The PA accuses the network of broadcasting ‘inflammatory material’ and ‘inciting strife’ in the country.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has temporarily suspended Al Jazeera’s work in the occupied West Bank due to “inflammatory material”, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
A ministerial committee including the ministries of culture, interior and communications decided to suspend the broadcaster’s operations for what it described as broadcasting “inflammatory material and reports that misled and incited strife” in the country, Wafa reported on Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from Al Jazeera Media Network.
The decision comes after Fatah, the Palestinian faction that dominates the PA, banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the governorate of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, citing coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and Palestinian armed groups in the area.
Fatah had on December 24 accused the broadcaster of sowing division in “our Arab homeland in general and Palestine in particular” and encouraged Palestinians not to cooperate with the network.
In response, the network hit out at Fatah, saying it had launched an “incitement campaign” against the network and its journalists in the occupied West Bank for covering the clashes.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from the Jordanian capital Amman, said raids by Palestinian security forces in Jenin were unpopular among Palestinians in the West Bank.
“The PA has been conducting its own raids that are separate from Israeli forces … the PA has increased those raids in the last four weeks,” Salhut said. “These strikes in places like Jenin have killed several Palestinians,” she said.
‘A big mistake’
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said Palestinians would be “surprised by this decision” to suspend Al Jazeera’s broadcasts.
“I think it’s a big mistake and this decision should be reversed as soon as possible,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera from Ramallah.
“If the PA has a problem with Al Jazeera, it should discuss it,” he said, especially since Al Jazeera “has been exposing crimes against the Palestinian people … and (has been) promoting the Palestinian cause in general.”
“But more than that, it’s a matter of freedom of the … press,” Barghouti said.
Israeli forces in September gave Al Jazeera a military order to shut down operations after they raided the station’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah – where the PA is based.
Meanwhile, the PA, which engages in security coordination with Israel, has continued its crackdown on Jenin – a stronghold of armed groups opposed to Israel’s occupation.
Several civilians, PA soldiers and armed fighters have been killed since the start of Operation Homeland Defense, including the commander of the Jenin Brigades, Yazid Ja’ayseh.
The fighting has focused Palestinian criticism on the PA, with the umbrella group Popular Resistance Committees accusing the organization of acting “in accordance with the Zionist agenda”.
