Israeli forces raid Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah
Israeli soldiers carrying guns have entered our bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. They’ve told staff members there to evacuate within 10 minutes and leave any equipment behind.
Israeli bid to close Al Jazeera in Ramallah ‘no surprise’
We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau but we did not expect it to happen today. We were not sent any paperwork or any orders.
Journalists in Palestine, they know that they are being under attack and threatened for the very thing that they do, which is expose Israel’s violations and crimes in the occupied West Bank and tell the stories of those who are trying to resist the occupation.
All of the Palestinian journalists know that makes them under threat, but they choose to still continue. And we’ve seen how our colleagues have continued the coverage from the occupied West Bank after they’ve been banned from working within Israel.
But now, as you can see, there’s this military order that is very really painful to watch and to see. Again, this comes as no surprise since the channel has also been banned from operating within Israel.
More on Israel’s raid on Al Jazeera office
Israel is imposing a 45-day closure on Al Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah. Heavily armed, masked Israeli soldiers entered the building and handed the order to the network’s Walid al-Omari moments ago. They did not provide a reason for the decision.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” a soldier told al-Omari as Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast the conversation live. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment.”
Shuttering Al Jazeera is the policy of Netanyahu’s far-right ministers
Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan because it has been banned from Israel by the Israeli government.
There has been a war against Al Jazeera for its truth-telling when it comes to violations and the crimes committed against the Palestinian people on a daily basis. Not just during this war on Gaza, but over the last couple of decades of the Israeli occupation.
When we were asked to shutter our office in occupied East Jerusalem, it was quite an interesting notice to receive from the Israeli government. Because they had been had been demonising Al Jazeera for so long, they had been instilling this hate and letting the public know essentially that Al Jazeera was the enemy, when journalists were working on the ground tirelessly day in and day out to tell the truth.
It’s important to also know this is the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. This is a government that has been antagonizing Palestinians, antagonizing Arabic and Palestinian journalists, antagonizing Al Jazeera specifically with unfounded claims against the network that have no basis whatsoever.
But this is Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
These are the policies of his ministers – ministers who incite hate against Palestinians, who incite hate against Palestinian journalists, and incite hate against anything that has to do with truth-telling, anything that holds them accountable for their crimes.
Just to give you an idea of the right-wing government policy on Gaza. You have ultra-nationalists in this government who live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank who have been calling to shutter the Al Jazeera network.
And these are the same ones who are calling for Netanyahu to be even tougher in Gaza, in a war that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, among them, nearly 17,000 children.
