1/2/2025–|Last updated: 1/2/202509:52 PM (Mecca time)
As soon as the Palestinian Authority announced its decision to stop and freeze the work of Tel Aviv Tribune satellite channel in the West Bank, reprehensible reactions continued, Palestinian and international, and from various partisan and institutional sectors, rejecting such a decision, which coincides with the Israeli war of annihilation in Gaza and the occupation’s oppressive and displacing practices of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Through a decision issued by what was known as the “Specialized Ministerial Committee”, which consists of 3 ministries, namely Interior, Culture and Communications, the Palestinian Authority announced the cessation of all work of Tel Aviv Tribune and its office in Palestine, and temporarily freezing the work of all its employees and its affiliated crews and channels, until their legal status is corrected. On the grounds that Tel Aviv Tribune violates the laws and regulations in force in Palestine.
The decision of the Palestinian Authority was delivered to the Tel Aviv Tribune office in Ramallah, as a result of which Palestinian positions escalated condemning this step as serving the Israeli occupation and hindering the work of a channel like Tel Aviv Tribune, which has always defended the Palestinians and strengthened their steadfastness in their land.
Condemn the factions
On the factional level, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) denounced the decision, and considered it, in a statement, a blatant violation of media freedom and repressive behavior aimed at gagging voices. It confirmed the illegality of the decision, and considered it unjustified and offensive to the profession of journalism. The movement called on the Palestinian Authority to withdraw it immediately.
Like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad movement denounced the decision, and considered in a statement that it was a decision stemming from “political pretexts that do not benefit the Palestinian cause at this sensitive and critical time, and that the Palestinians are most in need today of an audible voice that conveys their suffering to the world.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also took a similar position in rejecting the closure decision, and saw it as an infringement on media freedom. The Palestinian People’s Party also considered the Palestinian government’s decision “wrong in terms of form and content.”
The party called on the media, including Tel Aviv Tribune, “to promote a media discourse that contributes to protecting Palestinian civil peace and curbing the growth of hate speech that deepens differences and contradictions in the Palestinian arena.”
The “Resistance Committees in Palestine” considered that the decision continues the role of “the Zionist enemy in its grave violations against journalists and media workers in Palestine.”
As for Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the National Initiative, in a brief statement, he called on the Palestinian Authority to retract the decision to stop Tel Aviv Tribune, as it is the one that most covers the struggle of the Palestinians, exposes the occupation, and exposes its crimes.
Barghouti stressed that “the decision does not benefit the Palestinian people, their cause, or even those who made the decision itself, and that dialogue is the best method for addressing controversial issues, if any, in the interest of freedom of opinion and expression and the interests of the Palestinians.”
Denunciation of journalistic institutions
On the journalistic level, media institutions rejected the decision, seeing it as a violation of the law. The Palestinian Al-Hadath newspaper confirmed that the decision carries with it serious repercussions on the media environment in Palestine, and is a clear violation of freedom of expression.
She called for an immediate reconsideration of the decision in a way that is consistent with constitutional principles and laws that protect the press from any attempts to restrict or exclude, stressing Tel Aviv Tribune’s “major” role in exposing the occupation’s crimes and violations against the Palestinians.
As for the Democratic Media Gathering, it said in a statement published on its website that the authority’s decision to stop Tel Aviv Tribune was preceded by “intimidation of the channel and its employees and of all voices calling for an end to what is happening in Jenin,” calling on the authority to retract its decision.
The Quds News Network denounced the decision to stop Tel Aviv Tribune in light of its large and extensive coverage of what is happening in the Palestinian arena, and declared its solidarity with it, and called on the authority to immediately retract the “arbitrary” decision and called on local and international media and human rights institutions to take a position that reinforces this.
“Scapegoat”
Hani Al-Masri, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (Masarat), confirmed that the decision is “wrong and illegal,” and that closing Tel Aviv Tribune will expand its reach in Palestine, and that the decision demonstrates “the weakness of the Palestinian Authority’s position and its poor media performance.”
Al-Masry considered, on his Facebook page, that criticizing the decision does not mean that there are no comments on Al-Jazeera’s performance and what he described as its “professional mistakes.” In return, the authority is defending itself and looking for a scapegoat to justify its failure, calling for opening a dialogue with Al-Jazeera and holding it accountable, not closing it.
As for Hassan Ayoub, a Palestinian political analyst, he saw in a poster on Facebook that the decision to close Tel Aviv Tribune “is a leap into the void of bankruptcy and loss of compass,” and that “Tel Aviv Tribune is not responsible for the deterioration of our national immunity, nor can the decision provide a cure for the division and war we are experiencing, and it will not.” It prevents the real war that we must mobilize for, which is the war of physical and political annihilation waged by Israel.”
Ayoub believed that the decision was a dangerous precedent added to no less dangerous steps that would impose a death sentence on freedom of opinion and expression, and pluralism, which are among the conditions for national immunity.
The same opinion was held by Palestinian media figures, such as journalist Nour Odeh, who said that she was not surprised by the decision to close, nor by the incitement campaign that provided justifications for stopping Tel Aviv Tribune, and that circumventing the law aimed to “silence mouths.”
Ayman Al-Masry, professor of media at An-Najah University, also considered it a “wrong decision, and that fighting Al-Jazeera is a losing battle.”
Controlling party accounts
Saeed Abu Mualla, professor of media at the Arab American University in Jenin in the northern West Bank, says that closing a channel in this way and with these allegations and charges necessarily reflects the extent of polarization and a kind of intense conflict in the Palestinian arena, and a desire on the part of the dominant political party to promote one point of view, and the decision was preceded by repressive practices. And preventing the work of the island’s crew.
Abu Mualla, speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, considered it “shameful” for the Ministry of Culture to be part of the decision, and said, “There is no media that is free from error, but on the other hand, many Palestinian media outlets do this and promote strife and polarization, but these violations are not addressed.” “It is dangerous, and sometimes it is a tool for promoting sharp and charged political polarization.”
According to Abu Mualla, what happened reflects a manifestation of a political crisis, and highlights that the solution is not to close the media outlets, but rather to set standards for their work and control them in accordance with the rules and controls of codes of conduct. “But it has become clear that if the media outlet provides coverage that is not consistent with the prevailing discourse or vision The official position is described as being outlawed and promoting sedition.”
In view of this, and despite its call on the Ministerial Committee to halt its decision to freeze the work of Tel Aviv Tribune, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, in a statement published this evening, Thursday, continued to insist on its position by calling on Tel Aviv Tribune to announce its readiness to adhere to professional ethics and stop the policy of incitement.
