Israel closes Al Jazeera office in Ramallah: Everything you need to know | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News

On live television, heavily armed Israeli soldiers stormed Al Jazeera’s West Bank headquarters in Ramallah and gave the bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, a notice to shut it down.

The soldiers ordered everyone who worked at night in the center to leave, telling them that they could only take their belongings.

What happened and why? Here’s everything we know:

Who closed the bureau?

The order came from Israeli military commanders despite the fact that the office is in Area A, an area defined as under Palestinian control in the Oslo Accords.

Wait, so if Ramallah is under Palestinian control, how can Israel do this?

This is not the first time Israel has taken measures in area A defined by the Oslo Accords, where Ramallah is located and where the Palestinian Authority (PA) has its seat.

Last year, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland reported that, between June and September of last year, there were many Palestinian casualties caused by Israeli operations in Area A.

The other two areas in the West Bank occupying Area B, which the PA also controls on paper, share security control with Israel. Area C is under full Israeli control.

Regardless of its legal authority, Israel has acted with impunity throughout the West.

Why did Israel attack the office?

Israel routinely targets Al Jazeera and its journalists, sometimes even killing them – as did Shireen Abu Akleh, Samer Abudaqa, Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi.

“This is very much in line with the policy of the state of Israel since 1948 … one from the American University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera.

But why did Israel do this?

The banning order accuses Al Jazeera of inciting and supporting “terrorism”.

Khouri said Al Jazeera is “the main tool to inform the world” about Israel’s violations in Palestinian territory.

What does Israel do in the office?

The entire team working in the office at night was told to leave.

They were first told by the cameras that they had to take their clothes and cameras with them. However, they had to leave the cameras in the office in the end.

Al Jazeera’s Jivara Budeiri, who was working during the raid, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the Israeli team that raided the office included engineers, which made him fear that the looters had come to destroy the office’s warehouse.

The soldiers were in the offices for a few hours, during which time some of them were seen tearing down a large statue of the slain Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Is the Al Jazeera team right?

No one on the team was injured.

They spend hours standing on the street far from the office building, unable to get close to it to pick up their cars.

And, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s Budeiri, they could not move to defend against the attack, as any member of the group who moved was threatened by the laser weapon of Israel.

As Israeli soldiers at the Al Jazeera office destroyed items such as Shireen Abu Akleh’s flag, additional soldiers in armored vehicles surrounded the area around the building, and the bureau team could hear gunfire and tear gas being fired all around.

When can the office reopen?

The order is for 45 days. However, bureau chief al-Omari said he thought it would be automatically renewed, as was the case with the Israeli-issued civil order in early May to close Al Jazeera’s office in Israel.

What is the difference between military and military command?

Perhaps there is nothing in practice, however, there is a difference in form.

Al Jazeera’s office in Israel was closed in May after the Israeli parliament passed what is known as the “Al Jazeera Law”, which allowed the government to shut down, for 45 days at a time, any foreign media that posed a threat to the government. .

For this reason, dozens of inspectors from the Ministry of Communications came to Al Jazeera’s offices and confiscated equipment on May 5. The “temporary closure” has been renewed since then and is still in place.

The closure of Ramallah comes from an authority that has no power over Ramallah in theory.

What can the bureau do about this?

The head of the al-Omari office was told by one of the soldiers that any questions would have to go to the military command that issued the order.

Al-Omari told Al Jazeera Arabic by phone that this would likely mean that any appeal would have to go through the military court system.

Israel’s military courts operate through an elaborate system of “secret evidence” and indefinite administrative detention.

What is the situation now?

Al Jazeera’s office is inaccessible to the group, sealed off with two large iron bars welded to the door.