Al Jazeera says Palestinian Authority has allowed it to resume work in West Bank

Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau chief says the news channel can resume working in the West Bank, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lifted a ban that has 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 says, in a statement to the Israeli-Palestinian Foreign Press Association.

An official Palestinian source confirms the removal of the ban to AFP.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) ordered the suspension of the Qatar-based channel’s broadcasts on January 1, accusing it of incitement.

At the time, the channel had aired footage of what appeared to be PA security officers entering the network’s office in Ramallah and handing over the suspension orders.

Al Jazeera accused the PA, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank, of “attempting to deter Al Jazeera from covering escalating events in the occupied Palestinian territories,” including in Jenin and its refugee camp.

At the time of the channel’s suspension, PA security forces had been engaged in weeks of deadly clashes with terrorists in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

Al Jazeera remains banned from broadcasting from Israel, since a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prompted his government to order the channel’s closure in May 2024.

The Qatari broadcaster has close ties with Hamas and has long been accused of having a distinct anti-Israel slant.