ISRAEL is seeking to close Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera’s offices in Jerusalem and revoke its journalists’ media credentials.
The Israeli terrorist government’s Communications Minister, Ayoub Kara, alleged that the channel supported terrorism, and said both its Arabic and English-language channels would be taken off air. The Israeli government admitted that it was acting along with several Sunni Arab states, while Kara claimed: ‘Al Jazeera has become the main tool of Daesh, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.’
As is very well known, Hezbollah and Iran are at war with Daish in Syria and Iraq, so Kara’s statement is just propaganda rubbish. This did not stop Israeli PM Netanyahu tweeting his congratulations to Kara, ‘who on my instructions took concrete steps to end Al Jazeera’s incitement’.
Netanyahu also accused the pan-Arab TV channel of fuelling the recent crisis around the holy site of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. New security measures imposed by Israel had to be dismantled after an uprising against them was mounted by the Palestinian people.
The Al Jazeera network’s editor in Jerusalem has accused Netanyahu of collusion, alongside his fellow autocratic Arab neighbours, in an attack on a free and independent media. Israel now joins Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in blocking Al Jazeera.
Shutting the network was on a list of 13 demands by the four Arab nations who were leading a boycott of Qatar that was tabled in June after President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International has denounced the Tel Aviv regime’s decision to close the broadcaster’s Jerusalem offices as ‘a brazen attack on media freedom.
‘The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage,’ Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Monday. ‘This is a brazen attack on media freedom,’ she added.
However it is much more than that. What is happening is that – after Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and after the UK’s frantic arming of Saudi Arabia and its support for its genocidal war against the people of the Yemen – the feudal states of the Middle East, plus Israel, Egypt and Jordan, are lining up for a new imperialist-provoked war with Qatar and Iran.
Qatar’s crime in the eyes of the Saudis is not its support for various terror groups in Syria, but the fact that it has business relations with Iran – with which it shares an oil and gas field – and that this alliance has been joined by Hamas and Hezbollah. In fact, a Hamas delegation travelled to Iran on Monday and met with the country’s foreign minister, Muhammad Javad Zarif, in Tehran, Hamas’ public information office in Gaza has confirmed.
The delegation reportedly included Hamas officials Izzat al-Rishq, Usama Hamdan, Saleh al-Arouri, and Zaher Jabarin. According to a Hamas statement, Zarif reiterated that Palestine remains a top foreign policy priority for Iran, adding that the Shia-majority Islamic republic values its relationships with all Palestinian political factions in general, and with Hamas in particular.
‘We are ready to put aside all disagreements for the sake of supporting Palestine and the Palestinian people as well as the unity of the Muslim community,’ Zarif was quoted as saying, adding that Iran’s support of Palestine remains unwavering.
Al-Rishq meanwhile reiterated that Hamas also values its relationship with Iran as a Muslim country for whom the issue of Palestine remains a central cause. Al-Rishq added: ‘Hamas believes that the Muslim community should be united and should put disputes aside and point all forces at the joint enemy, which is the Israeli occupation.’
It is now not out of the question that Israel will launch another murderous attack on the Gaza Strip, an attack that will bring the whole of the region to the brink of a new war. On the 100th anniversary of the notorious Balfour Declaration, through which the UK handed Palestine to the Zionists, the UK workers must give their full support to the Palestinians, Iran, and Hezbollah, and impose an immediate boycott on Israel.
They must also take action to bring down the Tories and bring in a Labour government that is pledged to recognise and support the State of Palestine.
