On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to use a new national security law passed by parliament to ban news channel Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the Middle East country.
The law, passed on Monday by 70 votes to 10, grants top ministers the power to ban broadcasts by foreign media perceived to be a threat to national security to shut their offices.
Netanyahu took no prisoners when he mentioned Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera, with which his government has a long-running feud that predates Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activities,” Netanyahu said on X.
The media house responded and slammed the ban as “part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera”, including the killing of one of its trusted journalists while covering an Israeli raid in May 2022.
The network continued, saying Netanyahu had launched a “frantic” and “disgraceful” campaign of accusations against the network, pledging to continue its “bold” coverage of the war.
Join our WhatsApp community via https://goquick.ly/cj8q2 for instant and latest news updates.