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Last update - 17:09 12/03/2008
Israel to boycott Al-Jazeera TV, claiming incitement to terror
By DPA
Tags: Israel, Gaza, Qatar 

Israel has decided officially to boycott the Qatari-based al-Jazeera news station, because of what it perceives as biased coverage, a government official said Wednesday.

"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."

The foreign ministry intends to send a letter to Qatar in the coming days, explaining that the decision was made following an examination of coverage of recent Israeli military DF operations in the Gaza Strip.
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The boycott will include a general refusal by Israeli officials to be interviewed by the station, and a ban on Al-Jazeera correspondents from entering government offices in Jerusalem.

According to Israeli officials, the station is heavily biased in favour of the Islamic Hamas movement, which administers the Gaza Strip. The officials also accuse al-Jazeera of staging a candlelight protest that that followed an Israeli government decision last month to reduce electric and gas supplies to the salient in response to continued Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Officials of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah party also accuse al-Jazeera of being biased in favour of Hamas, with which it is at political loggerheads, and prominent Fatah official and former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan has organized a law suit against the broadcaster.

Some Israeli officials, however disagreed with the boycott, which they said was counter-productive.

Former government spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said the Israeli decision "stems from frustration."

"Will they stop broadcasting if we boycott? At the end of the day, we satisfied the urge to get revenge and 'got them back' as it were.

In actuality, we left the stage open to only one opinion," he said.

Former Israeli ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel said that "while it is clear they are not okay," he did not think a boycott would help.

"There are other things that can be done. For example, showing how radical they are; shattering the liberal neutral facade that is attached to (the network). It is advisable to send serious, tough officials to their broadcasts in order to present Israel's positions more vigorously."

