Al Jazeera
PM bars Al-Jazeera journalist from free press seminar
Netanyahu intervenes to ban the pan-Arab network's Bureau chief Walid al-Omary from attending a seminar on conflict between freedom of expressions and national security, saying he incites against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has personally intervened to bar an Al-Jazeera journalist from a government conference on press freedoms that uses the pan-Arab broadcaster as a case study.
Bureau chief Walid al-Omary's exclusion from attending a seminar titled "Limits of free expression: the dilemma between national security and freedom of the press—Al Jazeera as a case study," comes a month after Netanyahu threatened to shut the Qatar-based outlet's Israel offices.
PM Netanyahu (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)
The Government Press Office said Thursday that the prime minister is still pushing to strip Al-Jazeera reporters of their credentials and close their offices, but the move faces legal hurdles.
Al Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau chief Walid al-Omari
Last month the office threatened to revoke an Al-Jazeera reporter's credentials after a 2016 interview surfaced in which he expressed support for Palestinian "resistance."
Also last month, Israel said it plans to ban the news network from operating in the country over allegations it incites violence, joining Arab nations that have shut down the broadcaster amid a separate political dispute.
In June, al-Omari defended the network, telling Ynet "We don't incite against Israel or anyone else."
