Israeli government to extend Al Jazeera ban to November 30

Israel's government voted on Sunday in favor of a bill to extend the ban on the Qatari-based Al Jazeera news network's operations in Israel to November.

The government also voted to expedite the law proposal in the Knesset, since it needs to pass before the current bill expires on July 31.

The Knesset in April passed the bill for the first time. It gave the government power to block a foreign media outlet's cable television broadcast in Israel, shut down its offices, seize equipment used for its broadcasts, and block its website under certain conditions, if it was seen by the prime minister and government as a national security threat. The April bill stipulated that the decision needed to be based on a legal opinion from the defense establishment; needed to be reviewed by a District Court Judge; needed to be reapproved by the government every 45 days; and set an expiration date on the bill, July 31.

Petitions against the law

While voting to approve an extension of the law to November, the government has until August 5 to file its response to a challenge in the High Court of Justice by Al Jazeera, alongside the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), against the law. The petitioners argued that the law disproportionately violated freedoms of speech and media, and was therefore unconstitutional. The petitioners also argued that Al Jazeera was a key source of knowledge for Israel's Arab speaking citizens, and shutting it down was therefore discriminatory.

However, the attorney general's office and the defense ministry's legal advisor approved the government decision. They acknowledged the violation of rights, but argued that the security concerns alongside the fact that the law was short-term, were enough to offset the violation.

The government on May 5 voted to apply the bill to Al Jazeera. On June 4 a Tel Aviv District Court judge shortened the government decision from 45 to 35 days. On June 9 the government voted to extend the Al-Jazeera ban, and on June 13 the vote was ratified by a judge for the full 45 days. The decisions were based on documents from the defense ministry, which were not made public, that claimed that Al-Jazeera's broadcasts posed a national security threat. On June 20, Al Jazeera and ACRI petitioned the High Court against the particular decision regarding Al Jazeera as well.

In the meanwhile, Likud MK Ariel Kalner proposed a bill to cancel altogether the July 31 expiration date and make the bill permanent; to extend the need for government reapproval from every 45 to every 90 days; and to enable the government to block satellite broadcasts, and not just cable broadcasts. The bill passed its preliminary reading on June 26 and will be debated in the Knesset Constitution Committee later this week.

The attorney general's office opposed Kalner's bill as it reduced the limits on the government's ability to shut down foreign media, and the government's version is the likely version that will pass.