Qatari TV at Heart of Gulf Crisis May Be Shut by Israel, Too

(Bloomberg) -- Israel is moving ahead with efforts to shut Qatari-owned Al Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau, as its security service assesses whether the broadcaster presents a significant threat to the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the possibility of closing the broadcaster's operations last month because of its coverage of Palestinian protests at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which he said constituted incitement to violence. Communications Minister Ayoob Kara said on Sunday that his office has formally proposed the shutdown, suggesting that it could help Israel improve relations with Gulf nations that have taken similar action as part of a political feud with Qatar.

“Democracy has limits,” Kara said at a press conference in Jerusalem. “Freedom of expression is not freedom to incite.” Netanyahu endorsed Kara's remarks in a Twitter message.

Israel has long presented itself as a bastion of press freedom in a region where government restrictions on the media are commonplace, and has pointed to Al Jazeera's presence in Jerusalem as proof of the nation's liberal values. That changed in the past month after Netanyahu blamed Al Jazeera's reporting for stirring passions against Israel that led to violent Palestinian demonstrations at a contested Jerusalem shrine.

Kara also noted that a Saudi Arabia-led alliance that severed ties with Qatar last month had demanded the closing of Al Jazeera among its conditions for ending the dispute.

Seeking Allies

“We have based our decision on the move by Sunni Arab states to close Al Jazeera offices and prohibit their work,” Kara added. “We want alliances with these countries.”

The Shin-Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, has started investigating Al Jazeera's operations and will produce a report that will determine whether it should be shut down and if its journalists' credentials should be revoked, Nitzan Chen, director of the Government Press Office in Jerusalem, said in a telephone interview.

Israel's invoking of the Gulf crisis comes as it quietly deepens relations with Arab monarchies facing a shared enemy in Iran. At the outset of the feud in June, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said it created opportunities for Israel to cooperate with others in the region to fight terrorism.

Kara himself has been working to expand Israel's closeted commercial ties with Saudi Arabia, conducted largely through subsidiaries that mask their origins, and focusing on the sale of Israeli technology. A Druze Arab from Netanyahu's Likud party, he's also pushing for direct flights from Tel Aviv for Israeli Arabs performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Read here for more on Israel's outreach to Saudi Arabia

While Israel is now casting its lot with the Saudis, it was once with Qatar that it enjoyed its warmest Gulf ties. Qatar was the only Gulf country to let Israel open a trade office, three years after it signed its first peace accord with the Palestinians in 1993. The office was shut down after the start of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel in 2000, and political and economic contacts were suspended in 2009 after the first of Israel's three wars with Gaza.

The Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists reporting in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, called the potential action against Al Jazeera “cause for concern.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Kevin Costelloe