Israel shuts down five Palestinian media outlets in Jerusalem

Israel has banned five Palestinian media outlets that cover occupied East Jerusalem, branding them “terrorist organisations”. 

Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday that publications Quds Plus, Miraj, Al-Maydan, Al Quds al-Asima and Asima Agency were to be banned, according to Israeli army radio. 

The decision reportedly came after the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, said that Hamas was trying to ignite tensions in Jerusalem during the month of Ramadan using websites as “fronts for the movement”.

Israeli authorities did not provide any further evidence to support the claims.

Commentators said the decision was part of a continuing attempt to suppress documentation of Israeli violations at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites.

Abdullah Marouf, a professor of Jerusalem studies, wrote on X: “This means one thing: the occupation is heading toward a decisive move in the coming days and weeks in Jerusalem and at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. That is why it is preemptively silencing all the Jerusalemite media voices completely.”

Asima Agency said it had suspended all its media activities, “not as a retreat from the position or an abandonment of the message, but to protect its Jerusalemite correspondents and journalists from the oppression and aggression of the occupation”. 

The agency affirmed that it was an independent media outlet from Jerusalem that was self-funded. 

“Jerusalem will remain our compass, Al-Aqsa Mosque our cause, and the free word is a covenant that does not expire with time,” it said. 

According to Israeli Army Radio, classifying media platforms as “terrorist” under anti-terrorism laws allows Israeli authorities to shut them down, ban their content and stop all its digital activities. 

'Suppressing independent Palestinian voices'

Days before the decision, Palestinian journalist Nisreen Salem Al-Abd was arrested while reporting in Jerusalem. 

She was later released, according to a lawyer, on the condition that she would be under house arrest for 10 days, banned from using her mobile phone or social media during the house arrest, and barred from Al-Aqsa Mosque for 180 days. 

The Palestinian Media Forum condemned the decision to ban the media outlets. 

Israel bans thousands of Palestinian from Al-Aqsa for first Ramadan prayers

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"[This is] a clear attempt to suppress the independent Palestinian voice, distort its role in conveying the reality of what is happening, and silence its narrative before the Arab and international public,” it said. 

“We see the decision as a blatant violation of press and freedom of expression, and a breach of international standards that guarantee freedom of media work.”

Israeli authorities barred thousands of Palestinian worshippers from Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem to perform the first Friday prayer of Ramadan last week, despite them holding previously issued permits.

Al-Aqsa Mosque has stood at the centre of Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestine.

For Palestinians and Muslims worldwide, the mosque symbolises the struggle for freedom, identity and independence. For many ultra-nationalist Israelis, it is the site where they hope to see a third Jewish temple erected.

For decades, it has been governed by an international arrangement upholding its religious status as an exclusively Islamic site.

But since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has gradually eroded that status through increasing restrictions on Palestinian and Muslim access, while expanding Jewish presence and control. 

In recent years, there have been frequent raids by settlers accompanied by Israeli forces, while officials of the Islamic Waqf have been prevented from administering the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

Last week, Israeli police arrested the imam of Al-Aqsa inside the mosque’s courtyard, in a move Palestinians say further threatens the sanctity of the site during the holy month of Ramadan.