YouTube’s compliance with Israel ban violates press freedoms, Al Jazeera says
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Al Jazeera Media Network denounced YouTube’s compliance with an Israeli decision to ban its channels, calling the move a “violation of media freedoms and international standards,” Anadolu reports.
In a statement late Thursday on the US social media company X, Al Jazeera stated: “We strongly denounce YouTube’s submission to the Israeli authorities’ decision to ban the broadcast of our channels on the platform and the blocking of our websites in Israel.
“This response violates the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which require global technology companies to protect freedom of expression and resist government pressure that silences independent journalism.”
Israeli authorities earlier this week decided to block broadcasts of Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen for 90 days, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced Sunday on X that Al Jazeera and Al-Mayadeen would be blocked in Israel on their websites, television broadcasts, and YouTube beginning that day.
READ: Despite claiming to be a democracy, Israel among world’s worst jailers of journalists
Al Jazeera said: “The banning of our digital platforms and websites on weak security grounds sends a dangerous signal that major technology companies can be co-opted as instruments of regimes hostile to freedom.
“This escalation is part of a broader and systematic pattern of Israeli violations, including the killing and detention of our journalists and the closure of our offices in the occupied territories, aimed at suppressing the truth.
“We call for an international investigation into how technology platforms submit to censorship and for safeguards against political pressure.”
As of 1100GMT, there had been no reaction from YouTube management.
Israel began barring Al Jazeera from operating in May 2024, and the decision has since been extended, citing the network’s coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
During the war, Israel killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 171,000 others, most of them women and children, and destroyed about 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has occupied Palestinian territories, as well as land in Syria and Lebanon, for decades and has rejected withdrawal and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital along pre-1967 borders.
READ: Israeli TV says relative of Shin Bet chief suspected of smuggling goods to Gaza for money
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
YouTube deletes hundreds of videos from Palestinian rights groups: Report
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
YouTube has quietly erased more than 700 videos and shut down the accounts of three major Palestinian human rights organizations, a report by The Intercept on Tuesday shows, Anadolu reports.
The deleted accounts belonged to Al‑Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, all of which posted extensive footage alleging violations of international law by Israel in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The Intercept says the video content included investigations of Israeli strikes, testimonies from survivors, and documentation of the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
The removals took place in early October, shortly after the US government imposed sanctions on the groups for their cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
YouTube confirmed the account terminations followed a review triggered by US sanctions, citing its obligation to comply with applicable trade and sanctions laws.
READ: Italian reporter loses job after questioning EU on Israel’s Gaza reconstruction role: Report
Human rights advocates and Palestinian groups said this move is a way to silence Palestinian voices and remove important evidence, pointing out that the organizations were not warned before their channels were deleted and that the removals focused on groups reporting rights abuses instead of extremist content.
South Africa filed a case in December 2023, accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza. Several countries have since joined the proceedings, including Spain, Ireland, Libya, Mexico, Belgium, and Turkiye. The ICJ issued three provisional measures, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel has killed nearly 69,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached on Oct. 10, based on a 20-point peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. Israel, however, has violated the truce multiple times.
READ: Hamas official: Difficult to pass Gaza International Force proposal through Security Council
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Trump & Elon Musk’s BRUTAL Secret
Is George Monbiot’s speech out of sync with the video? Is Google’s Youtube doing that?
Climate Adam discusses climate capture and storage. The video is over a year old and Adam refers to COP28 while COP29 was the most recent. Does he mention that there are huge fossil fuel subsidies from governments to the fossil fuel industry for CCS i.e. yet more profit on top of huge profits for destroying the climate and planet?