Israel has detained journalists who were mistakenly thought to be working for Al Jazeera, the news broadcaster that has been banned from the country due to its coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions during the war in Gaza.
The New Arab, a London-based English-language news website that covers Middle Eastern affairs, has disclosed the arrests. It is the sister publication of Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, an Arabic-language news outlet.
A group of journalists, employed by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, were apprehended on Saturday night while actively reporting on the hostage deal protests in Tel Aviv. Oran Ziv, an Israeli journalist, revealed that the authorities detained the crew upon discovering that they had aired live footage of the demonstrations through Al-Jazeera, despite being prohibited.
According to Ziv, the Ministry of Communication failed to consider the possibility that Al Jazeera may be utilizing a live feed from one of the international agencies present at the protests to facilitate a hostage deal. This is due to the fact that Al Jazeera is prohibited from reporting directly from Israel. Ziv shared this observation on social media.
Last weekend, the Netanyahu government made the controversial decision to raid the Jerusalem offices of Al Jazeera and forcibly shut down the broadcaster. This action, taken just after World Press Freedom Day, has been widely criticized as a significant blow to the principles of press freedom.
In its news article about the closure, Al Jazeera emphasized that it has consistently denied the accusations made by Netanyahu’s government.
