Brian McDonald
Jerusalem – Israeli authorities seized a camera and transmission equipment belonging to the Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the country’s new ban on Al Jazeera. The Qatari satellite channel is among thousands of customers receiving live video feeds from AP and other news organizations. The AP denounced the measure.
“The Associated Press condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli government’s actions to shut down our long-running live broadcast showing a view from Gaza and seize AP equipment,” said Lauren Easton, the news organization’s vice president of corporate communications. “The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed, but rather the Israeli government’s abusive use of the country’s new foreign broadcasting law. We urge Israeli authorities to return our equipment and allow us to immediately reinstate our live feed so that we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”
Communications Ministry officials arrived at the AP site in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They gave the AP a piece of paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, claiming it was violating the country’s new foreign broadcasting law.
Léo Correa/AP
Shortly before the equipment was seized, it transmitted an overview of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit the broadcast of details such as troop movements that could put soldiers in danger. Live footage often shows smoke rising over the territory.
The seizure followed a verbal order on Thursday to cease live streaming — which the news organization refused to do.
Israeli authorities used the new law to close the Qatar-based broadcaster’s offices on May 5 and confiscated its equipment, banned the channel’s broadcasts and blocked its websites.
Israel has long had a difficult relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias against Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets that remained in Gaza during the war, broadcasting scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres.
The war in Gaza began with a Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and took another 250 hostages. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
