Cabinet set to approve Netanyahu, Karhi's decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel

The Jerusalem Post has learned that the cabinet is set to approve Prime Minister Netanyahu's and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi's decision to close the Al Jazeera station in Israel.

Earlier on Thursday, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel argued in a deposition to the Supreme Court that the government intentionally requested a delay in a court hearing to avoid judicial oversight and to implement immediately a law to shut down the Qatari news network Al-Jazeera in Israel.

On April 1, the Knesset passed a law aimed at enabling the government to shut down Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that day that he would act to implement the law “immediately.” On April 4, ACRI appealed to the Supreme Court against the law, arguing that it unnecessarily limited free speech and was thus unconstitutional. The government was given until May 1 to respond, but on April 26 it requested a two-week delay, which was granted on May 1.

However, KAN legal reporter Avishai Greenzeig reported on Thursday (May 2) that the Attorney-General’s Office had given the government the “green light” to begin to implement the law. The report could not be independently verified. ACRI argued that the government intentionally requested a delay to implement the law before its constitutionality is determined in court, and thus acted in bad faith.

ACRI requested in the deposition that the court give an interim order barring the government from beginning the process to implement the law.

The "Preventing Foreign Broadcasters From Harming National Security" Law

The law, coined “Preventing Foreign Broadcasters From Harming National Security,” states that if the prime minister becomes convinced that content broadcast by foreign media is harming national security “in a real way,” the communications minister can bring a resolution to the government plenum or to the smaller National Security Cabinet to block that media’s television broadcast in Israel, shut down its offices, seize equipment used for its broadcasts, and block its website under certain conditions. The law was set as a temporary law that will expire at the end of July 2024.

The National Security Cabinet (NSC) was scheduled to convene on Thursday evening, and ACRI warned that the cabinet may order the implementation of the law already in this meeting. ACRI pointed out that NSC meetings are classified and their agendas are not made public, and therefore it had no way to know in advance if the government plans to move against Al Jazeera. The NSC meeting ended after press time on Thursday evening.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi led the government’s effort to pass the law, after reports emerged at the beginning of the war that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF had warned that Al Jazeera broadcasts were revealing the location of military forces, and endangering soldiers.

The law included a number of hurdles due to the concern over a chilling effect on foreign media and harm to press freedom.

Second, the decision will only apply for 45 days, needs to be approved every 45 days, and expires on July 31.

The government passed emergency measures at the start of the war that would have enabled it to shut down Al Jazeera temporarily. These were in effect from October 21 until January 20. However, the government refrained from implementing these measures during that period, and this undercut the argument that Al Jazeera presented a real security threat, ACRI argued. 

In its deposition, ACRI said that while there was no arguing the fact that Al Jazeera ran a “pro-Palestinian” narrative, this was not a sufficient reason to shut down the network.

In addition, the network provides content from Arab states and includes Israeli Arab perspectives that have been quoted on mainstream Israeli media, indicating that its content was viewed as important, ACRI added.

The NGO acknowledged that Al-Jazeera had included content that incited against Israel. Still, the severity of this incitement was no worse than incitement against Palestinians on mainstream Israeli websites, ACRI added.