Since October 7, al-Jazeera no longer even attempts to maintain the appearance of neutrality. On the day of the massacre, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was able to celebrate the largest anti-Semitic pogrom since the Holocaust in front of the cameras. “See this heroism, this sacrifice, this courage,” he said. His men “opened the doors to victory.”
The channel al-Jazeera, which is financed by the desert state of Qatar, reaches 430 million viewers with its broadcasts. The viewer gets a mix of serious information, half-truths and conspiracy theories that characterize good propaganda. Palestinian atrocities are ignored and “Zionists” are accused of controlling the media in the West. Israel has already pulled the ripcord: The Knesset has passed a law that enables the closure of foreign media if they endanger the security of the state. Based on this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to switch off the Qatari broadcaster.
This media control in Jerusalem has alarmed the German federal government. A spokesman for Annalena Baerbock’s Foreign Office told the DPA agency that the new law was noted with concern. A “free and diverse press landscape” is the “foundation pillar of a liberal democracy”. You can adopt this attitude if you fundamentally believe that a democracy must also endure propaganda, incitement and distortions of facts. It is remarkable that the German government, of all people, would express itself in this way and indirectly take sides with al-Jazeera. Ultimately, the SPD and the Greens in particular believe it is their duty to take action against everything that they consider to be hatred and incitement. This is true even when it comes to statements below the criminal liability limit.
Anyone who thinks terms like “gender gaga” are hate speech should ban al-Jazeera immediately. Because the station is notorious in this regard, especially when it comes to anti-Semitism. One of the stars of al-Jazeera, the preacher Yusuf al-Karadawi, who died in 2023, openly called for violence against Jews in his television speeches. He also praised Hitler for the Holocaust. With its reaction, the German government reveals a double standard that is typical of “Israel critics”: What causes concern in Israel is not a problem elsewhere. Russian propaganda channels such as RT and Sputnik could also be viewed as part of the diversity of opinions. However, these are banned in the EU. According to a decision by the Council of Ministers on March 1, 2022, RT represents an “immediate threat” to security. In Germany, RT is banned twice due to a decision by the media regulator.
RT and al-Jazeera don’t just have in common that they are financed by authoritarian states. They offer the audience a similar program that skillfully mixes news and disinformation. Representatives of the German government parties also seem to be aware of this. The FDP federal representative Katja Adler criticized the fact that al-Jazeera is still freely available in Germany to “spread hatred and incitement against the West and the Jews. The medium should “be banned here, just like the Russian propaganda channel RT”.
The realization that al-Jazeera is dealing with propaganda comes late. For a long time, the broadcaster was romanticized in the West as a kind of BBC of the Orient. Even now, in some places people are acting as if it were a completely normal medium – out of naivety and probably also out of diplomatic consideration for Qatar. The US government, for example, also criticized Israel and declared that it supported the “independent free press” around the world. The German public TV station ZDF suggested in a report that Israel simply wanted to switch off al-Jazeera because it was showing images of destruction from Gaza that are rarely seen on Israeli TV channels. It is still unclear whether the Al-Jazeera ban can be enforced politically and legally in Israel.
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