After yet another week filled with massacres in Gaza, war crimes in broad daylight in the West Bank, and what everyone except the West is calling an Israel terror attack on Lebanon, this week culminated with Israel once again brazenly putting its fascism on full display for the world.
As Hezbollah rockets rained over northern Israel, and Israelis were faced with the consequences of their war-mongering Prime Minister, the Israeli army was on another mission in the West Bank, to shut down the singular most impactful news station on the ground in Palestine.
As their journalists were broadcasting live from inside their offices in Ramallah, the Al Jazeera bureau was raided by a horde of armed Israeli soldiers. Strapped with weapons, recording devices to intimidate the journalists inside, and a military ‘court order’, the soldiers ordered that the Al Jazeera office be shut down for 45 days, and that the journalists vacate the premises effective immediately.
During their raid, the soldiers were filmed tearing down a memorial poster of veteran Al Jazeera journalist, and Palestinian-American, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by the Israeli military while she was on duty in Jenin in 2022. According to Al Jazeera, Israeli soldiers also began confiscating documents and equipment in the bureau, and “cited laws dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine to support its closure order.”
As is customary of Israel, without evidence, the army reiterated its claims on Sunday that Al Jazeera was being used to “incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger … security and public order.”
For many at Al Jazeera, and for the millions of Palestinians who get their news from the network, this was only a matter of time. In May of this year, Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and raided the network’s Jerusalem broadcast position.
As we know, of course, Israel’s attacks on Al Jazeera have gone far beyond office closures and the seizure of equipment. In Gaza, Al Jazeera reporters and their families have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli attacks, resulting in their killing and injury.
So why now? Some social media users pointed out that the 45-day closure period would end exactly one day after the U.S. elections – conveniently stifling the main source of news and images of the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide unfolding in Gaza.