Just two weeks after banning Al Jazeera, the largest media network in the Arab world, and the main one reporting live from Gaza, Israeli forces are now trying to shut down the Associated Press, the largest news agency in the world, to prevent their reporters from producing news reports from in or near Gaza.
This comes after Israeli forces have killed over 150 journalists, many of whom were directly targeted by Israeli forces, since the Israeli invasion of Gaza began on October 7th, 2023.
The Associated Press news agency, a US-based international news agency used as a source for thousands of local tv, radio and print media outlets, said Tuesday, that “he Israeli authorities confiscated some of its equipment and stopped its live broadcast showing the scene in the northern Gaza Strip from a location near the border with the Strip, under the pretext of violating a media law. After the White House expressed concern about this step, Israel announced its retraction of the decision.
The building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media in Gaza City collapsed after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike Saturday, May 15, 2021. The attack came roughly an hour after the Israeli military warned people to evacuate the building, which also housed Al-Jazeera and a number of offices and apartments. There was no immediate explanation for why the building was targeted.
The American agency confirmed that it “condemns in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to stop our sustained live broadcast showing the scene in Gaza and confiscate our equipment,” according to Lorne Easton, the agency’s vice president for corporate communications, who spoke with reporters from the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Easton added that this suspension was not based on the content of the broadcast, but rather is “an arbitrary use by the Israeli government of the Foreign Media Organizations Law.”
She continued: “We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to launch live broadcasts again immediately, so that we can resume providing this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”
The agency explained that “the Israeli authorities accused it of violating the aforementioned law by providing the Al Jazeera Media Network with images,” adding that “Al Jazeera is one of thousands of institutions that obtain live broadcast images from the agency and from other news agencies.”
The agency stated, “Officials from the Israeli Ministry of Communications arrived at the Associated Press site near the border on Tuesday afternoon and confiscated the equipment. These officials handed the agency a paper signed by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karei claiming that the Associated Press violated the new Israeli law for foreign media organizations.”
The agency indicated that the confiscation of the equipment came after a verbal order – last Thursday – to stop live broadcasting, which the agency rejected .
A White House spokesman said, “We adhere to our position that journalists must have the ability and right to carry out their mission. The United States is communicating with Israel directly to demand that it retract its confiscation of camera equipment to the Associated Press news agency.”
In turn, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said, “Confiscing the equipment of Associated Press, the largest news agency in the world, is an act of madness.”
He added, “This is not Al Jazeera, but an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes.”
Lapid believed that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had “gone crazy” and was acting as if it had decided to make Israel “a pariah throughout the world”.
The spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, criticized Israel’s suspension of the Associated Press’ live coverage of Gaza, describing it as “shocking.”
“Frankly, it is very shocking,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “Journalists should be able to do their work freely. The Associated Press should be allowed to do its work freely and without harassment.”
Following American pressure and international and international criticism, the Israeli Ministry of Communications announced its reversal of the decision to cut off AP’s coverage of events in the Gaza Strip and return its equipment.
