Following a decision by Israeli authorities to ban the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television in Israel, including its offices in Jerusalem, the network vowed to legally challenge Israel’s decision, calling it an attack on independent journalism. Al Jazeera Senior Correspondent Jamal El-Shyal said from the network’s offices in London that the move was an attempt by Israel to “muzzle and silence” journalism, but refrained from contending the allegations voiced by Israel, in which Al Jazeera regularly incites to violence and supports terror organizations by reporting, during passed conflicts, the live location of Israeli troops. “It is an attempt to muzzle and silence independent journalists from doing their jobs. It is an affront on one of the most basic tenets of international law in human rights, which is the human right to be informed, to know. And this is something that we find outrageous, that a government that claims to be one of the only democratic ones in existence in the Middle East, thinks that in the 21st century, it can actually go after journalists and media institutions in order to silence any form of reporting on its actions and its policies that it may not like,” Jamal el-Shyal said in an interview to Reuters.
Since Al-Jazeera meddled in several countries during the Arab spring of 2010, vocally supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in overtaking several Arab countries, many countries have outlawed the Qatar-based station, accusing it of supporting terror and promoting instability. The Director of the Israel-based Moshe Dayan center for Middle East studies Uzi Rabi said that Al-Jazeera’s reluctance of playing in accordance with journalistic rules has brought about recent developments. “The other stations seem to play in accordance with the unwritten rule so to speak. I think that Al Jazeera took it to the extreme and we know how I would say vociferous this network is, we have seen that in the Arab Spring, but now I think that what comes to every average eye is that Al Jazeera is capitalizing on what is going on, we have seen that in the Temple Mount events and this is again, this is becoming what I would call security concern for Israel and Israel cannot allow itself actually to be put under the mercy of Al Jazeera, and this is why Israel decided to do that and under these circumstances I would rather take it as kind of a legitimate step,” Uzi Rabi said.
Israel’s decision to ban Al-Jazeera adds further pressure on Qatar, which owns the television network, as Doha is already involved in a dispute with several of its regional neighbors. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have all severed diplomatic and commercial ties with their Arab neighbor accusing Qatar of supporting terror, as well as aligning its foreign police with the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Qatar is being depicted as kind of a very very naughty boy in the Middle East. A state which is identified with pro-Iranian activities, supporting Hamas and doing some other let us say acts that are against stabilizing the region and I guess that the Qatar crisis actually could be served as sort of a background to what we do see here now,” Uzi Rabi stressed.