Israeli government cracks down on Al-Jazeera

[Tom Joad]

Bethlehem – Ma'an – The government of Israel has decided to cut off contact with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV network, Israeli Army radio reported on Wednesday.

Israeli officials will no longer give interviews to Al Jazeera's reporters, who will also not be allowed to enter Israeli government buildings, the radio station said.

"The Foreign Ministry has held discussions on the matter, and decided to embargo the station," Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio, adding: "These reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us, and they arouse people to terrorist activities."

Al Jazeera's Palestine bureau chief Walid al-Umari, said the ban is part of a campaign against the channel.

He said: "A state that respects the freedom of expression or claims that it is democratic should not limit the movement of press teams.

"I dare any Israeli official to bring up what they call incitement or lies reported by Al Jazeera. What we reported were real facts on the ground," he added.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=28264

(Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East)

[physioex]

1. Fine....

Let them try and suppress the truth. The days of doing that successfully are over.

On Edit: I am watching (listening) a great lecture by John Mearsheimer on the Pricenton Lecture series as I am reading DU.

http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/

[hifalutin]

2. It is ironic that

the same thing happened in Bahrain in '02 because of a perceived pro Zionist slant.
What a funny world we live in.

Bahrain has banned the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera from reporting from inside the Gulf state, Information Minister Nabil al-Hamr said on Friday.

According to a news bulletin on the Qatar-based channel, Mr al-Hamr said the ban was being imposed because the station was biased towards Israel and against Bahrain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1980191.stm