Israel closes Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah: All you need to know

On live television, heavily armed Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera’s occupied West Bank bureau in Ramallah and handed the bureau head, Walid al-Omari, a notice to shut it down.

The soldiers ordered everyone working the overnight shift at the bureau to leave, telling them they could take only their personal belongings.

What happened and why? Here’s everything we know:

Who closed the bureau?

The order came from the Israeli military authority despite the bureau being in Area A, an area delineated as being under Palestinian control in the Oslo Accords.

Wait, so if Ramallah is under Palestinian control, how can Israel do this?

This is not the first time Israel has undertaken actions in the Oslo Accords-defined Area A, where Ramallah is and where the Palestinian Authority (PA) has its seat.

One year ago, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland reported that, just between June and September last year, there had been many Palestinian casualties caused by Israeli operations in Area A.

The other two areas in the occupied West Bank are Area B, which the PA also administers on paper, sharing security control with Israel. Area C is under complete Israeli control.

Regardless of legal jurisdiction, Israel has acted with impunity across the occupied West Bank.

Why did Israel raid the bureau?

Israel has often targeted Al Jazeera and its journalists, at times going as far as killing them – as it did Shireen Abu Akleh, Samer Abudaqa, Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi.

“This is very much in line with the policy of the state of Israel since 1948 … to prevent real news about Palestinians or about what the state of Israel is doing to Palestinians … colonising them and arresting them and torturing them,” Rami Khouri, distinguished fellow at the American University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera.

But why did Israel do this?

The closure order accuses Al Jazeera of incitement and supporting “terrorism”.

Khouri said Al Jazeera is “the primary instrument for informing the world about” Israel’s violations in Palestinian territory.

What did Israel do to the bureau?

The entire team working in the bureau overnight was told to leave.

Initially, they were told on camera that they should leave with their personal belongings and cameras. However, they had to leave the cameras in the office in the end.

Al Jazeera’s Jivara Budeiri, who had been working when the raid happened, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the Israeli group that raided the office had included engineers, which made her fear that the raiders had also come to destroy the bureau’s archives.

The soldiers were in the offices for a few hours, during which time the only thing that could be observed was some of them tearing down a large banner of slain Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Are the Al Jazeera team OK?

Nobody on the team has been injured.

They spent hours standing on the street at a distance from the office building, unable to approach it to retrieve their cars.

They were also, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s Budeiri, unable to move to cover the raid, as any member of the group who moved was threatened with an Israeli weapon’s laser.

As the Israeli soldiers were in the Al Jazeera bureau destroying things like the banner of Shireen Abu Akleh, more soldiers in armoured cars patrolled the area around the building, and the bureau team could hear gunfire and firing of tear gas canisters all around.

When can the bureau reopen?

The order is for 45 days. However, bureau head al-Omari said he assumes it will be renewed automatically, as has been the case with an early May civilian order Israel issued to close the Al Jazeera bureau in Israel.

What’s the difference between a civilian order and a military one?

Probably nothing in practice, however, there are some differences in form.

Al Jazeera’s bureau in Israel was closed in May after the Israeli parliament passed what became known as the “Al Jazeera Law”, which allowed the government to shut down, for 45 days at a time, any foreign media that posed a threat to the state.

With this justification, a large number of inspectors from the Ministry of Communications arrived at the Al Jazeera offices and confiscated equipment on May 5. The “temporary shutdown” has been renewed since then and still holds.

The Ramallah closure comes from an authority that does not, in theory, have any power over Ramallah.

What can the bureau do about this?

Bureau head al-Omari was told by one of the soldiers that any inquiries would have to go to the military command that issued the order.

Al-Omari told Al Jazeera Arabic over the phone that this likely meant that any appeal would have to go through the military courts system.

The Israeli military courts run on an opaque system of “secret evidence” and indefinite administrative detentions.

What’s the situation now?

The Al Jazeera bureau is inaccessible to the team, sealed off with two large metal plates welded over the entrance.