Al Jazeera to Be Kicked Out of Israel, Deemed Agent of Hamas

The Israeli government has voted to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, citing the risk the Qatari network poses to national security.

The decision was passed in a unanimous vote by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.

The cabinet vote came after Israel’s parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security during the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“Al Jazeera serves as a propaganda organ of Hamas. The channel encourages the armed struggle against Israel. It is intolerable for a media organization, with press cards from the Government Press Office and offices in Israel, to operate against us from within us, certainly in wartime,“ Israel’s Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi said at the time. ”We have received an efficient and quick tool to act against those who use the freedom of the press to harm the security of Israel and the IDF soldiers, and to incite to terrorism during wartime.”