News / Palestine

Israeli regime bans Palestinian television channel affiliated to Hamas

Monday, 09 July 2018 12:51 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 09 July 2018 1:55 PM ]

This picture shows a grab of a program broadcast on Arabic-language Palestinian al-Quds television network.

The Israeli regime has imposed bans on the broadcast of a Palestinian television channel affiliated to the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and said it cannot be put on air inside the occupied territories.

Israeli minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that the television network can operate neither in Jerusalem al-Quds nor in other parts of the Palestinian lands, and that the measure is in accordance with Israel’s so-called anti-terrorism law.

Lieberman did not give a reason for the ban. Israeli authorities have on occasions accused al-Quds television channel of being a “propaganda tool” for Hamas.

Following the ban, investigative reporter Anas Mousa Eghbari was arrested in front of his house in Umm al-Fahm city, located 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Jenin.

Palestinian journalists check the damage after Israeli soldiers raided the offices of a local Palestinian radio station in Hebron (al-Khalil) on 21 November 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Three members of Bashir Bermedia production company and the company's director Ayad al-Nael were also summoned to court.

On August 31, 2017, dozens of Israeli soldiers raided the headquarters of Arabic-language al-Hurria radio station in the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on alleged charges of “inciting violence and encouraging terrorism.” Israeli forces also confiscated technical equipment during the raid.

The Union of Palestinian Journalists slammed the measure as an “awful and heinous crime which reflects the (Israelis’) barbaric, criminal, terrorist mentality towards Palestinian media.”

An employee of Palestinian TV station, Falastin al-Yawm, inspects damage at the station's offices following a raid by Israeli security forces on March 11, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

In August 2016, Israeli officials stormed the office of Palestinian Arabic-language Radio Sanabel in the town of Dura, southwest of al-Khalil (Hebron) and took it off the air over what they described as its attempts to further escalate tensions in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli forces also ransacked the building, and confiscated the radio’s broadcasting equipment.

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