Israeli officials seized a camera and broadcasting equipment belonging to The Associated Press in southern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the news organization of violating a new media law by providing images to Al Jazeera.
The Qatari satellite channel is among thousands of clients that receive live video feeds from the AP and other news organizations. The AP denounced the move.
Al-Jazeera from Sderot
“The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our longstanding live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment,” said Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the news organization. “The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law. We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”
Officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed the AP a piece of paper, signed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, alleging it was violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law.
3 View gallery
Screenshot from AP live feed showing a general view of northern Gaza as seen from southern Israel, before it was seized by Israeli officials on Tuesday, May 21, 2024
(Photo: AP)
Shortly before the equipment was seized, it was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit broadcasts of details like troops movements that could endanger soldiers. The live shot has generally shown smoke rising over the territory.
The seizure followed a verbal order Thursday to cease the live transmission — which the news organization refused to do.
“In accordance with the government decision and the instruction of the communications minister, the communications ministry will continue to take whatever enforcement action is required to limit broadcasts that harm the security of the state,” the Communications Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the government voted to approve the proposal of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Communications Minister Karai to close the offices of the Al Jazeera channel in Israel. Under the new law, it was decided to confiscate the channel's broadcasting facilities, ban its broadcasts and access to its website and cancel the journalist credentials of all its reporters in Israel.
The Communications Ministry responded to its move to confiscate the AP equipment, stating that "the agency's photographers regularly photographs Gaza from the balcony of a house in Sderot, including focusing on the activities of IDF soldiers and their location. Although the ministry's inspectors warned them that they were breaking the law and that they should cut off Al-Jazeera from receiving their content, they continued to do so."
Opposition leader Yair Lapid responded: "This is an act of madness. It is a media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes. The government makes sure at any cost that Israel will be ostracized all over the world, they have gone crazy."
The White House said it was "checking the report" about the confiscation of the equipment. "We insist that journalists should have the ability and the right to do their work. Of course, this is worrisome," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The Prime Minister's Office claims that Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi did not inform Benjamin Netanyahu about the confiscation of the broadcast equipment from the AP news agency.
Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias against the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international news outlets that has remained in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres.