Israeli forces raid, order closure of Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah
Ramallah (Quds News Network)- Israeli occupation soldiers raided and ordered Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to shut down operations early on Sunday.
Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers forcefully raided the building housing Al Jazeera’s bureau and handed the network’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, a 45-day closure order, the Doha-based news network said.
The soldiers ordered everyone working the overnight shift at the bureau to leave, telling them they could take only their personal belongings.
Al-Omari said the Israeli military’s closure order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism”.
Al Jazeera’s Jivara Budeiri said Israeli forces used tear gas in the vicinity of the Al Jazeera bureau and al-Manara Square in the heart of the occupied West Bank city.
She added that Israeli soldiers confiscated their cameras. Budeiri said she feared the military might try to destroy Al Jazeera’s archives, which are stored in the office.
Speaking over the phone from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the West Bank raid and the closure order come “as no surprise” after the earlier ban on reporting from inside the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
In May, the Israeli occupation government banned Al Jazeera from operating inside the 1948-occupied territories in the wake of its deadly war in Gaza.
That initial closure order was also for 45 days, but it was renewed and Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from the occupied territories.
“We’ve heard Israeli officials threatening to close down the bureau. We’ve heard the government discussing this, asking the military ruler in the occupied West Bank to close down and shut down the channel. But we [had] not been expecting it to happen today,” Ibrahim said.
After the raid, bureau chief al-Omari raised concerns about what Israeli soldiers may do to the office.
“Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” he said.
The Government Media Office in Gaza called the Israeli move a “deafening scandal”.
“We call on all media organizations and groups that deal with human rights in the world to condemn this heinous crime … that is a blatant violation of press and media freedom,” it said.
