Located just two kilometers from Gaza, the AP facility and those who worked inside it were deemed to be in violation of a new media law decreed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that prohibits news outlets from talking about the situation in Gaza outside the approved script.
(Related: Earlier this year, Netanyahu banned Al Jazeera from Israel for reporting truth about his genocide in Gaza. And since the AP was allowing its live broadcast to be re-transmitted by Al Jazeera, Israeli law enforcement took action.)
According to reports, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi signed a document that was handed to the AP stating that the media outlet is in violation of Israel's controversial foreign broadcaster law. The AP's live feed was then forcibly cut and its equipment confiscated by Israeli authorities.
The AP also reported that it previously received a verbal order from Israel to cease all further live transmissions. Because the AP refused to follow the order, its offices were raided and ransacked.
Why can't Israel stop lying and censoring?
Israel's claim is the Al Jazeera, a media outlet based in Qatar, engaged in "incitement" of terrorism for the way it has been reporting the Israel-Gaza conflict. Al Jazeera's offices were forcibly closed on May 5 and all associated websites are now blocked in Israel.
In a statement, Karhi indicated that this is only the beginning, should other media outlets refuse to obey Netanyahu's decree. The Israeli government, he said, will "continue to take whatever enforcement action is required to limit broadcasts that harm the security of the state."
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Strangely enough, most of what the AP was broadcasting from Sderot was just smoke and explosions rising over northern Gaza. Israel says this live feed was putting its Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers at risk, which is why it had to be censored.
"The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country's new foreign broadcaster law," said Lauren Easton, the AP's vice president of corporate communications about Israel's lies.
"We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world," she added.
In the comments over at RT, numerous people noticed that Israel's censorship and intimidation playbook is nothing new throughout history.
"Israel shuts down The Associated Press news agency for fear of the truth of genocide being revealed," one of them said.
"The last thing they want is for the truth to come out, but the cat's already out of the bag," said another.
"I'm surprised they didn't just blast them with rockets and bombs like they usually do," wrote someone else about Israel and the way it tends to handle conflicts.
"They are worse than the Nazis," said another. "First thing you do to hide your crimes is shut down the free press. Then you start propaganda and sell it as fact. Everyone knows this – who are they kidding?'
Keep in mind that not all Jewish people support what Israel is doing. And when we say "Israel," we are referring to the government, which does not represent many of the people who live in Israel and simply want peace.
"They are very good at seizing things that don't belong to them," wrote another commenter about Israel.
Israel is about to face a serious rude awakening. Learn more at IsraelCollapse.com.
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