.
In other words, if you happen to be renting office space to the fine men and women of Hamas-Jazeera in Israel, you need not worry – those checks will keep coming every month.
AL JAZEERA IN THE MORNING, HAMAS AT NIGHT
On a related note, on Sunday, IDF Spokesman in Arabic Avichai Adraee posted a tweet titled, “In the morning, a journalist on the Al Jazeera channel, and in the evening, a Hamas terrorist!”
#عاجل #خاص في الصباح صحفي في قناة #الجزيرة وفي المساء مخرب في حماس! @AJArabic
⭕️خلال نشاط لقواتنا قبل عدة أسابيع داخل احدى معسكرات حماس في شمال قطاع غزة تم ضبط كمبيوتر متحرك يعود إلى المدعو محمد سمير محمد وشاح من مواليد 1986 من البريج حيث يتضح من المستندات ان محمد وشاح هو قائد… pic.twitter.com/s8CX1kOfvP
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) February 11, 2024
“During an activity of our forces several weeks ago inside one of the Hamas camps in the northern Gaza Strip, a mobile computer belonging to a person named Muhammad Samir Muhammad Wishah, born in 1986, from Bureij, was seized. It is clear from the documents that Muhammad Wishah is a prominent commander in the anti-armor missile system in the Hamas military wing. At the end of 2022, he moved to work in the field of research and development in the Hamas Air Force.
“The intelligence investigation conducted on the computer revealed images linking the person called Muhammad Washah to activities within Hamas. Who knows how many details we will reveal about the presence of other terrorists in journalistic garb in the near future.”
