Al Jazeera says Palestinian Authority has allowed it to resume work in West Bank
Qatari network was banned by PA from broadcasting in the territory following ‘misinformation’ and ‘incitement’ in its coverage of Ramallah’s crackdown on terror groups
Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau chief said Monday that the news channel can resume working in the West Bank, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lifted a ban that had been in place since January.
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to lift the ban on the Al Jazeera network and allow its crews to resume work in the Palestinian territories starting tomorrow morning,” Waleed Omari said, in a statement to the Israeli-Palestinian Foreign Press Association.
A Palestinian official confirmed the removal of the ban to AFP, but the PA did not issue a formal announcement.
The Palestinian Authority in January ordered the temporary suspension of Al Jazeera broadcasts across the West Bank, against the backdrop of the Qatari network’s critical coverage of Ramallah’s crackdown on terror groups in the territory.
The PA accused the network of “misinformation, incitement, sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs.”
In late December, Al Jazeera had condemned what it said was an “incitement campaign” by PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party against the network in some areas of the West Bank.
“This campaign follows the network’s coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and resistance fighters in Jenin,” Al Jazeera said in a statement at the time, lionizing the anti-PA fighters, many of whom were affiliated with the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.
The Qatari broadcaster has close ties with Hamas and has long been accused of having a distinct anti-Israel slant.
The network is already banned from broadcasting from Israel, amid a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has only worsened during the ongoing war in Gaza. Israeli officials have long complained about Al Jazeera’s coverage, which they say is heavily influenced by Hamas and endangers IDF troops in Gaza.
A court, reviewing the temporary ban, determined that there was a “close connection” between Al Jazeera and Hamas, that some Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza had turned themselves into “assistants and partners” with Hamas, and that some of them had even carried out terror attacks.
The Times of Israel Community.