Israel's forcible closure of the news network's office in Ramallah and the confiscation of its equipment threaten press safety in Palestine.
This statement was originally published on madacenter.org on 23 September 2024.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the decision issued by the Israeli occupation army to close the office of Al Jazeera Network in the city of Ramallah and confiscate its equipment, after storming the office under a military order issued by the commander of the West Bank region in the occupation army.
A large force of the occupation army stormed the Network’s office in Ramallah at 3:10 AM on Sunday, after surrounding the “City Center” building where the office is located in the center of Ramallah. They blew up the main entrance to the building and handed the office manager, WALID AL-OMARI, a decision to close the office for 45 days. The soldiers demanded that all employees evacuate within just 5 minutes.
The occupation forces also prevented the office staff from carrying any journalistic equipment, confiscated the camera that was broadcasting live, and informed the soldiers working in the office that all the contents of the office would be confiscated, while the soldiers tore up a large picture on the front of the office of the martyr SHIREEN ABU AKLEH, the Al Jazeera correspondent who was killed by the occupation forces in 2022 while working in the city of Jenin.
MADA Center condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli authorities’ fight against the media in Palestine by issuing arbitrary and unjust decisions to close the office of Al Jazeera Network in Ramallah, after the occupation forces had prevented the channel from working inside the occupied territories during the month of May. MADA salutes the journalists and media crews who have been steadfast in the face of the ongoing and aggressive Israeli aggression against media freedoms since the beginning of the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to prevent them from exposing the crimes that are being practiced without stopping against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza.
MADA reiterates its call on the international community, especially the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territory, to take urgent action to pressure the Israeli authorities to reverse their decision, and to provide protection for Palestinian journalists and media outlets from the occupation authorities and their aggressive decisions, and to allow them to work freely and in a safe environment, as Article 79 of the Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians in Time of War stipulates that “civilian journalists carrying out their duties in areas of armed conflict must be respected and treated as civilians, and protected against all forms of deliberate attack, provided that they do not take actions contrary to their status as civilians.”
