ALBAWABA - AP's live broadcast equipment was seized by Israeli police under a new media regulation. Officials accused AP of broadcasting Al Jazeera from the Gaza Strip border, seizing the equipment.
AP stated that Israel's Ministry of Communications seized the AP team's live broadcasting station in Sderot, near Gaza, and removed their equipment.
Israeli authorities defended their actions by alleging AP had provided live broadcast services to Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which Israel just blacklisted.
AP's Deputy Director of International Corporate Communications, Lauren Easton, stated:
We strongly oppose the Israeli government's shutting down our Gaza Strip live broadcast and confiscating our equipment. Not our broadcast, but the Israeli government's exploitation of the new media legislation caused this ban. We demand that the Israeli authorities release our equipment immediately so we may continue delivering critical video journalism to our worldwide audience."
Communications Minister defends move
In an army radio appearance, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi supported the confiscation. He said the AP crew had been recording Gaza from a Sderot residence and had asked AP to stop transmitting to Al Jazeera, but AP refused. "Their equipment was confiscated in accordance with government-approved orders," he stated.
Israeli Al Jazeera Operations Banned
On May 5, the Israeli Prime Minister's Press Office reported that the Cabinet unanimously accepted Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi's request to terminate Qatar-based Al Jazeera's Israeli operations and offices.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, "My government has unanimously decided to end the incitement by Al Jazeera in Israel."
The verdict requires Al Jazeera's Israeli television stations and websites to stop broadcasting, limit access to their websites, close their premises, and confiscate their equipment.
Israeli officials previously stormed an East Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as a makeshift office and seized all equipment.
