Weekly Briefing: Israel shuts down Al Jazeera’s West Bank Bureau. Why are we surprised?
The raid on the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah is the latest in a string of attacks on the network. But it’s not just an attack on Al Jazeera, its an attack on all those bearing witness to genocide.
After yet another week filled with massacres in Gaza, war crimes in broad daylight in the West Bank, and what everyone except the West is calling an Israel terror attack on Lebanon, this week culminated with Israel once again brazenly putting its fascism on full display for the world.
As Hezbollah rockets rained over northern Israel, and Israelis were faced with the consequences of their war-mongering Prime Minister, the Israeli army was on another mission in the West Bank, to shut down the singular most impactful news station on the ground in Palestine.
As their journalists were broadcasting live from inside their offices in Ramallah, the Al Jazeera bureau was raided by a horde of armed Israeli soldiers. Strapped with weapons, recording devices to intimidate the journalists inside, and a military ‘court order’, the soldiers ordered that the Al Jazeera office be shut down for 45 days, and that the journalists vacate the premises effective immediately.
During their raid, the soldiers were filmed tearing down a memorial poster of veteran Al Jazeera journalist, and Palestinian-American, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by the Israeli military while she was on duty in Jenin in 2022. According to Al Jazeera, Israeli soldiers also began confiscating documents and equipment in the bureau, and “cited laws dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine to support its closure order.”
As is customary of Israel, without evidence, the army reiterated its claims on Sunday that Al Jazeera was being used to “incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger … security and public order.”
For many at Al Jazeera, and for the millions of Palestinians who get their news from the network, this was only a matter of time. In Mayof this year, Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and raided the network’s Jerusalem broadcast position.
As we know, of course, Israel’s attacks on Al Jazeera have gone far beyond office closures and the seizure of equipment. In Gaza, Al Jazeera reporters and their families have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli attacks, resulting in their killing and injury.
So why now? Some social media users pointed out that the 45-day closure period would end exactly one day after the U.S. elections – conveniently stifling the main source of news and images of the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide unfolding in Gaza.
Whether a convenient coincident or not, the message is clear: Israel wants to continue the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, tighten its fascist grip on the West Bank, and stoke regional war – all without the prying eyes of journalists who have so bravely brought these images to us for almost 365 days, at great personal and professional risk. And it doesn’t care what damage might be done to its public image in the process.
And with promises of support from both U.S. presidential candidates, who have made it clear that there is in fact no red line when it comes to Israel, there is no doubt that the genocidal war machine will continue barreling down this path until there is nothing left in its way.
So even as Israel tries to force shut the world’s eyes to the unfolding atrocities, we must continue to keep our eyes focused on Palestine.
Here are some of the stories we published this week:
The latest from Lebanon
The Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau gives us the latest updates from Lebanon on Sunday, September 22. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Hezbollah launched several barrages of rockets on northern Israeli targets in the Haifa region, including a military airbase. The group said it was just an “initial response” to the Israeli pager and electronics explosions last week, which claimed the lives of 32 people and injured over 3,000 others.
Jonathan Ofir responds to the Israeli pager attack in Lebanon, which he says “can only be described as terrorist in nature.” Ofir reminds us that, though unprecedented in scope and method, the attack is far from unique for Israel, and that it represents an expansion of its Dahiya doctrine which intentionally targets civilians to send a political message.
Qassam Muaddi reports on the Friday bombing of Beirut’s southern Dahiya district on Friday, which killed nine people, including five children, and wounded 59. The target of the Israeli attack was a top Hezbollah commander, and came just days after successive attacks carried out by Israel on pagers and other electronic communication devices.
Election 2024: Arab and Muslim voters turn to third party prospects
Michael Arria speaks to prospective voters from the Arab and Muslim communities on why they can’t stomach a vote for the democratic party come November. According to recent pols, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is beating Kamala Harris among Muslim voters in multiple swing states, as pro-Palestinian voters weigh the upcoming U.S. presidential race in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. “During the elections we will remember [those that fund] the genocide. They merely changed the name from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris, but it’s the same policy,” one voter said.
Fiza Pirani interviews Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, Georgia’s sole Palestinian state official, on the aftermath of being shut out of the DNC, and her response to critics who say Palestinians should abandon the Democratic Party.
Gaza
Tareq Hajjaj covers the aftermath of the first rainfall of the season in Gaza, which saw floods overtake the shelters of families living in tents and bombed out buildings. If the storm is any indication of what’s to come in the upcoming winter season, displaced families across Gaza will likely be faced with two choices: either sink in overflowing sewage in destroyed cities or get flooded by rising tides on Gaza’s beach encampments.
Tareq Hajjaj also reported on yet another massacre in Gaza. This time, Israel bombed an entire residential block in the central Gaza Strip. According to eyewitnesses, when they tried to help evacuate the wounded and pull bodies out of the rubble, Israeli quadcopter drones began firing live ammunition at them, leaving countless people to die under the rubble.
Must read Op-Eds
Mona Shtaya warns of the dangers of Israel joining the first global AI convention. Shtaya writes: “For 11 consecutive months, Israel has weaponized AI in its genocide in Gaza, deploying AI-driven surveillance and automated targeting systems that have inflicted devastating civilian harm. Yet, Israel is now celebrating its participation in this treaty alongside the U.S., U.K., and EU, after spending two years at the negotiating table and helping draft the first international AI treaty for ethical AI governance. This contradiction exposes glaring hypocrisy and raises serious questions about the international community’s true commitment to accountability.”
Craig Mokhiber breaks down the Israeli talking point (and lie) used to justify its massacres in Gaza: that Hamas and the Palestinians use civilians as human shields.Mokhiber writes: “For decades now, Israel has systematically used this propaganda device as a trick to justify war crimes. But a chain of international investigations reveals two clear conclusions about these charges: First, Palestinian armed groups generally do not use human shields. And, secondly, Israel does.”
Mitchell Plitnick responds to a vote this week in the U.N. General Assembly that passed a resolution demanding Israel dismantle its illegal occupation of Palestine within a year. Plitnick argues that despite the many flaws of the international legal system and bodies like the U.N., the vote could mark a turning point for international law in Palestine.
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