Palestinian Authority shut down several Al Jazeera websites. Palestinian Authority News
The decision came after the PA closed Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank and temporarily suspended its work.
The Magistrate Court of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank has ordered several Al Jazeera websites to be shut down for four months, a court document shows – the latest ban by the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the network.
In a letter dated Sunday, the Attorney General’s Office called on the Palestinian Ministry of Communications to implement the court’s decision by shutting down aljazeera.net, aljazeera.net/live, aljazeera360.com and global.ajplus.net.
The order asked all companies licensed for radio and satellite broadcasting to comply with the decision “under penalty of legal liability.”
According to the document, the websites published content that “endangers national security and incites to commit crimes”.
The latest move comes after the PA closed Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank last week and temporarily suspended its work – a decision the network has condemned.
A PA ministerial committee, including the ministries of culture, interior and communications, justified that decision and said the network was “broadcasting inflammatory content and reports that were deceiving and inciting conflict” in the country.
The network criticized the decision, calling it “an attempt to prevent the channel from covering rapidly escalating events in the occupied territory” and saying it was “in line with the (Israeli) occupation’s actions against its employees”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also criticized the closure and called for its immediate lifting, warning that Al Jazeera’s reporting inside Gaza and the West Bank was “vital”.
According to analysts and human rights activists, such decisions by the PA are part of a broader effort to silence criticism of its security operations in the Jenin refugee camp.
The action to shut down Al Jazeera’s websites and broadcasts comes about a month after the PA launched a crackdown on the Jenin Brigades – a coalition of armed groups that are affiliated with Palestinian factions such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and even Fatah. Is associated with. The party that controls the PA.
Since early December, the PA has surrounded the Jenin camp and cut off water and electricity to most residents in an apparent attempt to restore “law and order” in the West Bank.
However, its indiscriminate tactics in Jenin coincide with a broader attack on free speech, activists and human rights groups told Al Jazeera.
Israel has also targeted Al Jazeera’s work in the West Bank. Last September, authorities attacked Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah and closed it down.
