Just after the lawmakers passed a new media law, the cabinet in Israel has voted to stop the operation of Al jazeera in the country.
The latest move was announced on Sunday by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said his Cabinet unanimously voted in support of stopping the broadcaster from operating in Israel.
The new media law empowes the government to ban foreign broadcasters branded a security risk to the state.
Netanyahu took to his X handle to unveil the decision of his Cabinet.
He labelled Al Jazeera as “the hate channel.”
The Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, said he had signed the closure order.
The order, he warned, would be effected with immediately.
Offices in Israel having affinity with the news channel could be closed, broadcasting equipment confiscated, the station removed from cable and satellite television channels and its website blocked.
Al Jazeera, based in the Gulf emirate of Qatar and has a wide reach in the Arab world, was accused of biased reporting on the ongoing war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera has reported extensively on the catastrophic situation in the Palestinian territory and shown images of death and destruction that are rarely seen on Israeli television stations.
The channel also regularly shows videos of attacks on Israeli soldiers by Hamas’ military arm, the Qassam Brigades.
The channel has rejected allegations of bias and, in the past, accused Netanyahu of spreading “new lies and inflammatory slanders” against the network.
Al Jazeera has also accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting journalists on several occasions.
Netanyahu has accused Al Jazeera of “damaging Israel’s security, actively participating in the massacre on October 7 and inciting against Israeli soldiers.”
Al-Jazeera was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Doha.
Efforts in the past to ban station had met with criticism.