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      1.   Shooting the messenger. 11:29  |  Michael 12/03/08
      2.   More Israeli censorship 11:35  |  Natallie Durson 12/03/08
      3.   Al Jazeera will not stop reporting 11:52  |  Chris Linthwaite 12/03/08
      4.   Natallie Durson 11:53  |  Jon 12/03/08
      5.   We too ban this purveyor of hate! 11:53  |  US CITIZEN 12/03/08
      6.   More censorship " !! by N D 12:07  |  Linette from Paris 12/03/08
      7.   Truth hurts in a totalitarian Theocracy 12:09  |  samos 12/03/08
      8.   Under pressure from Dahlan 12:13  |  Adel 12/03/08
      9.   Al-Jazeera and Haaretz 1 12:18  |  samos 12/03/08
      10.   Al-Jazeera and Haaretz 2 12:22  |  samos 12/03/08
      11.   Embargo 12:29  |  MR 12/03/08
      12.   MURDOCH banned AL JAZZERA 12:30  |  joeblow 12/03/08
      13.   samos 12:40  |  ChanahS 12/03/08
      14.   Shame on you "Al - Jazeera"! Tsk tsk. 12:42  |  Stephen. 12/03/08
      15.   "Boycott"? 12:42  |  Jared 12/03/08
      16.   I assume everybody who criticized yesterday the UK governement... 12:45  |  Swiss (Dino) 12/03/08
      17.   Samos 12:57  |  Purple Canary 12/03/08
      18.   No 4 = N Durson 12:58  |  Rinaldi 12/03/08
      19.   Jared 13:03  |  Purple Canary 12/03/08
      20.   THE ISLAMIST MEGAPHONE 13:03  |  Iskander 12/03/08
      21.   I LOVE THIS 13:05  |  indrajaya 12/03/08
      22.   samos 13:07  |  Ilana 12/03/08
      23.   Natallie Durson is back from vacation 13:48  |  Joe Sittizen 12/03/08
      24.   AL JAEERA THE TERRORISTS DAILY NEWS 13:53  |  petra 12/03/08
      25.   # 6 amen!!! 13:54  |  petra 12/03/08
      26.   # 20 amen no more al jazeera in democracies. 13:55  |  petra 12/03/08
      27.   Al-Jazeera Bias 13:58  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      28.   wwwhat about the bbc and cnn? ban them too 14:06  |  v hardman 12/03/08
      29.   Al-Jazeera Bias continued... 14:07  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      30.   Al-Jazeera Bias #3 14:19  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      31.   Israel a democratic theocracy 14:26  |  Paul Wood 12/03/08
      32.   Sudanese observer 14:43  |  Sarah 12/03/08
      33.   Al-Jazeera Bias #4 14:44  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      34.   Another dumb PR move 14:51  |  Aphemia 12/03/08
      35.   Sarah#32 14:54  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      36.   Unfair portrayal! 14:56  |  Paulo 12/03/08
      37.   More Israeli censorship #2 14:58  |  Shelley N 12/03/08
      38.   Swiss (Dino) #16 _ There Is A Difference Between Incitement and 15:00  |  Eli 12/03/08
      39.   Sudanese Observer 15:05  |  Reuben 12/03/08
      40.   Durson, Indrajaya, Clickfool etc 15:06  |  Reuben 12/03/08
      41.   Israel`s "democracy" 15:10  |  Chanalau, Tova 12/03/08
      42.   #36 Paulo 15:22  |  Sarah 12/03/08
      43.   Kudos to Sudanese Observer - How is Al-Jazeera Darfur coverage? 15:30  |  Genuine Tosefta 12/03/08
      44.   Aphemia 15:31  |  Sarah 12/03/08
      45.   woo woo woo! 15:33  |  Nabulsi 12/03/08
      46.   Israeli censorship 15:35  |  Eddy 12/03/08
      47.   Israel in trouble & contradiction 15:36  |  Imad 12/03/08
      48.   Paulo ignorant, in the same period thousands Darfur Blacks killed 15:38  |  Genuine Tosefta 12/03/08
      49.   You have not seen presstv 15:42  |  Adeel 12/03/08
      50.   Complainers of censorship voice views on Israeli website 15:45  |  Michael 12/03/08
      51.   Al Jazeera is too strong to get boycotted 15:58  |  Hassan 12/03/08
      52.   Natalie, go spend the $12 bucks for a dictionary 16:03  |  Jacob Blues 12/03/08
      53.   #50 Michael of Texas 16:04  |  Chris Linthwaite 12/03/08
      54.   Biased? 16:33  |  Gordon 12/03/08
      55.   # 38 Eli the words would be over react 16:40  |  Lynn 12/03/08
      56.   Autralians today called israel the `CUSTODIAN OF FREEDOM` 17:05  |  JACKAL 12/03/08
      57.   wont be l;ong... 17:13  |  ravi 12/03/08
      58.   Boycott counter-productive? 18:21  |  MichaelF 12/03/08
      59.   #36 - Paulo 18:24  |  MichaelF 12/03/08
      60.   # 37 more Israeli censorship ! 18:24  |  Malcolm 12/03/08
      61.   #2 - Natallie Durson 18:25  |  MichaelF 12/03/08
      62.   Al Jazeera not banned in US - 1st try 18:41 HT 18:41  |  BBSNews 12/03/08
      63.   re # 23 is she really back? 18:46  |  Gabi F 12/03/08
      64.   Rinaldi in # 18 18:55  |  Lolla 12/03/08
      65.   Thank you Sudanese Observer 18:56  |  israeli 12/03/08
      66.   Incitement to terror???? 19:36  |  Rbati 12/03/08
      67.   HEY Natalie Durson!!!!! 19:42  |  Adrian de Klerk 12/03/08
      68.   Reuben#39,40 20:13  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      69.   No 18 N Durson 20:17  |  Howardy 12/03/08
      70.   Continued 20:30  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      71.   #51-Hassan makes a good point, but... 20:44  |  US Citizen 12/03/08
      72.   Darfur 20:55  |  Sudanese Observer 12/03/08
      73.   Darfur and Sudan