International Desk

Police seized Al-Jazeera’s broadcasting equipment from its Jerusalem offices on Sunday afternoon and the Qatari news channel was pulled off the air in Israel, immediately after the government approved a decision to temporarily shutter the outlet on the grounds that it has harmed national security.

The channel was unavailable on Israel’s two biggest TV providers, Yes and Hot, within hours of the cabinet approving the decision to ban its operations.

Al Jazeera’s English-language and Arabic websites were no longer available online as of Sunday evening on some internet providers.

In parallel, police officers and Communications Ministry inspectors arrived at Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem offices to confiscate the channel’s broadcast equipment and lock the premises.

Video footage sent out by the office of hardline Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who led the charge to ban the channel, showed the Israeli officials entering the office and beginning to document the equipment inside.

Earlier on Sunday, the government voted unanimously to authorize Karhi to shut down Al Jazeera for 45 days, in accordance with a law passed by the Knesset in April allowing the temporary closure of foreign media outlets deemed to be harming national security.

Immediately after the cabinet decision, Karhi signed four orders instructing Israel’s television providers to cease broadcasting the Al Jazeera channel, as well as instructions to close the network’s two offices in Israel, both in Jerusalem, confiscate the channel’s broadcast equipment, including cellphones, and block access to the Al Jazeera website in Israel.

“Al Jazeera’s journalists have harmed Israeli security and incited against IDF soldiers,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a joint press release issued together with Karhi’s office following the government decision.

Source : Times Of Israel