Palestinian Authority shuts down several Al Jazeera digital platforms

A court document reveals that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has recently placed a four-month suspension on several Al Jazeera websites in the occupied West Bank.

The Attorney General’s Office demanded that the Palestinian Ministry of Communication follow the court’s order by shutting down Aljazeera in a letter dated Sunday. net, aljazeera. net/live, aljazeera360.com and global. ajplus. net

Under the “under penalty of legal accountability,” the order directed all radio and satellite broadcasting companies to abide by the decree.

The websites that “threaten national security and incite the commission of crimes” were mentioned in the document.

The PA temporarily suspended its work last week by closing Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank, which the network has denounced.

A PA ministerial committee, including the culture, interior and communications ministries justified that decision, saying the network was broadcasting “inciting material and reports that were deceiving and stirring strife” in the country.

The network criticised the decision, calling it “an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territory” adding that it was “in line with the]Israeli] occupation’s actions against its staff”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which criticized the closure and warned that Al Jazeera’s reporting in Gaza and the West Bank was “vital,” also criticized the closure.

Analysts and human rights activists claim that the PA’s decisions are a part of a wider campaign to silence criticism of its security measures in the Jenin refugee camp.

Nearly a month after the PA began cracking down on the Jenin Brigades, a coalition of armed groups linked to Palestinian rivals like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and even Fatah, the party that controls the PA, Al Jazeera’s websites and broadcasts were shut down.

In an ostensible effort to restore “law and order” throughout the West Bank, the PA has besieged the Jenin camp since early December and shut off access to the majority of the camp’s residents.

However, Jenin’s blatantly discriminatory practices coincide with a wider assault on free speech, according to activists and human rights organizations.