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Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

theguardian.com

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#71

Post by refulgentis »

ttul wrote: post #38

Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial looms large over all of this. If he were to lose power, he would be far more vulnerable to conviction and potential imprisonment. So from this vantage point, the Al Jazeera ban could be seen as an act of desperation - muzzling a high-profile critic as a concession to far-right parties, even at the expense of free press principles, all in service of his own political and personal s…

It was a very strange day yesterday: the whole week coverage had been building up to a meeting in Cairo, Hamas signalled they were going to accept the cease fire.

Saturday AM EST, it was reported that Hamas confirmed they were going to accept the deal. By noon Saturday EST, the "Israel-Hamas War"...idk what to call it, live blog? collection-of-news headline?...was gone for the first time in months.

Israel reporting (not just Haaretz) reported huge, multiple, protests (it was at night there, early afternoon EST) due to Israel rejecting a cease fire. Piecing it together from Twitter natsec people, standard blob, certainly not polarized against israel, Israel didn't even send a delegation to the talks, and the far right Israeli leader said Bibi promised him they wouldn't accept "a rushed deal" (i.e. the cease fire), and people were irate. An irate Israeli TV reporter revealed the anonymous "diplomatic source" promising no deal Friday night was Bibi himself.

The blogs are back up now, with a sort of hurried framing that the talks fell apart because Hamas wanted a permanent cease fire (no mention of any of the above -- I assume that'd complicate it too much for, it needs to be a nice little set piece of Israel vs. Hamas.

It's really, really strange watching the coverage the last week, in America, without any attachment to either "side". I guess its easier to push the A vs. B framing on a new subject, our college kids, rather than trying to explain how any of this makes any sense at all.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#72

Post by steve76 »

afavour wrote: post #15

I’m not sure about “dark day for the media” but it does feel like a dark day for Israel. Once you’ve established that the government can unilaterally ban a voice for reasons of “national security” you’ve essentially given them a free pass. As Americans living post-9/11 will know, “national security” is a deliberately elastic term that can cover anything required in the moment.

[dead]

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#73

Post by fathyb »

kristopolous wrote: post #49

The optics are interesting. People who have opinions on things are unlikely to change them due to this. The interesting question is how many people do not have strong opinions and how this could affect them. My guess is it also won't. Why would you be paying attention to news you haven't cared about up to now? The nonopinionated will likely not hear of this

What is worrying is what it’ll mean for the access to the West Bank and Gaza, as they’re currently the only international media outlet on the field, and are documenting various atrocities that are currently being looked at by the ICJ.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#74

Post by jamra »

jjgreen wrote: post #30
yonixwm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other extreme, Are media that spread misinformation without any due process are just protected indefinitely? Like in this very recent case: https://honestreporting.com/damage-done-how-al-jazeeras-fake... Edit: haaretz link: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2024-0...

Honest Reporting is an Israeli media advocacy group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HonestReporting

The tweet that is linked in the web page is from the former managing editor of Al Jazeera. You can just click on the tweet directly and use Google translate.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#75

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dakom wrote: post #69

[flagged]

> Israel is routinely held up to a far far higher standard than any other country

Is it held to a higher standard than countries America provides arms to? (Genuine question.)

Note: I'm not saying we haven't provided arms to horrible regimes. But it's loudly criticised. Rightly or wrongly, we hold ourselves and our allies to a higher standard than e.g. Iran, China or Russia. It's partly why we have so many more of them.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#77

Post by andsoitis »

_Microft wrote: post #37
afavour wrote: post #15

I’m not sure about “dark day for the media” but it does feel like a dark day for Israel. Once you’ve established that the government can unilaterally ban a voice for reasons of “national security” you’ve essentially given them a free pass. As Americans living post-9/11 will know, “national security” is a deliberately elastic term that can cover anything required in the moment.

I think it's neither surprising nor necessarily bad. Just think of how Russia Today was spreading disinformation and propaganda about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Banning them from the EU was certainly in our interest.

> Banning them from the EU was certainly in our interest.

but you had no say in the matter; so if a future ban is not in your interest, what will you do?

no, the government should not stifle the market of ideas. that is not in our interest in the long run.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#78

Post by kelthuzad »

qarl wrote: post #20
bottlepalm wrote: post #11

Is there anyone else who doesn't support either side of this conflict? They've been fighting each other for over 100 years. They both want the same piece of land. It's on them to figure it out. People around the world don't need to 'pick a side'. We can protest for both sides to sort their shit out, and not drag the rest of us into it.

Yeah, I'm totally with you. At this point it's like the Hatfields and the McCoys. I don't care what was the last thing the other guy did - he did it to get back at you for the second to last thing you did. On the other hand, killing children is always wrong. Fucking stop it.

It's not a "cycle of violence" - "both sides" scenario for anyone who has actually put in the effort to study the history in detail.

Since you brought up the "cycle of violence" argument, I remember Shaun making an excellent video[1] on the topic and also addressing that specific talking point.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k&t=10s

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#79

Post by NewJazz »

brabel wrote: post #51
afavour wrote: post #15

I’m not sure about “dark day for the media” but it does feel like a dark day for Israel. Once you’ve established that the government can unilaterally ban a voice for reasons of “national security” you’ve essentially given them a free pass. As Americans living post-9/11 will know, “national security” is a deliberately elastic term that can cover anything required in the moment.

The EU has banned many Russian and Belarussian news sources since the invasion of Ukraine. The USA seems to not have followed through (as far as I know - as Russian news sites seem to be available).

Is Qatar a belligerent in the war? Belarus has allowed Russia to use their territory as a point from which to launch both ground assaults and missiles into Ukraine. Hard to say the same about Qatar and Hamas. If Al Jazeera were an Iranian publication the comparison might be more similar.

Israeli news reports and analysts say Qatar has sent more than $1 billion to Gaza over the past decade.

Qatar sent that aid through fuel to the Gaza Strip's Hamas government, which in turn sold it and paid partial salaries. In the past, the money was sent via suitcases stuffed with cash.

Israel allowed these transfers to Hamas. Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say the payments his government approved helped keep the status quo in the Gaza Strip and Hamas from escalating attacks on Israel.

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/02/1210110109/qatar-israel-gaza-...

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#80

Post by TaylorAlexander »

siva7 wrote: post #13

I've recently visited my parents in europe. I have no affiliations with Israel or Jews. My parents watched a local Al-Jazeera channel in their mother tongue since Qatar seems to strategically deploy satellite offices of Al-Jazeera in different countries, even european. Boy was i shocked at the level of propaganda from this channel. Basically all day in big letters "genocide in gaza" with anti-jewish paroles. I can un…

Many people would say “genocide in gaza” is exactly what the television should be saying.
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