The Palestinian Authority temporarily halted the operations of Qatar’s Al Jazeera television in the territory, including its broadcasts, citing the network’s broadcast of “inciting material,” the Palestinian news agency WAFA said on Wednesday.
The ministers of Culture, Interior and Communications made the decision jointly because the channel broadcast material that “deceived and provoked conflicts,” WAFA said without giving details on the issue.
The order said the decision was temporary but did not specify an end date.
The Palestinian Authority criticized Al Jazeera last week for its coverage of the weeks-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in the Jenin camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera denounced Wednesday’s decision as “an attempt to discourage it from reporting on the spiraling events in the occupied territories,” according to a statement.
It called on the Palestinian Authority to rescind the decision and allow its journalists to report freely from the West Bank without intimidation.
The decision was not expected to be implemented in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where the Palestinian Authority does not hold power.
Fatah, the faction that controls the Palestinian Authority, said the broadcaster was sowing division in “our Arab homeland in general and Palestine in particular.” He encouraged Palestinians not to cooperate with the network.
In September, the Israeli military raided Al Jazeera’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah and ordered it closed.
In May, Israel issued an order banning the channel from operating and broadcasting in the country, saying it posed a threat to Israeli security. A court later upheld the ban.
