Israeli officials reportedly seized equipment from the Associated Press and shut down a live shot of Gaza, alleging the news wire service provided images to Al Jazeera in violation of a media law banning Al Jazeera from operating in Israel—escalating tensions between Israel and media outlets covering the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Smoke billows after an explosion in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel Tuesday, May 21, ... [+]
The Associated Press reported the seizure Tuesday, claiming officials from the country’s communications ministry arrived at the AP’s location in the Israeli town of Sderot with a paper claiming the AP had violated its media law.
At the time of the shutdown, the AP was broadcasting a live “general” view of northern Gaza, and claimed it was complying with the Israeli military’s rules prohibiting broadcasts of troop movements, the AP reported.
The outlet, a wire service that distributes articles, images and videos to thousands of news outlets around the world, says Al Jazeera is one of its clients and on Tuesday, Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the AP, accused Israel of acting “not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law.”
The AP reported it had received a verbal order last week to cease the live feed but refused to do so.
Easton urged Israeli authorities to return the equipment and re-establish the live feed “so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”
Forbes has contacted the Israeli communications ministry for comment—but in a statement to the AP, the ministry said it would “continue to take whatever enforcement action is required to limit broadcasts that harm the security of the state,” in accordance with the government instruction.
In April, Israel passed a new media law that allows Israeli officials to shut down any media outlet and confiscate their equipment if they are deemed to be harming Israeli national security—with Israeli officials signaling their intent to ban Al Jazeera. After the law’s passage, Israel ordered Al Jazeera to shut down, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the Qatari-based broadcaster and digital outlet of being a “Hamas mouthpiece” that “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers.” Al Jazeera has provided reporting critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and has frequently published comments and statements directly from Hamas officials. But the feud between the outlet and Israel goes back years, with Israeli officials frequently accusing Al Jazeera of biased reporting and Al Jazeera accusing the country of unfair treatment—coming to a head in 2022, when an Al Jazeera correspondent was killed during an Israeli raid.
Al Jazeera had previously called the Israeli government’s crackdown on its reporting a “criminal act,” accusing the country of suppressing a free press in “an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip.” The outlet says “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats” will not deter its reporting.
Israel’s decision to confiscate the AP’s equipment is “an act of madness,” said Israeli opposition leader and Netanyahu rival Yair Lapid, according to a translation of a post on X. “This is not Al Jazeera, this is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes.”