Her government Palestinian Authority with its decision yesterday, it closed the offices of the Al Jazeera television network in its territory and forbade the station’s correspondents and crews to cover the news from the West Bank. The reason was the bloody clashes between Palestinian security forces and protesters in the refugee camp of the city of Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, which have been ongoing with unabated intensity for the past ten days. The Ramallah government accuses the Qatari news media of biased coverage of the developments, portraying the demonstrations as political protests with social demands. Instead, the Palestinian Authority accuses the protesters of being incited by local cells of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The decision by the Palestinian government in Ramallah essentially complements an earlier decision by the ruling Fatah faction, which also on December 24, decided to stop providing facilities to journalists and its crews. Al Jazeera in the city of Jenin which was shaken by the armed clashes of the demonstrators with the security forces. In fact, Fatah called on the residents of the area not to provide information to the station’s correspondents, at a time when Hamas officials accused the Palestinian Authority of “playing the same dirty game of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people.”

180-degree turn in Palestinian Authority-Al Jazeera relations

This development constitutes a 180-degree turn in the Palestinian Authority’s relations with Al Jazeera, which according to recent measurements is the most popular news outlet for the Palestinian public in the West Bank. Characteristic was the generalized solidarity in favor of Al Jazeera, both on their part Palestinians of the West Bank as well as the government of Ramallah on the occasion of the death of the station’s correspondent, Shireen Abu Akle, who was killed by Israeli army fire in May 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp.

With a harsh announcement, the Al Jazeera network condemns the decision of the Palestinian Authority, accusing it of – albeit unwittingly – actually colluding with Israel, in order not to broadcast freely to the international public what much is happening in the West Bank during this time. It is worth pointing out that since last May, the Israeli government has banned the operation of Al Jazeera’s offices in the country, as well as the rebroadcasting of programs through the platforms of local cable TV providers, as well as online access to its website. The Israeli side’s decision had seriously concerned the government and the country’s security services, not only because it was considered that the coverage of events in the region – and in particular in the Gaza Strip – served Hamas’s propaganda, but also because, according to all Israeli security sources, journalists and members of his crews were either alleged to be members of the Hamas organization or to have participated in the attack themselves October 7, 2023.