By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Israel has decided to boycott Al-Jazeera television, claiming that the Doha-based popular Arabicnews network made biased coverage, Israel’s Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
In a letter to be sent to Qatar in the coming days, Israeli Foreign Ministry explained that the decision was made following an examination of biased coverage of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
The boycott would include a general refusal by Israeli officials to accept interviews with the station, as well as a ban on Al-Jazeera correspondents from entering government offices in Jerusalem, according to the report.
“The Foreign Ministry has held discussions on the matter, and decided to embargo the station,” Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe was quoted as saying.
Describing the move as necessary, he said “These reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us, and they arouse people to terrorist activities.”
The deputy foreign minister also reiterated a plan to create an Israeli channel in Arabic for the Arab World, which would broadcast the Israeli viewpoint.
“The war today is a war for public opinion, and this is a war in the fullest sense of the word. We would bring Israeli journalists in order to express the real Israeli perspective,” he said.
Israel claims that the pan-Arab news channel has incited the Palestinian public with its reports and cooperated with Hamas over the latest period of military escalation in the Gaza Strip.