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The PA accuses the network of broadcasting “inflammatory material” and “inciting discord” 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 reported.
A ministerial committee that includes the ministries of culture, interior and communications decided to suspend the broadcaster's operations for what they described as airing “inflammatory material and reporting that is deceptive and causes discord” in the country, Wafa said 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 Jenin province in the northern occupied West Bank, citing its coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and Palestinian armed groups in the area .
On December 24, Fatah 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 it slammed Fatah, saying it had launched an “incitement campaign” against the network and its journalists in the occupied West Bank over its coverage of the clashes.
Al Jazeera's Hamda Salhut, reporting from the Jordanian capital Amman, said the raids by Palestinian security forces in Jenin were unpopular with Palestinians in the West Bank.
“The PA has been conducting its own raids that are separate from Israeli forces… The PA has stepped up these raids in the last four weeks,” Salhut said. “These crackdowns in places like Jenin have killed several Palestinians,” she said.
“big mistake”
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said Palestinians would be “astounded by this decision” to stop Al Jazeera's broadcasts.
“I think this is 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 “exposes crimes against the Palestinian people … and (is) promoting the Palestinian cause in general.”
“But more than that, it's a matter of freedom of the … press,” Barghouti said.
In September, Israeli forces issued Al Jazeera with a military cease-and-desist order after raiding the publication's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah – where the PA is based.
Meanwhile, the PA, which coordinates security with Israel, continued its crackdown in Jenin, a stronghold for armed groups that oppose the Israeli occupation.
Several civilians, PA soldiers and militants have been killed since the start of Operation Defend the Homeland, including The commander of the Jenin Brigades, Yazid Jaiseh.
The fighting has turned Palestinian criticism of the PA, with the Popular Resistance Committees group accusing the organization of working “in accordance with the Zionist agenda”.
