SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 5.5.2024
The murderous Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu is engaged in a blatant policy of targeting journalists. Censoring them and killing them.
The repressive Israeli leader Bibi Netanyahu continues his war against all things Palestinian and Arabic. His latest target, Al Jazeera. The prestigious media conglomerate based in Qatar.
The Israeli cabinet, doing Bibi’s bidding has shutdown the Al Jazeera broadcast center in Jerusalem. Bibi doesn’t like its reporting about the Israeli atrocities being inflicted on the children, women and men of Gaza. Nearly 35,000 of whom have been slaughtered by American provided weapons of war since last October.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have murdered and maimed Al Jazeera journalists in what can only be described as wanton fashion. Most insidious was the targeted assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh by the IDF in the West Bank on May 11, 2022.
More than 100 journalists and media workers, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed in the first seven months of war in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Gaza’s media office has the number at more than 140 killed, which averages to five journalists killed every week since October 7.
Since the start of the war, at least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 others injured in Gaza. More than 8,000 others are missing, buried under the rubble.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
The largely compliant American media need not worry. It will never be punished by Bibi. It’s credulous reporting and cheerleading on behalf of Israel enables the continued devastation of Gaza.
Excerpted from The New York Times 5.5.2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that his cabinet had voted to shut down the Israeli operations of Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based network that is a major source of news in the Arab world and has often highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.
Journalism organizations denounced the closure, which had been under discussion in Israel for weeks, as a blow to press freedom. Reporters Without Borders said in a statement in Arabic that it strongly condemned the decision, which it called repressive. The Foreign Press Association said Israel had joined “a dubious club of authoritarian governments” that have banned the station.
Shireen Abu Akleh. Murdered by Israel
Mr. Netanyahu accused Al Jazeera, which has long had a tense relationship with Israel, of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers. Israeli officials did not immediately provide examples of Al Jazeera content it believed posed a threat.
In a statement in Arabic, Al Jazeera called the decision a “criminal act.” “Israeli’s suppression of the free press to cover up its crimes has not deterred us from performing our duty,” the network said.
The initial shutdown order is for 45 days, with an option of an extension of another 45 days, according to an official at the Ministry of Communications. The order focuses on halting Al Jazeera’s ability to transmit from and be seen within Israel; it was not immediately clear whether the closure could affect the network’s reporting in Gaza and the West Bank.
Mr. Netanyahu has previously called the network a “mouthpiece” for Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza and that led the cross-border attacks on Oct. 7 that set off the war.
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