The decision to suspend the network further supports the Israeli regime’s broader goal of restricting Palestinian coverage and on-the-ground reporting, writes Yara Hawari [photo credit: Getty Images]
On January 1 2025, the Palestinian Authority suspended Al Jazeera’s reporting in the West Bank, with the news outlet posting footage of PA security officers handing a suspension order to a staff member in their office in Ramallah.
No, this isn’t déjà vu — we’ve seen these images before. The PA’s decision to ban Al Jazeera comes just eight months after Israeli soldiers raided the very same office and presented the news network with a closure order that prevented Al Jazeera from operating within the 1948 territories. Israel has since extended the ban.
Luckily, Al Jazeera did not overlook these parallels in repression, openly stating that the Palestinian Authority’s actions are “in line with the [Israeli] occupation’s actions.”
As well as the suspension of operations, the PA order prevents all local telecommunication companies and channels from broadcasting anything from Al Jazeera — even access to their websites have been blocked.
The alleged reason for this order is that Al Jazeera was publishing “inciting material and misleading reports that were causing unrest” in its coverage of the PA’s brutal siege of the Jenin refugee camp.
Since early December 2024, PA security forces have cut off water, electricity and basic supplies from the Jenin camp as well as stationing forces on rooftops and setting up checkpoints — all part of a security operation dubbed “Protecting the Nation”, supposedly targeting criminal gangs.
The reality, however, is that this is a coordinated effort with the Israeli regime to suppress the armed resistance in the northern West Bank.
Whilst this kind of coordination is not new — indeed the PA’s very existence is predicated on it — the levels of brutality are unprecedented.
On December 28, a young journalism student, Shatha Sabbagh, was shot dead by a PA sniper on the doorstep of her home in the camp. There are also videos of beatings, torture and humiliation at the hands of PA security forces including the detention and beating of Red Crescent medic volunteers.
It’s no surprise, then, that the PA seeks to suppress media coverage. Especially with the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, images of the PA besieging a refugee camp in the West Bank and firing on its own people are damaging.
Al Jazeera: A convenient target
But the suspension of Al Jazeera is not particularly surprising. Both the authorities in the West Bank and Gaza have historically ranked low in terms of global press freedom.
In 2024, they were ranked 157 out of 180 countries worldwide in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.
In the West Bank, the PA has a long history of censoring journalists and preventing them from doing their work. This has included routine arrests and detentions, as well as threats and intimidation.
Censorship of journalism in the West Bank intensified following the introduction of the 2018 Cyber Crimes Law, which was promoted as a measure to tackle cybercrimes like fraud and online harassment. In reality, it served as a tool for the authorities to clamp down on online criticism.
In 2019, the Palestinian Authority blocked 59 news websites from being accessed locally. The justification was that these websites were guilty of “attacking and denigrating the Palestinian Authority’s symbols” and “publishing content that threatens national security and civilian safety.” Again, in reality, the sites simply published content critical of either the PA or the ruling party — Fatah.
Subscribe Now and Listen to our Podcasts OnThe suspension of Al Jazeera, therefore, fits into a broader pattern of censoring journalism, but the network has also been a persistent challenge for the PA.
As a foreign news outlet, it isn’t vulnerable to the same intimidation tactics used against local networks, allowing it to report more critically on the PA — as evidenced by its coverage of the siege on the Jenin camp.
As Al Jazeera’s audience grows in Palestine, particularly for its extensive coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it has gained more legitimacy and popularity as a reliable source of information. It has also been at the forefront of investigating and uncovering Israeli regime war crimes. Meanwhile, its journalists, the likes of the martyred Shireen Abu Akleh and Wael al-Dahdouh, are seen as national heroes.
At a time when Palestinian journalists, including those working for Al Jazeera, are being targeted and killed at an alarming rate by Israeli regime forces — making Palestine the deadliest place in the world for journalists — the decision to suspend the network further supports the Israeli regime’s broader goal of restricting Palestinian coverage and on-the-ground reporting.
However, it’s crucial to view this move within the larger context of the operation in Jenin. The PA is positioning itself to take control of Gaza, and in doing so, it must show the Israeli regime and the US that it can suppress armed resistance in the West Bank without inciting popular uproar. Restricting media coverage in an already deeply fragmented West Bank would undoubtedly assist them in that endeavour.
Yara Hawari is the Co-Director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
Follow her on Twitter: @yarahawari
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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.