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Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#401
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source that it was a Hamas missile, or do you simply spread Israeli lies?

AP: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-hos... CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/21/middleeast/cnn-investigat... Economist: https://www.economist.com/interactive/the-economist-explains... Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/al-ahli-arab-h... WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/video/video-analysis-shows-gaza-hospital... Also worth reading this document straight from Hamas: https://twi…

None of these actually say Hamas, and the Israelis even blame a different group; Palestinian Jihad.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#402
post #120

How big a share of Palestinian media consumption does Al Jazeera have? As in, do the residents of Gaza treat it as the main news source? The reason for asking is because a poll[0] of Palestinians says “90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israel civilians during its October the 7th offensive. Only one in five Palestinians has seen videos showing atrocities committed by Hamas.” So is it Al Jaze…

> do the residents of Gaza treat it as the main news source? Does Gaza have sufficient connectivity for its population to have a real news source?

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Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#403
post #120

How big a share of Palestinian media consumption does Al Jazeera have? As in, do the residents of Gaza treat it as the main news source? The reason for asking is because a poll[0] of Palestinians says “90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israel civilians during its October the 7th offensive. Only one in five Palestinians has seen videos showing atrocities committed by Hamas.” So is it Al Jaze…

> do the residents of Gaza treat it as the main news source? Does Gaza have sufficient connectivity for its population to have a real news source?

I think they do, as long as their internet connections are up. At least the Gazans I follow on social media seem to be perfectly aware of the world news. Graffiti tags on refugee tents in Rafah thanking American students for their solidarity seems to support that.

I’ve also read in the past that Al Jazeera is a rather popular media outlet among Palestinians in Gaza.

> Pan-Arab satellite TVs, especially Qatar's Al-Jazeera, are popular. [1]

I know that Shireen Abu Akleh—an Al Jazeera journalist murdered by IDF in 2022—was a superstar among Palestinians, including Palestinans in Gaza.

1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14631745

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#404
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 there are limits - when it's a state-run agency that's peddling straight propaganda and not making an effort to produce news content, I don't see why you would let them operate within your borders: looking at you RT.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#405
Al Jazeera was one of the few sources of 'on the ground' journalism in Gaza.

It's quite chilling that western democracies have stood back from ensuring journalistic freedom is upheld in the reporting up until now. To allow the removal of the last effective observational counterpoint to Israel's narrative points to the acceptance of despot power of Israel over the population of Gaza.

Effectively it sanctions whatever Israel wants to do to that population without any oversight or reporting. Given what has been done in sight and the obvious desire of the Israeli government to attack Rafah, and the US's impotency to influence Israel it's clear this move is just to reduce the risk of ongoing exposure of children and other innocents being slaughtered on TV repeatably and without having to even pretend justification.

We live in extraordinary times.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On what basis in Al Jazeera a fake news outlet?

As someone who was only familiar with Al Jazeera's English reporting (and thought it was pretty good), it was eye opening to check out their Arabic website translated into a language I speak. Maybe Google Translate was erasing some nuance, but I saw a huge number of controversial, disputed, or downright false claims that were reported uncritically as facts.

Can you provide specifics?

I'm looking at the Google Translate version of their Arabic site right now:

https://www-aljazeera-net.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_t...

It's all looking like pretty standard news stuff to me.

And I don't know about you, but I see "controversial, disputed, or downright false claims that were reported uncritically as facts" all the time even in mainstream US publications.

So I'd need to see some evidence here that Al Jazeera is particularly worse.

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#407
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would you allow that to continue in your country? We have a constitution that protects our rights, and among them a right to make up our minds on the basis of an uncensored discourse. That's the other, implicit half of the first amendment: the right to listen to what others want to tell you.

Can you openly call for the murder of in the US under the protection of the first amendment ?

Balaji Srinivasan - "Take total control of your neighborhood. Push out all Blues. Tell them they’re ... unwelcome Just as Blues ethnically cleanse me out of San Francisco, like, push out all Blues." https://youtu.be/EqJoXaNFFjY?si=x3HD6-P9n98KTHGi&t=14723

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#408
post #397

As Americans, we’re constantly told, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” The narrative is always that they’re “our greatest ally” because we share similar values to them. Well, one of our values—in fact, a constitutionally protected one—is press freedom. Al Jazeera has been the only media/news outlet in Israel that offered the Palestinian perspective and they’ve shut it down. As a rule, you’re probably…

Of course the US just voted to ban TikTok for vague national security reasons, so maybe we do have a lot in common.

Even the TikTok ban appears to have been led by the Israeli lobby and Israeli operatives because so much of the TikTok content re the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has leaned in favor of the Palestinians [0][1].

[0]: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/the-truth-about-tiktok-has...

[1]: https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1787134138283155963

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unlikely that reliable numbers will come out of Gaza with the media blackout and two sides who both want to present information "favorably" At least until the war has subsided and independent orgs can gain access.

Gaza Health Ministry numbers are a reliable floor, as confirmed by numerous organizations like the US State Department. The real count probably above 100k dead so far.

I don't think this is true. Can you refer to the US State Department official position on this? It's true that in previous conflicts the numbers were in the ballpark but the breakdown between e.g. combatants and civilians was not. This conflict is very different so I don't think we should be extrapolating.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/04/09/hamas-run-gaza-healt...

Re: Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices

#410
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm afraid we're just going to have to agree to disagree.

You can disagree all you want, some people even disagree on if the holocaust happened but no one takes them seriously. The history of Zionism and its goal to colonize Palestine (long before the holocaust even happened) and their ruthless methods of colonization are thoroughly documented[0][1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

[1] The History of "Socialist" Zionism | Leftist Zionists did the Nakba & founded Israel https://youtu.be/ehp9PZo4UR0

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