JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli officials seized a camera and broadcasting equipment from The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating the new ban on Al Jazeera.
The Qatari satellite channel is among thousands of customers who receive live video feeds from the AP and other news organizations. The AP denounced the move.
“The Associated Press denounces in the strongest terms the Israeli government’s actions to close our long-standing live feed overlooking Gaza and confiscate AP equipment,” said Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the AP. “The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed, but rather on the Israeli government’s abuse of the country’s new Foreign Broadcasting Law. We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and allow us to immediately restore our live feed so that we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”
Officials from the Ministry of Communications arrived at the AP site in the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed the AP a piece of paper signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, claiming it had violated the country’s new foreign broadcasting law.
Shortly before the equipment was seized, it broadcast a general view of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israeli military censorship rules, which ban broadcasts of details such as troop movements that could endanger soldiers. The live images generally show smoke rising over the area.
The seizure followed a verbal order Thursday to halt the live broadcast — which the news organization refused to do.
Israeli officials used the new law to close the Qatar-based broadcaster’s offices on May 5 and seize its equipment, banning the channel’s broadcasts and blocking them on its websites.
Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing the company of bias against Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it a “terror channel” spreading incitement.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international news outlets to remain in Gaza during the war, broadcasting images 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 250 others hostage. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which makes no distinction between civilians and fighters in its count.
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