Palestinian Authority shuts down several Al Jazeera websites

The determination came aft the PA closed Al Jazeera’s bureau successful the occupied West Bank, temporarily suspending its work.

The Magistrate Court of Ramallah successful the occupied West Bank has ordered the closure of respective Al Jazeera websites for 4 months, a tribunal papers shows – the latest regularisation by the Palestinian Authority (PA) connected the network.

In a missive dated Sunday, the Attorney General’s Office demanded the Palestinian Ministry of Communication instrumentality the court’s determination by shutting down aljazeera.net, aljazeera.net/live, aljazeera360.com and global.ajplus.net

The bid asked each companies licensed for vigor and outer broadcasting to abide by the determination “under punishment of ineligible accountability”.

According to the document, the websites published worldly that “threaten nationalist information and incite the committee of crimes”.

The latest determination came aft the PA closed Al Jazeera’s office successful the occupied West Bank past week, temporarily suspending its enactment – a determination the web has denounced.

A PA ministerial committee, including the culture, interior and communications ministries justified that decision, saying the web was broadcasting “inciting worldly and reports that were deceiving and stirring strife” successful the country.

The web criticised the decision, calling it “an effort to dissuade the transmission from covering the rapidly escalating events taking spot successful the occupied territory” adding that it was “in enactment with the [Israeli] occupation’s actions against its staff”.

The closure was besides slammed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which called for its contiguous reversal, informing that Al Jazeera’s reporting wrong Gaza and the West Bank was “vital”.

According to analysts and quality rights activists, specified decisions by the PA are part of a broader effort to soundlessness criticism of its information operations successful the Jenin exile camp.

The closure of Al Jazeera’s websites and broadcast took spot astir a period aft the PA launched a crackdown connected the Jenin Brigades – a conjugation of equipped groups which are affiliated with Palestinian factions specified arsenic Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and adjacent Fatah, the enactment that controls the PA.

Since aboriginal December, the PA has besieged the Jenin camp and chopped disconnected h2o and energy to astir of the inhabitants successful an ostensible effort to reconstruct “law and order” crossed the West Bank.

However, its indiscriminate tactics successful Jenin coincide with a wider onslaught connected escaped speech, activists and quality rights groups told Al Jazeera.

Israel has besides targeted Al Jazeera’s enactment successful the West Bank. Last September, authorities stormed Al Jazeera’s bureau successful Ramallah and shut it down.