Al Jazeera and Israel
Some six weeks ago, I wrote to Minister Ayoub Kara advising him of my intention to petition the High Court of Justice unless the license given to Al Jazeera to operate in Israel was revoked. In all modesty, I am sure that Minister Kara, who is a true Zionist, needed no push, so I was disappointed to read in “There are no alternatives” (Editor’s Notes, August 4) that the move to close the Israeli bureau of Al Jazeera “is ethically questionable for a democracy.”
I believe that the call to remove Al Jazeera goes beyond Zionism, patriotism and security – and this despite its continual incitement against Israel, its slanted reporting and identification with terror. One particular horrific example can suffice for the latter: The Beirut bureau of this “news” network feted the release of the abominable Samir Kuntar, who deliberately smashed in the skull of a small child.
It is not only the nature of Al Jazeera itself that demands action – after all, the BBC does not lag far behind in its pervasive and insidious bias against Israel. Yet there is a crucial difference between the one and the other: the sponsor.
The closure of Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau is ethically
unavoidable for a democracy. What is ethically questionable for Israel, and indeed for any other democracy, is to allow the mouthpiece of Qatar – a vicious, terror-supporting dictatorship – to have a voice.
Qatar, through Hamas and Hezbollah, supports terror worldwide. Qatar also uses slave labor to build the stadiums needed to indulge the megalomania of its rulers who, through bribery, won the opportunity to host the next World Cup. (When German journalists tried to investigate the situation of those migrant workers last year, security agents detained a sports reporter and his team, confiscated their equipment and deleted incriminating footage. They similarly detained four journalists from the BBC while they were traveling to interview migrant workers.)
Hundreds of migrant workers have already died, and we are obliged to invite the collaborators of their murderers into our homes?
As for Qatar and freedom of the press, what insufferable impudence! It is sufficient to quote the overview published by the NGO Freedom House: “Media houses and professionals in Qatar are subject to significant restrictions, and the overall landscape encourages a high level of self-censorship. While the country’s flagship satellite television channel Al Jazeera is permitted to air critical reports on foreign countries and leaders, journalists are subject to prosecution for criticizing the Qatari government, the ruling family or Islam .... The country’s broadly framed anti-terrorism legislation can also be used to restrict freedom of expression.”
Somehow, Al Jazeera’s apologists are not invited to comment on the journalistic principles of Al Jazeera’s owner, nor do they volunteer to do so.
I fear that Post editor in chief Yaakov Katz had a knee-jerk reaction regarding an imaginary breach of journalistic freedom. I would suggest that he bear in mind that those well dressed, well spoken and skilled presenters working for Al Jazeera are not members of the Fourth Estate, but of a far older profession. LOUIS GARB Jerusalem The writer is an attorney.