Judge approves gov't decision to shut down Al Jazeera's operation in Israel

The Tel Aviv District Court approved on Wednesday Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi’s decision to halt Al Jazeera’s broadcasting in Israel, based on “convincing” evidence that the Qatari news outlet maintained a “close connection to the terror organization Hamas over an extended period of time.”

According to Shai Yaniv, the judge who ruled in the case, Hamas used the outlet to “promote its goals.” In addition, Al Jazeera’s broadcasts included “distinctly inciteful content” as well as reports in real time of the placement of IDF troops, and thus there was “no doubt” that its broadcasts were a real security threat, Yaniv ruled.

Israel’s government approved the decision to shut down the outlet’s operations in Israel on May 5, and Al Jazeera’s offices were raided soon after, its equipment confiscated, and its television and broadcasts in Israel shut down.

 The decision was made possible after a controversial bill sponsored by Karhi passed into law in April enabling the government to shut down foreign media outlets, if the prime minister is convinced that they are a security threat. According to the law, the government needs to re-approve the decision every 45 days, and the law is set to expire on July 31 regardless. New legislation will thus be necessary to extend it beyond July.

The law also stipulates that the decision must be brought before a district court judge for approval, and the judge has the right to alter it. The decision was therefore brought before Yaniv on May 7, and Wednesday’s ruling was the culmination of the judicial approval process.

The process was complicated by Yaniv’s insistence that the state hold an arraignment retroactively for Al Jazeera, in order to enable the outlet to make its case to the state. The arraignment process began on May 22, and on June 2 the state updated the court that the news outlet’s representatives had not convinced security officials to drop the measure. Yaniv took into consideration the fact that Al Jazeera was not given the chance to present its case before its operation in Israel was shut down, and therefore approved the decision for just 35 out of a possible 45 days.

Implications on timelines 

The decision applies retroactively from May 5, and is thus set to expire on June 9 – this coming Sunday. Karhi reportedly will ask the government to re-approve the measure for an additional 45 days, after which the judicial approval process will begin once again.

Yaniv’s ruling came just two days after the High Court of Justice heard an appeal by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel against the constitutionality of the bill that enabled the closure of Al Jazeera in the first place. ACRI argued during the hearing that the bill violated freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to information. According to the association, these freedoms and rights are especially important during wartime, when governments tend to curtail them.

ACRI also pointed out the fact that the wording of the bill included a last-minute change that revealed what it argued was its political nature. While the original wording enabled the judge reviewing the decision to cancel it, the new wording merely enabled him to change it. A government decision to shut down a foreign news outlet was thus “immune” from effective judicial oversight, as it could not be canceled even if it was carried out in an illegal manner.

The judicial oversight provision did not appear at all in original versions of the bill, and was inserted due to insistence by the attorney-general’s office, which argued that the measure of shutting down a news outlet was an extreme one in a democracy, and thus required extra oversight.

Knesset National Security Committee chairman MK Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit), whose committee was responsible for processing the Al Jazeera law, criticized the judicial intervention that shortened the decision from 45 to 35 days. Fogel said in response that he will bring forward a new version of the bill ahead of its July 31 expiration “that will repeal the judicial oversight provision.”