Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday, April 1, to enact a ban on broadcasts in Israel from news channel Al Jazeera using the authority lawmakers have just voted to grant him. The potential ban is a fresh escalation in the running conflict between Israel's government and the Qatari channel during Israel's war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
"The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activities," Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter.
The law giving Netanyahu this authority, which passed on Monday by 70 votes to 10, carries the power to ban the broadcast of content from foreign channels but also allows the closing of their offices in Israel. Netanyahu's Likud party said he asked "to make sure that the law to close Al Jazeera will be approved this evening" in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
Israel claimed in January that an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were "terror operatives." The following month it said another journalist for the channel, wounded in a separate strike, was a "deputy company commander" with Hamas.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel's accusations and accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera's bureau chief in the Palestinian territory, Wael al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike in December, that also killed the network's cameraman.
The White House reacted cautiously to the move to ban broadcasts: "I'm going to refer to Israel for what they may or may not be considering," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. "If it is true, a move like this is concerning."