Palestinian Authority Lifting Ban on Al Jazeera in West Bank
The ban, which the Palestinian Authority's attorney general, Akram Khatib, instituted on Jan. 1, had been indefinite. Palestinian officials said that it would last until Al Jazeera, which is funded by Qatar, 'corrected its legal status,' though they did not detail the accusations against the broadcaster.
Mr. Khatib told The New York Times on Monday that the authority had decided to lift the ban and that a court would issue an order to that effect on Tuesday. He declined to provide details about what, if anything, had changed since the ban began.
The authority, which administers some areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including major Palestinian cities, has long been at odds with the media company. The authority is dominated by the secularist Fatah party, whose officials have sometimes accused the channel of supporting Hamas, a rival group that ejected Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
The ban on Al Jazeera came as the authority was conducting a rare operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin to crack down on militants, some of whom are affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Some Palestinians activists and human rights groups have accused the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, of an authoritarian stifling of dissent and intimidation of critics. Responding to the ban at the time, Al Jazeera said in a statement that Palestinian officials were 'attempting to hide the truth of events in the occupied territories.'
The ban on Al Jazeera followed similar actions by the Israeli authorities. Last May, Israel ordered it to shut down in the country. Several months later, the Israeli military stormed the broadcaster's offices in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
Tensions between Israel and the influential broadcaster rose during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. While other major media outlets have been blocked from entering the enclave by Israel and Egypt, Al Jazeera has had numerous reporters on the ground. They have provided a steady stream of stories about the violence and harrowing conditions for civilians in Gaza.
The broadcaster has accused Israel of trying to conceal the brutality of the war. Israel says that the outlet supports Hamas and that some of its journalists are themselves militants, an allegation the broadcaster has strongly rejected.
Walid al-Omari, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Ramallah, said the broadcaster's offices there would not be immediately reopened because they had also been shut by Israeli military order. Its journalists, however, will now be able to continue working in the West Bank without concern of prosecution from the Palestinian Authority, he noted.
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