Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi signed an order on Monday morning banning the activities of Al-Mayadeen, a Hezbollah-affiliated television station based in Beirut.
Karhi signed off on the order after getting authorization from the political-security cabinet, as well as from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Last week, the government approved emergency regulations allowing foreign channels hostile to the Jewish state to be prevented from operating in Israel during the war.
Like Qatar’s Al Jazeera network, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen has been accused of serving as a propaganda channel for the Hamas terrorist group following its Oct. 7 mass slaughter of Israeli civilians.
The channel employs an Arab-Israeli reporter by the name of Hana Mahamid, who uses the Hamas terror group’s name for the current war: “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Mahamid was recently confronted by Channel 12’s Haim Etgar, who accused her and the channel of broadcasting Hamas propaganda.
בזמן המלחמה, משדר מישראל "אל מיאדין" ערוץ שמזוהה עם החיזבאללה.
במשרד התקשורת טוענים שהערוץ פוגע בביטחון והמדינה ומשדר פייק ניוז.
יצאנו לבקש דין וחשבון מכתבת הערוץ כאן הנאא מחאמיד. הנה חלק המפגש. ליווינו אותה דקות ספורות, העלתי שאלות, בשפה נאותה ובלי שום מגע פיזי. תשובות-אין pic.twitter.com/lj9jm8ai7a— Haim Etgar (@haimetgarr) November 6, 2023
A recent investigation by Israel’s Makor Rishon newspaper found that Al Mayadeen broadcast photos of Israeli soldiers in a way that allowed Hamas terrorists to identify their locations.
The station also repeats Hamas calls for residents of northern Gaza not to evacuate to the safety zone established by the Israel Defense Forces in the south of the Strip.
An order to block Al Mayadeen’s online operations in Israel has already been issued, and an order to seize and confiscate its broadcasting equipment is expected to be issued later on Monday.
“Broadcasts such as these identify with the enemy while harming state security and will be blocked. Al Mayadeen’s channel’s broadcasts and reports serve the despicable terrorist organizations, and the time has come for a reckoning with them,” said Karhi on Monday.
The order to shut down Al Mayadeen is the first move in accordance with a temporary measure approved last month allowing the communications minister to shut down foreign media outlets deemed a threat to national security.
“The State of Israel will not allow the dangerous propaganda of Al Mayadeen broadcasts, which attempt, during war, to damage our security interests and serve the enemy’s goals,” said Gallant on Monday.
“The measures that are being taken against the ‘media network,’ which has become, in practice, the abettor of Hezbollah, are the right thing to do in the face of the supporters of terrorism who pretend to be journalists,” he added.